Attack on U.S. Base in Mosul Kills 22

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Dec 21, 11:17 AM (ET)

By MICHAEL McDONOUGH

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Rockets struck a mess tent at a military base in Mosul where hundreds of U.S. soldiers had just sat down to lunch Tuesday, and a Pentagon official said at least 22 people were killed and 50 were wounded.

A radical Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed responsibility.

The attack came the same day that British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a surprise visit to Baghdad and described the ongoing violence in Iraq as a "battle between democracy and terror."

Jeremy Redmon, a reporter for the Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch embedded with the troops in Mosul, said 13 soldiers were killed in the attack at Forward Operating Base Marez, including two from the Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion. More than 50 people were wounded, and civilians may have been among them, he said.