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Three U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq (Pummeled them with Concrete Rocks!)
Yahoo ^ | 11/23/03

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.


TOPICS: Breaking News
KEYWORDS: iraq; mosul
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To: Jalapeno
Thanks for clarifying that!
121 posted on 11/23/2003 3:13:12 PM PST by areafiftyone (Democrats = the hamster is dead but the wheel is still spinning)
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To: areafiftyone
And to think the Army is court martialing Col West for firing a pistol "near" one of these poor muslim terrorists...scaring him in a felonious manner worthy of West being remanded to prison with loss of all benefits and pension...
122 posted on 11/23/2003 3:14:52 PM PST by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: Joe Hadenuf
I'll say it again. That POS country isn't worth the death of one American.....How many more? I say put all the Senators kids, every single one over 18 on the front line into that POS country, include all the congressman's kids, all the governors kids, mayors etc.....Let them lead by example. Bush's daughters ought to get out of their BMWs and limos and go serve. I'd love to know how many of the elite's kids have opted to serve.

Nice class warfare driven nonsequitur Joe.

The politicians don't send their kids to serve in Iraq. Therefore there is no valid reason to be in Iraq.

123 posted on 11/23/2003 3:15:24 PM PST by FreeReign
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To: reagan_fanatic; Travis McGee
unfortunately, that is not far from the truth.

they must learn to fear us and respect our resolve....that is all that has ever worked with third worlders....if anyone knows of an exception please feel free to opine.


court martialing Colonel West was very dumb btw, now they will think we are scared to get tough.
124 posted on 11/23/2003 3:19:06 PM PST by wardaddy (we must crush our enemies and make them fear us and sap their will to fight....all 2 billion of them)
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To: The Great RJ

The perpetrators should be found, publically tried by a military tribunal and also very publically executed. Too hell with the niceties this is war and we should fight it to win.


The only thing I'd add to what you say RJ - is to do it fast & furious - and schedule the execution for tomorrow! Do what Pershing did in the Philipines and make certain that pig entrails go with the bastards to their graves!


125 posted on 11/23/2003 3:20:53 PM PST by B-Cause
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To: huck von finn
If that's true, then they were darned careless. Seems that they are still fighting a conventional war with conventional tactics against barbarians.

Maybe they need to look at tactics from centuries ago to make this thing work. The Romans had a culture of death, a matter-of-fact cruelty, and absolute obedience to end recalcitrance. We can't be Romans. We can be better versed on the historical tactics of warfare from the barbarians' views and stop thinking in conventional terms. I'm appalled at the carelessness. And this type of demoralizing murder plays well in the streets. I suppose the relentless march that we do is the best way, and actually that is quite Roman. If only the critics would SHUT UP and stop giving these people a reason to hope that we will cut and run.

On the other hand...these miserable people are reduced to concrete and donkey carts.



126 posted on 11/23/2003 3:22:21 PM PST by OpusatFR (You want to see terror? Mess with my kids and find out. I'm primitive at best. A Mother at worst)
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To: joesnuffy
And to think the Army is court martialing Col West for firing a pistol "near" one of these poor muslim terrorists...scaring him in a felonious manner worthy of West being remanded to prison with loss of all benefits and pension...

Maybe Bob Barr could explain this.

127 posted on 11/23/2003 3:22:47 PM PST by Ben Chad
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To: Resume_The_Crusade
If I was a Muslim in this country I would be getting a little nervous about now.
128 posted on 11/23/2003 3:25:22 PM PST by Dog Anchor
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To: joesnuffy

And to think the Army is court martialing Col West for firing a pistol "near" one of these poor muslim terrorists...scaring him in a felonious manner worthy of West being remanded to prison with loss of all benefits and pension...


Very well stated. Maybe they should let Col. West's unit hunt down these bastards!

<
129 posted on 11/23/2003 3:25:27 PM PST by B-Cause
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To: Resume_The_Crusade
WHAT THE F__K MAN...JEEEEZ...LOUISE.
130 posted on 11/23/2003 3:28:07 PM PST by Dog Anchor
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To: areafiftyone
bring back napalm as a protest deterrent for these animals....
131 posted on 11/23/2003 3:30:46 PM PST by Centurion2000 (Resolve to perform what you ought, perform without fail what you resolve.)
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To: Finalapproach29er
"It's incredible that our civilian and military command cannot grasp this elementary principle. Oblivious to reality, our rules of engagement are a sick joke.

Generals Sanchez/Abiziad need to be replaced or resign."

Bet you never served 1 day in the military.
132 posted on 11/23/2003 3:38:38 PM PST by Gucho
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To: Resume_The_Crusade
Thanks...

Now I know how Pelle must have felt.

After This Incident Pelle Quit Soccer And Retired.

Is time to end this thing...


133 posted on 11/23/2003 3:40:48 PM PST by Major_Risktaker (I know dumb idea...)
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To: Finalapproach29er
What do you expect from a "compassionate conservative" administration? We need a ruthless SOB conservative.

That would be Tom Delay.

134 posted on 11/23/2003 3:42:36 PM PST by Doe Eyes
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To: Hodar
Bump
135 posted on 11/23/2003 3:45:05 PM PST by zlala
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To: zlala
nuke the bastards
136 posted on 11/23/2003 3:46:02 PM PST by petercooper (Proud VRWC Neanderthal)
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To: areafiftyone
I haven't read thru this thread yet, but I will say, there have been many times when Iraqis have stood on top of, and around US military vehicles that had been bombed, and cheered.

I believe we should have shot them, or bombed them. They are our enemies, civlians or not.

Maybe they would have thought twice about hanging around dead US soldiers and desecrating them.
137 posted on 11/23/2003 3:52:22 PM PST by Lijahsbubbe (Take my advice; I don't use it anyway.)
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To: Destro
..what kind of POS orders of the day exist that allow soldiers to drive around hostile territory as if in the States?

Good question. I suspect these soldiers were not authorized to be in their unescorted vehicle at that place and time. There are quite a few orders young soldiers find ways of sidestepping.

138 posted on 11/23/2003 3:53:41 PM PST by NoControllingLegalAuthority
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To: JamesA; boxerblues; LoudRepublicangirl; jonsie
Please thank your sons/brother for their service to our country. God bless them and you.

My prayers are with you as I know reports such as this only increase your worry. May God keep them safe.

139 posted on 11/23/2003 3:54:35 PM PST by bjcintennessee (Don't Sweat the Small Stuff)
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To: areafiftyone
Muslims have been slitting Christian throats for a thousand and 300 years now.

Islam is an evil evil hateful cult

140 posted on 11/23/2003 3:55:03 PM PST by eleni121
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