Would-be Baghdad bomber is Yemeni with Syrian passport: health minister

Agence France-Presse (AFP) ^ | 10-29-03

[Oldeconomybuyer]

BAGHDAD, Oct 29 (AFP) - The would-be bomber thwarted in Monday's suicide bombing rampage in Baghdad was a Yemeni holding a Syrian passport, Iraqi interim Health Minister Khodair Abbas said Wednesday.

"According to the initial investigation results, the detained bomber is a Yemeni holding a Syrian passport," Abbas said.

"The suspect did not want to give any information on the other two passengers in his car who managed to escape, nor the identity of the other bombers in the attacks," he said.

"There is a real possibility the bombers were fundamentalist, Wahhabists," he said, referring to a puritanical strain of Sunni Islam favoured by Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

A US military spokesperson said the man was apprehended Monday when he attempted to drive an explosives-packed car towards a police station in the capital's Al-Jadida area.

He fled on foot when his car came under fire and then fell down and shouted "wait, I am Syrian," the spokesman said.

A Syrian passport was later found on him, the spokesman said.

Monday's attacks on the offices of the Red Cross and four police stations left 43 dead and more than 200 wounded, according to hospitals contacted by AFP.

[OpusatFR]

Are they trying to pull the US into attacking Syria? Is their plan to utilize the WMD that were shipped out of Iraq?

[MEG33]

Syria has a reputation for handing out passports to the unsavory who don't want to show their country of origin.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

I don't think so. Arab governments cannot or will not control the radical Wahabbists running rampant throughout the mideast. It might take a coup or two to wake up Arab "leaders" that these radical islamists are a threat to more than just western interests.

[self_evident]

and then fell down and shouted "wait, I am Syrian,"

Like we are supposed to cut Syrians some slack?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

These passports are more or less like Monopoly money...

[Catspaw]

Syria has a reputation for handing out passports to the unsavory who don't want to show their country of origin.

Yup. The Syrians handed out passports pre-war to anyone who asked for them, no questions asked. No surprise that the would-be bomber turned out to be from another country--and Yemen is crawling with al Qaeda.

[Robe]

The suspect did not want to give any information on the other two passengers in his car who managed to escape, nor the identity of the other bombers in the attacks," he said.

Time for the old electric wire in the wennie routine