Posted on 06/24/2004 4:29:59 AM PDT by Graybeard58
Insurgents launched coordinated attacks against police and government buildings across Sunni Muslim areas of Iraq Thursday, killing 66 Iraqis and three US soldiers less than a week before the handover of power.
The Iraqi Health Ministry said 268 people were wounded in the attack, but that tally did not include American injured.
The large number of attacks, mostly directed at Iraqi security services, was a clear sign of just how powerful the insurgency in Iraq remains - and could be the start of a new push to torpedo the June 30 transfer of sovereignty to an interim transitional government.
Some of the heaviest fighting was reported in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, where two American soldiers were killed and seven wounded, the US 1st Infantry Division said. Attackers also targeted police stations in Ramadi, Mahaweel, and the northern city of Mosul, where car bombs rocked the Iraqi Police Academy, two police stations and the al-Jumhuri hospital.
Khalid Mohammed, an official at the hospital, said dozens of injured were brought there. At least 50 people died and 170 were wounded there, he said. A US soldier was also killed and three were wounded in Mosul.
In other attacks, four Iraqi soldiers were killed in an explosion near a checkpoint manned by Iraqi and American soldiers in the southern Baghdad district of Dora. Three US soldiers tended to what appeared to be a wounded American soldier on the road. The soldier's helmet lay nearby. Black smoke and flames shot up from a burning pickup truck.
What makes these attacks even more cruel and senseless, is that with only a week to go, it wouldn't matter if they literally blew up 1/2 the country. Nothing is stopping the new Iraqi government from going forward. All they're doing is inflicting death and destruction on fellow Iraqis and muslims. ( I say fellow Iraqis, but some are obviously foreigners). It's so sad to see these people who have been terrorized all these years, continue to be terrorized.
Israel has lost thousands in the last few years to car bombs and suicide bombers,, and Israel is in their own country,, we are doing this in an arab land with the population not cooperating,,,
Oil, oil, oil. And our homegrown enemies, the Democrats, won't allow drilling here.
Give the Mossad one week in Iraq, and they will know where every baddie is. All kinds of punks are running things in Iraq. I say let Bush be Sharon. Kick a** and screw world opinion. In the end, nothing succeeds like success.
Since Sharon started his campaign of targeted hits, terrorism is way down. Basically he has broken the back of the intifada.
This isn't a surprise to anyone who's been watching. Much of the Iraqi insurgency has followed the models expounded by Mao and Stalin, and refined by Ho Chi Minh and Gen. Giap. Some sort of Tet style offensive around turnover time was pretty much a given.
The attacks on Zarqawi safehouses this week and last were in the nature of pre-emptive suppression, and we've moved beyond that into open conflict.
It's too early to tell if this is a single big push, or a lasting surge in enemy offensive tempos. It's too early to tell if Zarqawi plans to take and hold territory or just execute terrorist style attacks. We'll know more by this time tomorrow.
In any event, CENTCOM is reported calm, few Coalition deaths so far, and I suspect that once the outlines of this enemy offensive become clearer, we'll see some meaningful military response. If the Coalition commanders need additional reconor any other type of assets, I'm sure they'll ask for them.
It seems a little early to be Monday morning quarterbacking, since we don't yet know if Al Sadr will jump in, the reaction of ordinary citizens on the streets, to what extent Iran and Syria are willing to involve themselves, and whether or not Al Qaeda will support this offensive with external terrorist attacks.
We are taking out far more of them then you will ever hear, and we are stopping these attacks daily - with intel provided by our Iraqi allies.
Unfortunately, the press - reporters who don't seem to understand who pays for and provides their own freedom, is acting as PR agent for the enemy, continuing to ignore the lies and cruel history of the enemy, and, instead, to investigate and attack - blame - allies after every isolated evildoer act, even as our troops and Iraqi security forces are conducting thousands of patrols and missions daily...
...and we come to believe what we choose to listen to, what the world hears 24/7 from our press, as do the newly freed Iraqis, our troops and allies risking their lives on the ground - and those who cheered on 911.
Car bomb is assassination. With it you can kill many at once in contrast to the old days where an assassin would be able to kill one or two at a clip.
Allah FUBAR!
If they can't name evil now, when?
You're right. Thanx
Yes, it is. That's still a far cry from Israel knowing where every Hamas thug is and killing them all.
So you're accusing our military commanders in Iraq of neglecting force protection? That's quite arrogant, not to mention misinformed.
Uh, because Gaza is very very small and Iraq is the size of California. Come on! Israel has also been fighting the same enemy for 50 years.
(Iraq IS flypaper - a terrorists trap).
That's right. And you break the backbone of these movements by taking out the figureheads. Which we have not had much success at doing recently. I am concerned that we are fighting a PC war.
~ * ~
REGIMENTAL PRAYER
Almighty, merciful, and loving Father,
you are the one who hears all our prayers and grants our petitions.
We ask you to remember, as we do,
the tremendous sacrifice made by those who went before us.
They have given their lives so that we might live and breathe freely.
We ask you to receive them into your hands.
Father, give us the strength and wisdom to learn from their example,
to uphold freedom and life at home and around the world.
Keep us vigilant as we guard the frontiers of freedom.
Oh heavenly Father, give us the determination
that the peace and freedom won at such a high price be lasting!
Father, hold all of the troopers in the palm of your almighty hand
and protect them in the shadow of your wings.
Amen.
Adopted from the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment,
Regimental Prayer.
~ ~
Time to take out all Islamic Terrorists ping.
This will take time, years. Once the Iraqis are in charge - the PC war WILL change, and our press will lose their most powerful weapon on the world stage - blaming America daily for the evil acts of our enemies.
No. I mean that the Patriot Act HERE must be enforced to the full. Because as soon as we are out of Iraq, all the terrorists will see it as a green light to push their agenda as much and more INSIDE Iraq as well as OUTSIDE Iraq...especially, in the US. This they will see themselves as justified in doing as retribution to us for occupying their country and conducting a war on them..as if they would not have attacked us anyway.
Great comments bump.
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