MOSUL, Iraq, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Top U.S. Army officials say the Iraqi suicide bomber who blew up a mess hall near Mosul was wearing an Iraqi army uniform.
Army Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, the commander of Task Force Olympia in Mosul, told CNN the discovery helps explain how someone was able to penetrate a highly defended forward operating base.
Tuesday's dining hall blast killed 22 people -- 13 U.S. service members, five U.S. contractors, three Iraqi soldiers and the infiltrator.
The suicide bomber may have gotten the uniform through normal channels: The Web site of the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, the Sunni Muslim terrorist group that took responsibility for the attack, said the bomber was a Mosul man who had worked on the base for four months.
"God enabled one of your martyr brothers to plunge into God's enemies inside their forts, killing and injuring hundreds," said a statement on the Web site. "We don't know how they can be so stupid that until now they have not figured out the type of the strike that hit them."
