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Show Suicide bomber strikes bus headed for Shiite city BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A suicide bomber detonated explosives Thursday inside a packed bus bound for a southern Shiite city, killing 32 people and wounding 44, police said. The blast pushed the three-day death toll from suicide attacks in the capital to at least 75. Meanwhile, a statement posted on the Internet in the name of the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed to have killed an American hostage. The statement did not name him or provide photos, but the group earlier identified its captive as Ronald Alan Schulz and threatened to kill him unless all prisoners in Iraq were released. The suicide attack occurred as the bus was pulling away from east Baghdad's Nadhaa station bound for Nasiriyah, 200 miles to the south. A man carrying a bag suddenly jumped on the vehicle through the open door, apparently waiting until the last moment to board to avoid security checks. He was challenged by the conductor but insisted on taking a seat, police Lt. Wisam Hakim said. "He sat in the middle of the bus and then the explosion took place," Hakim said. Police Lt. Ali Mitaab said 32 people were killed and 44 wounded. Most of those killed were on the bus, which was gutted by flames, but several people around a food stall also died, police said. Officials at the scene said the death toll was especially high because the blast triggered secondary explosions in gas cylinders at the stall. Several other explosions rumbled through the heart of the capital Thursday morning, including one that struck an American convoy killing a U.S. soldier, the military said. The U.S. command also said that a Marine was killed the day before in a bombing in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. The bus attack occurred two days after a pair of suicide attackers wearing explosives belts killed 43 people and wounded more than 70 at Baghdad's police training academy. Most of those dead in the academy and on the bus were believed to be Shiite Muslims. Most of the insurgents are Sunnis. The station, the main departure point for buses heading to the Shiite south, was the scene in August of a horrific triple car bombing that killed at least 43 people and wounded AP Photo AN IRAQI POLICEMAN carries an election campaign poster for the United Iraqi Alliance with pictures of its leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite cleric chief of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, at the site of a suicide attack in a bus station in Baghdad, Iraq Thursday. A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in a bus as it was about to depart for a Shiite city in the south, killing at least 12 people ind wounding 27, police said 89. , At least 1,819 Iraqis have been killed in suicide attacks since the new government took office on April 28, according to a count by The Associated Press. During that period, at least 4,676 Iraqis were killed in war-related violence, including suicide attacks. The latest attacks broke a relative lull in sui- Former enemies help U.S. identify first remains from 1968 attack on secret base WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly four decades after 11 American servicemen were killed by North Vietnamese commandos at a secret radar site in Laos, U.S. investigators have made the first identification of remains. The breakthrough is one of the most remarkable achievements in the U.S. military's decades-long effort to find and identify the remains of hundreds of U.S. serviceman missing in action from the Vietnam War. The recovery and identification of the remains of Air Force Tech. Sgt. Patrick L. Shannon, of Owasso, Okla., also created a new mystery. On the mountain ledge where his remains were found, U.S. investigators discovered boots, clothing fragments and other personal items that indicated that some of the other missing Americans had been on the same ledge. None has been seen or heard from since the attack. Eight of the 19 Americans at the radar site when it was attacked in the early morning of March 11, 1968, were rescued several hours later by CIA helicopters. One of the eight died en route to a base in Thailand. The capture of the mountain facility marked the start of a major communist offensive in then-neutral Laos. The CIA said in a 1995 study of the episode that it was the beginning of the end for the noncommunist forces in Laos, which today is one of the world's last communist countries - and one of its poorest. Larry Greer, a spokesman for the Defense POW-MIA Office, said U.S. investigators plan to return to the area, although no date has been set. The area is in Houaphan Province, about 25 miles from the provincial capital of Samneua, then a stronghold of the communist Pathet Lao and a gateway between Laos and North Vietnam. In 1966, the US. installed a navigation radar atop Phou Pha Thi mountain, above a landing site known as Lima Site 85. In 1967, it was upgraded with a bomb ing-control radar to direct U.S. bombers to their targets in North Vietnam. The site was guarded by about 1,000 local Hmong troops advised by CIA paramilitary officersf , The Americans/yvho operated the site were known as Circuit Riders, Air Force technicians operating under civilian cover. The 1995 CIA study said the men proved to be no match for the North Vietnamese commando team that attacked the site, apparently by scaling a 5,600foot ridge line to reach the radar site. With the help of the Vietnamese government, two of the commandos were located, interviewed and taken to Lima Site 85 with U.S. investigators in