Rockets strike coalition compound in Iraq

BAGHDAD -- At least seven rockets slammed into the compound of the American-led coalition last night, as US officials braced for a possible surge of violence timed for the signing of Iraq's interim constitution, and acknowledged they need better intelligence about the relentless insurgency.

The attack injured a civilian contractor. The rockets landed inside the "green zone," the 7-square-mile compound in central Baghdad that houses the coalition's headquarters and is heavily fortified by tanks and blast barriers.

The contractor was injured when five of the rockets hit the Rashid Hotel, home to hundreds of civilian contractors, mostly Americans. The hotel is across the street from the Baghdad Convention Center, where the 25-member Governing Council is due to sign the contentious interim constitution at noon today. Shi'ite members of the council who had opposed the constitution signaled yesterday that they would sign the document today, after consulting over the weekend with Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The explosions set off Baghdad's air raid sirens, which wailed over the city's night skies for the first time in months, in an eerie reminder of the war's beginning nearly a year ago.

In recent days US officials have predicted a surge in violence as the country moves toward sovereignty on June 30. Despite the relentless attacks, which have killed hundreds in the past month alone, coalition officials say they will not postpone that date or change their transition plan. Last week was the bloodiest since the war ended: More than 180 people were killed Tuesday in a tightly synchronized operation involving multiple suicide attacks in Karbala and Baghdad.

In recent months, coalition officials have said security was improving, with a drop in the average number of daily attacks against US soldiers. But that confidence seems to have withered since Tuesday's horrific attacks. Instead, officials who are trying to understand the insurgency say they think they are facing multiple terror groups, some of which have formed tactical alliances that regularly change.

"We've seen a lot of collusion with various groups," a senior US military official told a small group of reporters Thursday. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the US military had little intelligence about the latest terror group known to have been formed in Iraq, called Ansar al-Sunni, or Supporters of Sunnis. "We don't know what it is," he said. "It may be a combination of groups coming together."

US officials say they believe the suicide attacks have been masterminded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian national who is thought to be Al Qaeda's top operative in Iraq. A letter ostensibly written by Zarqawi and seized by Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq in January outlined his plan to ignite a civil war between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.

US officials repeatedly have cited the letter as evidence of Al Qaeda's involvement. "We certainly know that the Zarqawi network is attempting to foment civil war," General John Abizaid, commander of US forces in Iraq, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week after the attacks in Karbala and Baghdad. "That certainly was the motivation in the attack against the Shi'ites."

The senior US military official who briefed reporters last week said the insurgency probably had drawn in several other groups of people, greatly complicating the task of US intelligence agents to unravel the terror network in Iraq. Referring to Zarqawi, the official said: "This is a guy who goes out and hires and fires. Whether he's in collusion with former [Saddam Hussein] regime elements, former Iraqi intelligence elements, whether it's Ansar al-Sunni -- the one name that is consistent is Zarqawi."

The top US administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, told CNN's "Late Edition" yesterday that the coalition was "beefing up security at the borders." The US administration has committed $60 million for more patrols along the borders with Iraq's five neighbors, with about 8,000 more soldiers and police officers along the frontier. That decision is rooted in the belief of many US officials and Iraqis that the suicide bombers are foreign fighters.

The Army's Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director for US military operations in Iraq, said Saturday that US forces had in custody 150 people holding foreign passports. About 9,500 Iraqis also are under arrest on suspicion of various crimes. "It is true that the vast majority that the coalition forces capture are Iraqi civilians," Kimmitt told reporters.

US officials have said in recent days that they believe it was impossible to prevent Tuesday's attacks. The massive bombs , the deadliest attacks since the fall of Baghdad to US forces in April, exploded as hundreds of thousands of Shi'ites poured into shrines to mark the most sacred day of their religious calendar, the death of Imam Hussein more than 1,300 years ago.

"There is no way you can prevent a suicide attack among 1 million people," Bremer said on CNN yesterday. As Baghdad prepares for the Governing Council to sign the interim constitution leading to sovereignty, the capital is bristling with more security than usual.Five Shi'ite members on the council boycotted Friday's signing ceremony for the interim constitution, apparently on Sistani's orders. The members said yesterday that they intended to sign the document today, but did not indicate why they had changed their position.