At Least Four Dead in Iraq Attack on Spaniards

Reuters to My Yahoo! ^ | Nov. 29, 2003 | Anon

[Pharmboy]

LONDON (Reuters) - At least four and possibly as many as eight members of a Spanish intelligence team were killed on Saturday in an attack on their convoy south of Baghdad, a reporter from Britain's Sky News television said.

David Bowden said in a report from Baghdad after returning from the scene that he saw four bodies and that locals said eight were killed in total and another two people taken prisoner. Spanish officials said in Madrid an eight-strong team had been attacked and it was unclear how many were hurt.

"We were actually driving from the town of Hilla, which is just south of Baghdad, and we saw these men lying dead on the floor (ground) by the side of the road after the ambush," Bowden said.

"We were told by locals there that...about 30 minutes before they'd attacked a convoy of three vehicles. They pulled the people out of the vehicles. They told us that in fact they'd killed eight people and they'd captured two others.

"I only saw with my own eyes four dead bodies on the road.

"We filmed for a couple of minutes and then we became the focus of the mob's attention. They were shouting praise to Saddam (Hussein) and we disappeared pretty quickly."

[Pharmboy]

Going after the coalition countries' soldiers one by one...

[woofie]

God bless all the troops

[Dog Gone]

We really need to find Saddam and turn him into a corpse.

[Travis McGee]

We have been incredibly lucky not to have any soldiers or civilian contractors snatched as hostage-bait so far. Looks like the Spanish have drawn the short straw. Hostages are going to change the dynamic there very significantly.

[sigSEGV]

What I don't understand is why other troops can't get there before reporters and start arresting the f*ckers dancing on the bodies.

[July 4th]

This was on FOX with the camera crew mentioned in the story. They shot a little bit of footage, and had to get the heck out of there as they were the only Westerners...and were quickly becoming a target.

[winker]

The CID! EL CID is going to shoot their arsess off! Spainards are like the Ghurkas; now you have really got something to worry about!

[resistmuch]

There's a definite plan to break up the coalition and intimidate anyone who appears to be working with the U.S. So far, we've seen attacks on the UN, the Red Cross, the Brits, the Poles, the Italians, the Ukranians and the Spaniards. No one is immune.

[Dog]

They got hostages??

That is BAD.....very bad if true!

If my hunch is correct this team was part of the Iraqi Survey group......someone wants to know what we know.

[niteowl77]

There are people you treat as humans, and then there are people you can't. Sounds like the happy locals mentioned need some negative feedback.

[Pharmboy]

I agree...when I first read this I wondered why they ahdn't taken more hostages prior to this. But, I guess it is easier to remote-bomb someone or take a long shot with a rifle than grab someone off the street.

At any rate, hostage videotapes are extremely unnerving and they will likely use them.

[resistmuch]

"We really need to find Saddam and turn him into a corpse."

That will be a great morale booster and propaganda victory, but I doubt it will stop the violence. Too many groups in that country seem to want us out, either because they resent us as invaders or because they want to get busy trying to take over the country.

[gorebegone]

Send this guy in!!

[ValerieUSA]

Was this an unarmed convoy? Why didn't they fight back?

[Captain Kirk]

If "we" send this medieval character in (Charles Martel?) does that mean we can bring the troops home and use them for national defense rather than a futile nation building crusade?

[Destro]

A roadside mine ambush pretty much takes your team out.

[Dog Gone]

Was the occupation of Germany and Japan a futile nation-building crusade?

[Lijahsbubbe]

What I don't understand is why other troops can't get there before reporters and start arresting the f*ckers dancing on the bodies.

Anyone dancing on bodies, standing on top of bombed US Military vehicles and cheering should be shot. They are our enemy, and accessories to the murder.

I wish they would take out these people immediately. Others would think twice about forming groups after these murders.

[mikegi]

Hostages are going to change the dynamic there very significantly.

How have we managed to avoid having some our soldiers taken captive by AQ in Afghanistan or Iraq??? Hostage/captive situations would be an AQ publicist's dream: intensive news coverage, pressure on Bush, etc. Are our soldiers travelling in large enough groups to prevent it? Our guys in Mosul last week were apparently travelling alone.

As much as I ridicule debka.com, they did post an article related to this four days ago: New Al Qaeda Kidnap Guide to Force Release of Detainees in US, Saudi, Yemeni Hands. Probably coincidental.

[Destro]

Japan and Germany were not nation building missions. Those were already deeply established nations. We only shaped their political climate to re-introduce liberal democracy back to both nations. Both Germany and Japan were liberal representative democracies before the Nazis or the rule of the military.

Comparing Iraq to Germany and Japan is just as false as comparing Vietnam to Iraq.