The Independent17 February 2004
A raid on an Iraqi police station and army base last week, in which at least 25 people died, appears to have been carried out by Iraqi guerrillas and not foreign militants, as previously reported, US occupation forces said yesterday. The admission is an indication of how powerful the Iraqi resistance has become: it can now take on American-trained Iraqi security forces head on and defeat them. The raid, in which insurgents stormed the police station, while simultaneously keeping Iraqi soldiers in a nearby base pinned down, was the most sophisticated attack yet, and has left the US occupation badly shaken.
Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, the US army's deputy chief of operations in Iraq, said it appeared that the insurgents killed or captured in the attack were all Iraqi citizens, but he added that this was not a final conclusion. A number of Iraqis are now being questioned in connection with the attacks.
The finding overshadowed recent efforts by the US to pin the blame for a series of suicide bombings and other attacks on foreign Islamic militants linked to al-Qa'ida. Last week the US released what it said was a letter from a leading militant in Iraq to al-Qa'ida leaders, asking for help in provoking a civil war between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Iraq. If yesterday's report is true, the US has enough to worry about from Iraq's home-grown resistance.
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The success of the raid has cast doubt over US plans to hand over security control to Iraqis by President George Bush's deadline of 30 June.
Now hold on, how many times have Bu$h and Bremmer tried to blame these attacks on foreign / al Qaeda fighters? Looks like either they lied again or it's further proof of their incompetence. Pick One.