Posted on 11/23/2003 1:27:33 PM PST by areafiftyone
MOSUL, Iraq - Iraqi teenagers dragged the bloody bodies of two American soldiers from a wrecked vehicle and pummeled them with concrete blocks Sunday, witnesses said, describing a burst of savagery in a city once safe for Americans. Another soldier was killed by a bomb and a U.S.-allied police chief was assassinated.
The U.S.-led coalition also said it grounded commercial flights after the military confirmed that a missile struck a DHL cargo plane that landed Saturday at Baghdad International Airport with its wing aflame.
Nevertheless, American officers insisted they were making progress in bringing stability to Iraq (news - web sites), and the U.S.-appointed Governing Council named an ambassador to Washington — an Iraqi-American woman who spent the last decade lobbying U.S. lawmakers to promote democracy in her homeland.
Witnesses to the Mosul attack said gunmen shot two soldiers driving through the city center, sending their vehicle crashing into a wall. The 101st Airborne Division said the soldiers were driving to another garrison.
About a dozen swarming teenagers dragged the soldiers' bodies out of the wreckage and beat them with concrete blocks, the witnesses said.
"They lifted a block and hit them with it on the face," Younis Mahmoud, 19, said.
Another teenager, Bahaa Jassim, said some looted the vehicle of weapons, CDs and a backpack.
"They remained there for over an hour without the Americans knowing anything about it," he said. "I ... went and told other troops."
Television video showed the soldiers' bodies splayed on the ground as U.S. troops secured the area. One victim's foot appeared to have been severed.
The frenzy recalled the October 1993 scene in Somalia, when locals dragged the bodies of Marines killed in fighting with warlords through the streets.
In Baqouba, just north of Baghdad, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb as a 4th Infantry Division convoy passed, killing one soldier and wounding two others, the military said.
In Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt confirmed the Mosul deaths but refused to provide details.
"We're not going to get ghoulish about it," he said.
The savagery of the attack was unusual for Mosul, once touted as a success story in sharp contrast to the anti-American violence seen in Sunni Muslim areas north and west of Baghdad.
In recent weeks, however, attacks against U.S. troops have increased in Mosul, raising concerns the insurgency is spreading.
Simultaneously, attacks have accelerated against Iraqis considered to be supporting Americans — such as policemen and politicians working for the interim Iraqi administration.
On Sunday, gunmen killed the Iraqi police chief of Latifiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, and his bodyguard and driver, American and Iraqi officials said. No further details were released.
The assassination occurred one day after suicide bombers struck two police stations northeast of Baghdad within 30 minutes, killing at least 14 people. Gunmen on Saturday also killed an Iraqi police colonel protecting oil installations in Mosul.
Elsewhere, Iraqi police said six U.S. Apache helicopter gunships blasted marshland after insurgents fired four rocket-propelled grenades at the American military garrison at the city's northern end. One Iraqi passer-by was killed in the air attack, police said.
In Kirkuk, 150 miles north of Baghdad, a bomb exploded at an oil compound, injuring three American civilian contractors from the U.S. firm Kellogg Brown & Root. The three suffered facial cuts from flying glass, U.S. Lt. Col. Matt Croke said.
KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, also has a significant presence at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, which was rocketed by insurgents Friday, wounding one civilian.
"We all know that Americans are being threatened," Croke said.
Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad that witnesses saw two surface-to-air missiles fired Saturday at a cargo plane operated by the Belgium-based package service DHL as it left for Bahrain.
The plane was the first civilian airliner hit by insurgents, who have shot down several military helicopters with shoulder-fired rockets.
DHL and Royal Jordanian, the only commercial passenger airline flying into Baghdad, immediately suspended flights on orders of the coalition authority.
Despite the ongoing violence, U.S. officials insisted the occupation was going well.
"If you look at the accomplishments of the coalition since March of this year, it has been enormous," Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Tikrit.
Pace is touring Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Iraq.
Also Sunday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said veteran Washington lobbyist Rend Rahim Francke was appointed Iraq's ambassador to the United States. Francke, an Iraq native who has spent most of her life abroad, led the Iraq Foundation, a Washington-based pro-democracy group, and has helped plan Iraq's transition from Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s rule.
The appointment will renew the diplomatic ties between Washington and Baghdad severed in 1990 when Saddam invaded Kuwait.
MOAB?? That's not a bomb. THIS,is a bomb--> 
These 'great soldiers' understand what it's all about, and know it's worth the sacrifice.
You could learn something from them.
Oh my God----how horrifying for your son to be in the heat of the battle. And equally horrifying for you.
God's not used to hearing much from me, but I will definitely be praying for your son and all our brave soldiers who are in harm's way.
You ought to stop exchanging feet in your mouth. Since you made this statement, tell me these girls have done to serve our country?
You know nothing my military record. Where I served, what I sacrificed. The *years* I spent in piece of sh*t countries.
You are so hoodwinked by your political party you will say anything. It's like a burp, it just comes out.
Last I read about the Bush girls, they attempted to pass some fraudulent ID to get a beer, or some stupid a$$ thing.
Is this your idea of serving your country? Or getting served a beer?
You ought to stop exchanging feet in your mouth. Since you made this statement, tell me these girls have done to serve our country?
Here's the full context of my post for you Joe. Nice of you not to use it when responding to my post, but there many things that you don't use before you post.
The Bush daughters have a dad -- our president -- who is taking on the worst terror organizations in the world. Try to think what kind of danger this puts the entire Bush family in and try to think what kind of life they NOW must lead for the rest of their life. The Bush daughters are serving this county more than you will ever.
The full context of my post clearly gives answer to your post-first-think-later question.
Last I read about the Bush girls, they attempted to pass some fraudulent ID to get a beer, or some stupid a$$ thing. Is this your idea of serving your country? Or getting served a beer?
Clue to Joe -- when the Bush girls were trying to get that beer, it was before 9/11/2001. How normal a life do you think they are leading now?
You made the statement.
What did they do? How did they serve? Simple questions.
It has already and we should be playing by new rules.
The Bush family has sacraficed its own personal safety for the safety of the country and the war on terror. The Bush daughters will never live a normal life because they will always be targets. Heretofore they could go out on their own and do whatever they wanted. From here on in, unlike Joe Hadenuf, they can not.
The Bush family and the daughters in particular have sacraficed greatly.
You are missing but one key ingredient my friend.
Those pulling the trigger on the firing squad should be Iraqis.
And emphasis on "PUBLIC" - make it mandatory for the entire community to show for the ceremony.
The Bush daughters will never live a normal life because they will always be targets
Man, you have one weird definition of what is meant my *serving* your country. LOL!
The key ingredient here is to inflict worse damage on the enemy than they did on us.
This should be done in public and . . . the execution must be carried out by Iraqis - - NOT AMERICANS.
This is key.
You may be on to something there, my friend.
The Kurds are about the only thing the Iraqis really, really fear.
But there would have to be a media blackout over all of Iraq.
We can't have CNN doing news breaks showing Iraqi heads dangling off stakes, now can we?
Recruit the Kurds - it's time.
IT'S THE SOLDIER
It's the soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the
PRESS.
It's the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of
SPEECH.
It's the soldier, not the campus
ORGANIZER,
Who has given us the freedom to
DEMONSTRATE
It's the soldier, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a
FAIR TRIAL.
It's the soldier who salutes the flag,
Serves under the flag
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who gives the protester the right to burn the flag.
-Father D. E. O'Brien
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