One person was wounded and several homes damaged in a Baghdad bomb blast that the Iraqi authorities blamed on US and Israeli agents, AFP reported Sunday.
An interior ministry spokesman charged that "agents in the pay of the United States and the Zionist entity placed an explosive device in a busy street of the Al-Dhahab district" late Saturday, said the agency.
Security services are investigating the blast, which came amid heightened tension since US and British air strikes around Baghdad on February 16 that killed three and wounded 30 other civilians, added the agency.
Meanwhile, a Pentagon task force has tentatively concluded that most of the bombs dropped by the US navy warplanes on Baghdad went astray because of inaccurate guidance data, an official was quoted by the Washington Post as saying.
If that hypothesis proves true, it would be a relief to the defense department, because it would mean that the weapons basically work correctly and that a relatively simple fix is available, said the paper.
The task force was hurriedly convened this week after satellite imagery showed that most of the Joint Stand-Off Weapons (JSOWs) landed at least 100 feet from the precise points they were supposed to hit, said the official.
Led by navy officials, the task force is investigating five possible causes: human error in programming the weapons, heavy wind, a software glitch, mechanical failure or jamming of satellite guidance signals by the Iraqi military, said the paper. The answer appears to be a combination of the first two factors, the official said – Albawaba.com
