Governing Council Says Hussein Held in Baghdad

An explosion that killed 10 Iraqis this morning in Baghdad was the result of an accidental collision between a truck laden with fuel and a minibus, U.S. military officials said this afternoon.

They said the blast was an accident, not an attack, the Associated Press reported from Baghdad.

Earlier, Iraq's Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Kadhim Ibrahim said the truck was packed with explosives and the intended target was a police station. The story dominated news coverage of Iraq all morning and through the day.

But after U.S. experts investigated, Capt. Jason Beck of the 1st Armored Division, which oversees security in Baghdad, said: "It was a fuel truck that had a traffic accident, caught fire and exploded . . . There was no evidence of a bomb."

Military explosives experts concluded the blast was accidental after conducting crater analysis and other tests at the site, the Associated Press quoted Beck as saying.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops continued "Operation Ivy Blizzard," sealing off the town of Samarra, which has been a center of insurgency in recent weeks.

And in Baghdad, a member of Iraq's Governing Council said today that Hussein is being held somewhere in the Baghdad area, contrary to reports earlier this week that he had been flown out of the country.

"Saddam Hussein is at present in an area of greater Baghdad," council member Mowaffak Rubaie told a news conference, the Associated Press reported. American authorities have declined to comment on Hussein's whereabouts.

Fourth Infantry Division troops seized 30 people in pre-dawn raids in Samarra, a center of resistance to the U.S. occupation, a spokesman said. Troops seized 78 Iraqis in Samarra Tuesday.

A written statement from the division said the sweep was requested by local leaders and that it would "target, isolate and eliminate former regime elements and other anti-coalition cells."

Operation "Ivy Blizzard," said a statement from the 4th Division, is designed to effectively seal off the town in order "to deny anti-Coalition elements freedom of movement, communication and organization while providing innocent citizens a stable environment free from reprisals and indiscriminate violence of former regime loyalists."

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Direct Link:
--http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7572-2003Dec17.html

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