Iraqi Police Tied to Attack on U.S. Base
8 Officers Arrested in Rocket Strike That Killed 2 American Soldiers in Baghdad

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 21, 2007

BAGHDAD, Oct. 20 -- The men gathered in the evening at the schoolyard to execute their attack. By the time they finished, at least seven rockets had crashed down nearly four miles away inside the American military headquarters compound in Baghdad, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding at least 38 other people, according to U.S. soldiers.

From the courtyard of his concrete-barricaded garrison in southwestern Baghdad that evening, Lt. Col. Patrick Frank heard the distinctive sound of rocket fire. He hurried inside his command office to flat-screen panels displaying aerial imagery to pinpoint the launch site.

Within minutes, his cellphone began ringing. Several Iraqi informants told him the attack had originated near the decrepit school in al-Amil, recalled Frank, the battalion commander in the neighborhood. His sources agreed on another thing, too, he said: "There were several Iraqi police vehicles spotted leaving the scene."

In the days since the Oct. 10 rocket barrage, U.S. soldiers have arrested eight police officers suspected of collaborating with Shiite militiamen to target the U.S. base. Assaults by mortars and rockets on military installations across the country are relatively common -- though the missiles frequently land in unpopulated areas. But if the police are found guilty, the Camp Victory assault would represent one of the more glaring examples of Iraqi security forces turning on their American partners to devastating effect.

"It's no secret the Iraqi police have some systemic problems with corruption," said Maj. Bill Kinsey, operations officer for the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment. "They've got dirty cops. I would say 'just like anywhere else,' but there's more of them and the stakes are higher."

Staff Sgt. Lillian Clamens, 35, a mother of three from Lawton, Okla., and Spec. Samuel F. Pearson, 28, a former college football player from Westerville, Ohio, were killed in the attack. The military has not released the names or nationalities of the wounded. One U.S. military official said that most of the injured were American soldiers but that many suffered minor wounds and have since returned to duty.

"This is one of their more effective attacks. But it's not the first time," Kinsey said. "You've got to get rid of them so the rest of the police can start doing their job."

An Iraqi army unit in southwestern Baghdad was first to arrive at the school after the strike, and it found at least 14 rocket launchers in the courtyard, U.S. soldiers said. Members of Frank's personal security detail drove to the al-Amil police station, where they apprehended the occupants of a police vehicle returning to the station and captured another man who was on his way out.

In the following days, U.S. soldiers detained a total of 17 suspects, including eight policemen, said 2nd Lt. Andrew Dietrich, an intelligence officer from the battalion. Three of the detainees were subsequently released, although none was a police officer, he said.

The militant members of the Mahdi Army, the powerful Shiite militia led by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, were "definitely" behind the attack, Dietrich said. The militiamen have been responsible for killing and displacing Sunni residents and setting roadside bombs for American soldiers. They have also gotten rich by controlling fuel distribution, the housing market and stolen car networks. Iraqi and U.S. officials acknowledge that Shiite militiamen have infiltrated Iraqi security forces, particularly the police.

Five days after the rockets fell, another American military unit detained four of the suspects hiding in a Ministry of Agriculture compound in eastern Baghdad. One of the men was among the five most-wanted criminals in Baghdad, but his affiliation was not disclosed in a U.S. military statement on the arrests.

"We now have detained all of the leadership and the key operatives of the indirect-fire cell that attacked Victory Base last week," Brig. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, the deputy commanding general for Baghdad, said in the statement.

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.