March 2003. The two showed the investigators three places atop the mountain where they said that after overrunning and killing the Americans, they threw the bodies off the cliff. The investigators then threw mannequins off the cliff at each of those three locations and videotaped the path of the mannequins from a helicopter hovering nearby- That led them to the ledge, about 540 feet below the radar site, where they found human remains later identified as those of Shannon. "It's a miracle, it's amazing news," said Pamela Shannon, 48, of Oklahoma City, who regards her father as a hero - a 13-year Air Force veteran who was 30 years old at the time he was killed. She said her family was notified of the identification the day before Thanksgiving. "It was a great holiday. It was shocking," she said in a telephone interview. Greer said the investigators also found several personal items on the ledge, including boots, survival vests, a canteen and clothing fragments that indicated the presence of all least three other Americans besides Shannon. It has not been possible to tell from those personal items which Americans they belonged to, Greer said. DNA matching was used to identify Shannon's remains, Greer said. The remains will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. Since the end of the Vietnam war in 1975, 771 missing American servicemen have been accounted for, including 199 lost in Laos. There are 1,812 still listed as missing from the war. cide missions in the capital, a respite that U.S. authorities had attributed to military operations against al-Qaida-led insurgents west of Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi officials had predicted a surge in insurgent attacks ahead of the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections. U.S. officials hope a large turnout, especially among Sunni Arabs, will help take the steam out of the insurgency and set the stage for a drawdown of American forces next year. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said he could not confirm the death of the American hostage. Schulz's family in North Dakota said he was an electrician and was last heard from in Amman, Jordan. • SHOOTING From page 2 AP Photo THIS COPY OF AN UDATED FMAILY PHOTO shows Costa Ricans Rigoberto Alpizar, right, and his brother Rolando Alpizar, left, and his sister-in-law Vioieta Castro, center, outside their home in Costa Rica. Alpizar, a passenger who claimed to have a bomb in his backpack was shot and killed by a federal air marshal Wednesday. Dave Adams, a spokesman for the air marshals, confirmed Thursday there were two marshals on the flight and said both fired at Alpizar. He said the marshals followed proper procedures. "We only react when there is a threat to the aircraft, passengers or crew," Adams said. The two marshals joined the force in 2002, he said. One previously worked with the Border Patrol, the other as a Customs inspector. Both have been placed on paid administrative leave while the Miami-Dade Police Department investigates, Adams said. The Bush administration hired thousands of additional air marshals after Sept. 11, when the nation had only 33. The exact number now is classified. Marshals fly undercover, and which planes they're on is a closely guarded secret. Officials declined to say how many times Alpizar was shot, but passengers reported hearing between four to six shots. Authorities did not confirm he suffered from a mental illness. "The man sitting next to me got on the floor," said passenger Olga Echeverria, of Guatemala. "I threw myself on the floor to pray for God's mercy on us." Alpizar, who worked in the paint department of a home supply store, was returning from a missionary trip, according to a neighbor who was watching his ranch-style house in the Orlando suburb of Maitland. He had arrived in Miami on a flight from Ecuador earlier Wednesday, said Rick Thomas, the airport's federal security director. "We're all still in shock," said his sister-in-law, Kelley Buechner, in a telephone interview from her home in Milwaukee. "We're just speechless." Investigators closed the concourse at the airport for half an hour and spread passengers' bags on the tarmac. Dogs sniffed them for explosives, and bomb squad members blew up at least two bags. No bombs were found. The remaining passengers were kept on the plane for an hour, then police told them to leave with their hands behind their backs, said Lucy Argote, 15, of Codazi, Colombia. They had to leave their possessions behind. Argote said Alpizar got up from his seat and ran toward the plane's door, with his wife yelling in Spanish. "Officers told him to stop and he said no," the teen said. "He was running like a crazy man." Another passenger, Mary Gardner, told WTVJ-TV in Miami that she also heard his wife call after him as he ran down the aisle. "He was frantic, his arms flailing in the air," she said. She said a woman followed, shouting, "My husband! My husband!" The Alpizars had been married for about two decades and met when Anne was an exchange student in Costa Rica, family members said. Rigoberto became a naturalized U.S. citizen. The description of Alpizar by authorities and others stunned his friends and neighbors in central Florida. "This whole neighborhood is shocked," said Alex McLeod, 16, who lives three houses from the Alpizars. "Totally uncharacteristic of the guy." Charles Baez, manager of the MAB Paints store in Orlando where Alpizar used to work, described him as a health enthusiast who was always patient with customers. • "He was a quiet, reserved gentleman," Baez said Thursday, "It's very bizarre' to me that he would do anything like that." |