Militants Say They Taped Mosul Blast

[imenja]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/27/international/middleeast/27iraq.html

Militants Say They Taped Mosul Blast
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. New York Times

Published: December 27, 2004


"BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 26 - The militant group Ansar al-Sunna posted a video on the Internet on Sunday claiming to show the explosion at a military mess tent in Mosul that killed 18 Americans and 4 others last week. The group, which earlier took responsibility for the attack, said its suicide bomber had spent a long time observing the camp and had slipped inside during a changing of the guards.

The authenticity of the five-and-a-half-minute video, which was posted on a Web site that has carried other messages from insurgent groups, could not be determined. The video shows three men dressed in black, their faces cloaked, discussing plans for the attack. Then it shows a fireball four stories high ripping through the top of a large light-colored tent.

The Pentagon declined to comment, and a military spokesman in Mosul said he had not seen the video. A New York Times reporter who recently ate in the mess tent while embedded with an Army unit said it was not clear whether the structure shown in the video was the same tent. . . .

The Internet video showing a tent explosion, titled "The Martyrdom Operation Done by Our Brother Abu Omar al-Mosuli," begins with the three men in black, their heads wrapped in scarves, kneeling in front of a black banner that says, "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet."