U.S. Military Had Warning of Planned Mosul Attack

Dec. 22, 2004 -- -- Almost a month before the deadly attack on a U.S. base in Mosul, the U.S. Army had a warning that insurgents were planning a "Beirut type" attack on U.S. forces in northern Iraq, ABC News has learned.

On Tuesday, 22 people -- including 13 U.S. soldiers -- were killed in a daring attack on the crowded mess tent of Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul. While initial reports indicated that the massive explosion might have been the result of a rocket attack, ABC News has learned that U.S. investigators have found evidence that the attack was a suicide bombing.

But weeks before Tuesday's attack, U.S. military officials based at Forward Operating Base Marez intercepted a warning about proposed "Beirut-type" insurgent attacks, referring to the Oct. 1983 truck bombing of a U.S. barrack in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, which killed 241 U.S. Marines.

On Nov. 27, an ABC News reporter accompanying U.S. troops during a night raid in Mosul witnessed the rounding up of hundreds of Iraqis in the densely populated part Old Mosul part of the city.

During the round-up, one of the suspects tossed out several crushed sheets of handwritten notes from his pocket in an obvious effort to hide it from U.S. troops. A U.S. soldier at the site however noticed the fallen paper, picked it up and asked an interpreter present to read the Arabic notes, according to ABC News' Brian Hartman.

Judging from the reaction of the interpreter and the surrounding U.S. soldiers, Hartman noted that by all accounts the notes contained sensitive and critical information, including a proposal for a massive attack against U.S. forces in Mosul.

According to an interpreter, the papers included what looked like minutes of an insurgent meeting, as well as notes about the importance of seeking and supplying information about Iraqis working for the U.S. military.

A U.S. military commander however asked embedded journalists present not to report the details of some of intercepted passages during ongoing security and intelligence concerns.

But following the raid, security at the base --