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Holiday In Wales An Iraqi working for Bechtel Corp. in Baghdad died in a mortar attack last week, the San Francisco construction firm's first known loss to the violence roiling the country.

Iran Focus Baghdad, Dec. An Iraqi group, whose offices in the town of Diwaniya underwent a mortar attack, in a statement blamed Iran for being behind the operation. The Gathering of the Republic of Iraq, which is close to former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's slate, said Sunday's attack was carried out by Tehran's proxies and political allies in Iraq.

Holiday Wales The man, employed by one of Bechtel's subcontractors, died when a mortar shell exploded inside the Green Zone, an enclave in central Baghdad heavily protected by occupation troops. Bechtel's main base in Iraq lies within the Green Zone, next to occupation headquarters.

The officials, in Iraq, say the bomber targeted a bus carrying the guardsmen near the town of Balad. Six more troops were wounded. In a separate attack, the U.S. military says four Iraqi policemen were killed and another wounded Sunday in the nearby town Samarra. Both towns are located in what is known as the Sunni triangle, the scene of frequent insurgent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces. style killing of five Iraqi security officers.Separately, by shooting late Saturday in Baghdad.Advertisement

Cottage Holiday In Wales Bechtel refused to confirm or deny on Wednesday whether one of its workers had been killed, following a policy of not commenting on company security. But sources close to the situation said the shell hit around 12:30 p. m. on March 18, exploding near the employee, who died of his injuries. His identity was not available Wednesday.

When coalition forces drove Iraq's army from Kuwait in 1991, much of the cleanup work fell to Bechtel. The company was one of several that extinguished oil wells set ablaze by the Iraqis and mopped up lakes of crude spilled into the desert. When the fires were out, Bechtel took the lead in repairing the damaged pipelines, production sites and shipping terminals trashed by retreating soldiers. Mary Ann Tetreault, a professor of international affairs at Trinity University in Texas, visited Kuwait before and after Iraq's invasion. Many Kuwaitis, she said, were convinced Bechtel had paid off the royal family to win the contract, a perception Bechtel denies. Although Bechtel won't say how much it received, most estimates put the contract's worth at roughly $2 billion.

Caravan Holiday In Wales The man's death comes as Iraqi and Western reconstruction workers increasingly find themselves under attack.

Iran Focus Baghdad, Jan. An underground armed group operating in Iraq's Diyala province was discovered and several of its members detained by Coalition Forces, informed sources in the area. U.S. forces arrested an Iraqi by the name of Fakhri along with an agent of Iran's Qods Force (Jerusalem Force) in the Qareh Tapeh region near the Iraqi town of Kifri. The pair were discovered to have $150, 000 on them, with which they were planning to carry out attacks.

Camping Holiday Wales Two Finnish businessmen were shot dead Monday en route to a meeting in Baghdad. A drive-by shooting Tuesday in southern Iraq killed nine recruits for the new Iraqi police force. A March 15 attack in Mosul killed Bakersfield relief worker Karen Watson, shot in the back as she sat in a car.

Shaalan, who is a secular Shiite, returned to Baghdad last week despite the court order seeking his detainment. Following his return to Iraq, he announced that the charges against him were the work of Tehran, which was acting through its proxies in Iraq. In January, Shaalan accused Iran of spending "more than $1 billion on meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq". The secular Shiite has repeatedly called Iran "Iraq's number one enemy" and consistently accused the clerical state of funding insurgent attacks against the Iraqi people.

Accommodation Holiday Wales After aiming their rifles, grenades and homemade bombs at occupation forces last year, insurgents now are targeting civilians, said Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution fellow and author of "Corporate Warriors," a study of the private military industry.

Holiday Last Minute Wales "It's a very clear strategy right now to target the weak links in the coalition," he said. "And the weak links are Iraqis working for the coalition and contractors."

Catering Holiday Self Wales Although the deaths receive less attention than those of occupation soldiers, several reconstruction companies have lost employees or subcontractors to Iraq's postwar violence.

Holiday Wales Walking These deaths have occurred despite security precautions that govern how reconstruction employees live, eat, move and work.

Family Holiday Wales Washington Group International, for example, employs twice as many security guards as it does other subcontractors, although many of them are assigned to protect the power lines the company repairs. Bechtel won't let its employees move from one worksite to the next without guards armed with assault rifles and wearing bullet-proof vests.

Holiday Riding Wales Bechtel last year stopped answering questions about employee deaths in Iraq. The company's only previously known loss in Iraq was a subcontract employee who drowned while working at the Umm Qasr seaport.

Adventure Holiday Wales Company spokesman Jonathan Marshall said Wednesday that the violence in Iraq would not prompt Bechtel to withdraw from the country.

Holiday Park South Wales "Our Iraq contracts extend through the end of 2005, and we have no intention of leaving before then," Marshall said in an e-mail.

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