http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aLgtM7ZLRC2g&refer=usDec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- A curfew of 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. was imposed on the Iraqi city of Mosul following yesterday's attack on a mess tent at the U.S. military base there that killed at least 22 people, including 14 U.S. soldiers, Army Captain Phil Ludvigson said in a telephone interview from the northern city.
Investigators have found evidence of a suicide bomb, including a backpack and parts of a torso at the scene, ABC News reported. A report yesterday by a Richmond Times-Dispatch correspondent inside the tent suggested that rockets had been fired at the facility. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is aiding in the investigation, Cable News Network said.
The attack was one of the deadliest on U.S. forces since the March 2003 invasion of the country, and demonstrated the persistent security difficulties in the country a little more than a month before nationwide elections are due to be held. The explosion came the same day that U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair visited to Baghdad, where he met with interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
On Dec. 19, three election workers were shot dead on a Baghdad street and at least 63 other Iraqis were killed in bombings elsewhere on the same day. The U.S. will send an additional 12,000 troops to Iraq in January, ahead of the elections. That will bring troop levels to 150,000, the highest since the invasion.