BAGHDAD, April 5 (UPI) -- Uneasy U.S. officials fear Iraqi guerilla leader Abu Musab Zarqawi was behind the well-orchestrated weekend attack on Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.
"It was one of the more concerted attacks that we've seen," Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman told the Washington Post of Saturday's dusk attack.
Mortar and rocket barrages forced Marine guards to abandon a prison watchtower at the height of the offensive, which also employed ground assaults and a car bomb. The battle wounded 44 U.S. troops and 13 of the more than 3,000 detainees held at the prison.
Iraqi insurgent leaders said the assault was carried out by Zarqawi's al-Qaida-associated group, a claim also made on a radical Islamic Web site.
Abu Jalal, who describes himself as a former general in the Iraqi military during Saddam Hussein's rule, said the group was using the same tactics the United States used.
"The old military officers know very well that the attacks on the bases of the enemy army weaken the morale of the soldiers and frighten them," he said.
