Iraqi Police Tied to Attack on U.S. Base

The role of the police in the incident remains unclear. Frank said he suspected that they were involved in guarding the scene while the triggermen launched the rockets. Maj. Khudair Abbas Hassan, the al-Amil police chief, confirmed that U.S. soldiers had arrested Iraqi police officers, including a lieutenant, following the attack, but said they were members of an emergency police force based in neighboring Bayaa district and were not part of his station. Frank said that was not true.

While discouraged that police had been implicated in the attack, Frank said recent recruitment of local Sunni residents for police academy training would balance the Shiite-dominated police force.

"By having a mixture of Sunnis and Shiites in the station, it will have the effect of mitigating the influence of militants," he said.

The U.S. military would not disclose specifically where the rockets landed, citing security concerns. Camp Victory is part of a sprawling fortified complex, home to thousands of American soldiers and private contractors, on the western outskirts of the capital near Baghdad International Airport. The houses and offices of top U.S. generals are on the base, alongside man-made lakes and in marble-columned palaces built while Saddam Hussein was in power. Some soldiers said they have grown accustomed to the relatively small risk posed by incoming rockets and mortar shells.

"For folks who've never been out or never been deployed before, it is a big deal. Then there are those that know it's part of the deal with being over here and the chances of getting hit are very slim," a U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the incident. "This attack, in the context of our time here, isn't all that surprising, but it has been a while since we've been hit like that."

Special correspondent Zaid Sabah contributed to this report.