Report: Mosul Attack Was a Suicide Bombing.

Dec. 22, 2004 — New evidence shows the bombing of a U.S. military mess tent in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday — which killed 22 people and wounded 69 others — was a suicide attack, ABC News has learned.

Investigators at the base have found remnants of a torso and a suicide vest that was probably a backpack, sources told ABC News, indicating that the attack was a suicide bombing.

The bombing at the mess tent at Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul was one of the deadliest attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq since the start of the war. Early reports indicated that the massive explosion might have been the result of a rocket attack.

But a radical Sunni Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, later claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was a “martyrdom operation,” a reference to a suicide bomber.

A day after the devastating attack, another message posted on a Web site, allegedly by Ansar al-Sunnah, provided details. According to the online message, the suicide bomber was a 24-year-old man from Mosul who worked at the base for two months and had provided information about the base to the group.

The base, also known as the al-Ghizlani military camp, is about three miles south of Mosul and is used by both U.S. troops and the interim Iraqi government’s security forces. It once was Mosul’s civilian airport but is now a heavily fortified area.

The deadly attack in the middle of a U.S. military base has led to questions about security at the facility in Mosul, a northern Iraqi city that has seen an increase in insurgent attacks since the U.S. military assault on Fallujah last month.

U.S. military officials say there were plans to build a bunker-like mess hall at the base. Although dining halls at bases have been the target of mortar attacks across central Iraq in the past, there are growing indications that Tuesday’s attack might have been an “inside job.”

According to the online message, the suicide bomber used plastic explosives hidden inside his clothes. The “martyr” had gotten married about a month ago, the message said. It also claimed the group would post a video of the attack on the Web. The authenticity of the message, however, has not been verified.