US base near Baghdad Airport attacked

Insurgents fired at least eight mortar rounds at a US base on the outskirts of Baghdad International Airport today, wounding six soldiers, two of them critically, and starting a fire that burned for well over an hour.

Guerillas hit the logistics base operated by the New Mexico National Guard in support of the 1st Calvary Division at about 8.15am local time, said Colonel Michael Formica, the commander of the division’s 2nd Brigade.

A pall of black smoke hung over the airport for an hour.

The base has been subject to almost daily mortar attacks, but this was the first time the attacks caused significant casualties and damage.

The attack came only days after sovereignty was handed over to an interim Iraqi government.

Despite the end of the occupation, about 160,000 foreign troops – most of them Americans – remain in Iraq to provide security and train Iraq’s new security services.