Ambulance bomb 'was huge'

News24 via AP ^ | November 11, 2003

[Kaslin]

Baghdad - Iraqi police have discovered an ambulance packed with 450kg of explosives and United States officials on Tuesday praised the find as an indication of the potential capabilities of the newly created force.

On Monday evening, officers noticed the ambulance driving through a crowded district in the capital, became suspicious and called for the driver to stop, said Major Hakim Razak Kadim, a district commander of the Iraqi police.

The ambulance raced away, but crashed into another vehicle and its occupants fled on foot, Kadim said.

The vehicle's occupants fled before they could be arrested, Kadim said, adding that officers were still looking for them and that it was not clear if they were linked to any particular resistance group.

US forces have trained about 40 000 Iraqi policemen and are keen to hand over some of their duties to the new force.

Police rushed to the vehicle and found the back packed with explosives, including four 155mm artillery shells.

An electrical cord ran from the front of the car to the back where the explosives were located, said Colonel Kurt Fuller of the 82nd Airborne division.

At a United States military base in Baghdad, reporters were shown the white vehicle on Tuesday.

'Would have destroyed a building'

Outside the ambulance were the four 30kg howitzer shells. The fuse at the top of one had been unscrewed and plastic explosives were crammed inside, which soldiers said would have detonated the explosives.

Next to the shells were crates of plastic explosives and hard, yellow cylinders which were packed with explosives extracted from mortar and artillery shells.

Fuller said the makeshift bomb would have done "a tremendous amount of damage. It would completely destroy a building. It's a huge bomb".

Brigadier-General. Mark Hertling of the 1st Armoured division said the incident showed the importance of the local knowledge of Iraqi policemen.

"I'm not sure my paratroopers would have realised something was wrong with the ambulance," Hertling said.

"It's another indication of how the Iraqi police are seeing Baghdad."

"This is a great victory, a great day for you," he said to Kadim.

[sarasmom]

No.
The goal is to defeat our enemy, not become them.
There are other, more effective, and much more honorable ways to achieve our goals than a straight descent into hellish barbarism.

At times in the past few years,I too temporarily forgot the reason why we do not make the entire middle east a glass factory, and end this series of military conflicts now.
Thank God for President Bush, and the incredibly professional and powerfull military forces of the USA and our allies.
As an old SAC trained Cold Warrior, I understand the concept of acceptable "attrition rates".I am also willing to accept the burden of kill ratios.I am not active duty now, but those who are, do so on my behalf, and have my full support and I freely accept and share the responcibility for their actions.
This is not about local criminal gangsters murdering each other.
This nation is at War.
It will be long, hard and painfull.
Such is the nature of a nation at War.

[windchime]

Bump!

[radu]

I saw a report about this on the news this evening. Yikes, but that would have done some major damage if not for the observations of the Iraqi police.

I wish they'd managed to get the scumbags who were in the ambulance, though.

[Fee]

Your concept will work if the population has submitted to defeat or have not made up their minds about the US. Soft approach makes sense. The Sunnis Iraqis have concluded that the post war world they would be in the minority (15 percent) after spending many years ruling the majority thru brute force. In general they rather take their chances fighting the US with any means necessary than live the postwar peace as a minority. In summary, we are dealing with a hostile population that must first be defeated ruthlessly. I do not think US forces have the stomach for it, thus the need to field a Kurdish/Shiite force to carry out these ruthless tactics will be necessary. I know most Americans abhor such tactics, but one needs to read about the nature of counter insurgencies which involve an already hostile and sympathetic population that supports a partisan force that is willing to use ruthless tactics to win. Sunnis are not the majority in Iraq and they are willing to use terrorism to impose their will. The only way to defeat them is to destroy them until they submit. Otherwise we will be defeated by the prolonged hit and run warfare. Withdraw from Iraq will encourage every fundamentalist to bring the war back to our shores.