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.
Beefing Up Security on the Base
But following the raid, security at the base -- which is about three miles south of Mosul and is used by both U.S. troops and the interim Iraqi National Guard forces -- was ratcheted up, ABC News learned.
U.S. commanders were asking guards to be more vigilant and they also started issuing ID cards to Iraqis who live and work on the base despite concerns that the new measures could dampen Iraqi troop morale at the base.
The likelihood that Tuesday's attack on Forward Operating Base Marez was an "inside job" first emerged with an online message allegedly posted by the radical Sunni Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, which claimed responsibility for the "martyrdom operation," a reference to a suicide attack.
Earlier today, a new message allegedly by Ansar al-Sunnah, said the suicide bomber was a 24-year-old man from Mosul who worked at the base for two months and had provided information about the base to the group.
The authenticity of the message, however, has not been verified.