Iraq, Jordan yank envoys in furor over alleged bomber
March 21, 2005

By Caryle Murphy-The Washington Post:

Iraq and Jordan recalled their top diplomats Sunday in a deepening dispute over the alleged involvement of a Jordanian citizen in a suicide bombing last month.

The diplomatic moves came on a day when a U.S. soldier was killed and three were injured by a bomb as they patrolled near the northern oil city of Kirkuk, U.S. military officials said. Hours later, 24 insurgents were killed and seven were wounded when they attacked a U.S. military convoy on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, injuring six American soldiers, the officials added.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday used the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to answer the most tenacious criticism of the war effort: that the Pentagon didn't commit sufficient troops to the major offensive or to stability efforts after Baghdad fell.

The fault, Rumsfeld contended in two television talk-show appearances, rests with Turkey, a NATO ally, which refused to give permission for the 4th Infantry Division to cross its territory and open a northern front at the start of the war.

"Given the level of the insurgency today, two years later, clearly, if we had been able to get the 4th Infantry Division in from the north through Turkey, more of the Iraqi Saddam Hussein Baathist regime would have been captured or killed," Rumsfeld said on "Fox News Sunday."

The recall of the envoys happened as Iraqi anger grew over a recent report in Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad that Raed Mansour al-Banna carried out the Feb. 28 suicide bombing in Hillah, one of the deadliest attacks since the U.S.-led invasion; 125 people died. The report said al-Banna's family had honored him as a hero and a martyr.

The man's father has disputed the accuracy of the press report and said he did not know whether his son was the suicide bomber in Hillah.

But Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in an interview that his government recalled its ambassador for consultations to signal "a genuine feeling of bitterness" and "real anger among Iraqis over what has happened." The recall, which he said he hoped would be temporary, "was just a message that Iraq is not weak."

Most victims of the bombing outside a Hillah medical clinic were Shiite Muslims. Many Shiites have been particularly incensed by the reported involvement of a Jordanian in the attack; Jordan's population is mostly Sunni.

Anger spilled onto Baghdad streets after midday prayers Friday when up to 2,000 Shiite Muslims marched to the Jordanian Embassy and demanded that it close.

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