Posted on 10/29/2004 9:07:32 PM PDT by TexKat
Edited on 10/29/2004 10:04:00 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq, Oct. 29 -- U.S. Marines are preparing for a decisive battle in the Sunni Triangle area west of Baghdad, where rebels are using violence and intimidation to extend their influence out from the city of Fallujah, senior commanders said Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...
This one will be for all the marbles.
God be with you guys, on what will be the most important month of your life.
Faith guys.
Bump.
fatwa, fatthis, fatthat. Bring it on islamic suckers. Come out of the cracks and crevices, come out of you holes and get ya fatwa on.
fatwa, fatthis, fatthat. Bring it on islamic suckers. Come out of the cracks and crevices, come out of you holes and get ya fatwa on.
"Unleash hell. That is all."
I wouldn't be surprised if Bush doesn't give the "go" signal as soon as Monday or on Tuesday (election day) itself. Why not? Sounds good to me. Get election day off to a roaring start.
Pray for the all members of the coaliton.
God bless Freepers. God bless the President, and may God continue to bless the US.
A U.S. Marine from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment grimaces on patrol in Ramadi, Iraq, Tuesday Oct. 26, 2004. (AP Photo/Jim MacMillan)
LOL! and probably true!
Terrorists, get afraid, your candidate, Fallujah John, won't be elected.
May God bless the brave men and women in uniform and the Commander-in-Chief.
By RAWYA RAGEH, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Eight American Marines were killed in fighting west of Baghdad on Saturday, the military's bloodiest day in nearly six months. A car bomb killed at least seven people in attack on an Arab television network in the capital, and Iraqi troops fired wildly on civilian vehicles, killing at least 14 people, witnesses and hospital officials said.
The U.S. military said nine Marines were also wounded in the fighting in Anbar province west of the capital which includes the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. The statement gave no further on how or where they were killed.
It was the most U.S. deaths on a single day since May 2, when nine U.S. troops died in separate mortar attacks and roadside bombings in Baghdad, Ramadi and Kirkuk.
The deaths came as U.S. forces are gearing up for a major assault on Fallujah, seen as the toughest bastion of Sunni Muslim guerrillas, ahead of crucial elections due by Jan. 31.
Fierce clashes erupted Saturday in Fallujah as an American military convoy entered the southeastern industrial Shuhada neighborhood and nearby Nueimiya village — an apparent probing foray on the city's edges. Explosions and gunfire rocked the area and smoke was seen billowing in the air, witnesses said.
Marines responded with heavy artillery fire after insurgents shot mortar shells from positions in the southeast of the city. About 4 p.m. a Marine Harrier jet bombed a mortar position inside Fallujah and strafed it with machine-gun fire, "neutralizing the target and any threat," said Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert.
In Baghdad, the car bomb blasted the offices of the Al-Arabiya television network in the upscale Mansour neighborhood, killing seven people and wounding 19, according to police and hospital officials.
Three bodies, including one of a woman, were mutilated beyond recognition, said Al-Arabiya correspondent Najwa Qassem. She said they could not tell if any of the three bodies were those of Al-Arabiya employees. However, she confirmed that one guard and one administration worker were among the dead.
The blast collapsed the first floor of the building, where staffers were holding a meeting, said Saad al-Husseini, a correspondent of MBC, a sister channel of Al-Arabiya based in the same building.
Employees "were trapped between fire and the shattering shards of glass," he said. That "led to the high number of casualties. We were all there."
A militant group calling itself the "1920 Brigades" claimed responsibility for the attack, blasting Al-Arabiya as "Americanized spies speaking in Arabic tongue" in a statement posted on the Web.
"We have threatened them to no avail that they are the mouthpiece of the American occupation in Iraq (news - web sites)," the statement said. It warned of more attacks against this "treacherous network." It was impossible to verify the claim's authenticity.
The group said Elie Nakouzi — the Christian Lebanese anchor who presents the TV program "From Iraq" — is No. 1 on their hit list. Nakouzi used to present the program from the network's offices in Baghdad before he was relocated to their studios in Dubai amid fears he would be targeted.
Meanwhile, south of Baghdad, witnesses said Iraqi forces opened fire randomly and threw handgrenades, hitting three minibuses and three vans, after a U.S. convoy came under attack Saturday
Abdul Razzaq al-Janabi, director of Iskandariyah General Hospital, said 14 people were killed and 10 others injured. More wounded were taken to other hospitals.
Footage by Associated Press Television News showed bloody bodies riddled with bullet holes inside the buses and on the street near the town of Haswa, about 25 miles south of the capital. Blood and gas was trickling underneath the vehicles. Empty bullet cases were also scattered around.
An APTN cameraman saw at least 18 bodies, while witnesses said there were more than 20 people killed in the incident.
The footage also showed the morgue of the hospital in nearby Iskandariyah packed with bodies stacked on top of each other.
The shooting came after an American convoy was attacked early Saturday on the road, witnesses said. Al-Janabi said some of the victims told him three improvised explosive devices detonated near the U.S. convoy.
After the U.S. troops pulled out, Iraqi police and National Guards arrived on the scene and began firing wildly, the witnesses said. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
The area is a major insurgent hotspot where ambushes and attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces are common.
Witnesses said police also broke into the Osama bin Zayd mosque in the same area and detained its cleric and two guards.
In Baghdad Saturday, Mohammed Bashar al-Faydhi, a spokesman for the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, called for a government investigation into "this massacre, because it is a big disaster that the Iraqi policemen are carrying out such crimes."
Marines carried out a three-week siege of Fallujah in April that left hundreds dead — including civilians — angered many Iraqis and only left insurgents in tighter control of the city. The siege was launched after militants ambushed and killed four American contractors, mutilated their bodies and hung them from a bridge.
Now U.S. and Iraqi commanders are planning a new assult in a bid to tame insurgents before the elections. Up to 5,000 Islamic militants, Saddam Hussein loyalists and common criminals are hunkered down in Fallujah, U.S. officers said Friday. U.S. planners believe many of the city's 300,000 residents have already fled the city.
American officials stress that the final order to launch a big operation would come from Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. "We're gearing up to do an operation and when we're told to go, we'll go," Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, deputy commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said at a camp near Fallujah. "When we do go, we'll whack them."
Also Saturday:
_ A militant group showed a kidnapped Sudanese interpreter, Noureddin Zakaria, who was working for U.S. contractor Titan Corp. in Ramadi and demanded his company leave Iraq, in a video aired on Al-Arabiya.
_ U.S. forces detained an influential Sunni leader in Baghdad, his family said. Sheik Hisham al-Duleimi, along with his son and brother-in-law, were arrested at their home, the sheik's brother Samer al-Duleimi said. The U.S. military had no comment.
_ The Bangladesh government confirmed Saturday that one of its nationals was taken hostage by militants in Iraq, officials said. Abul Kashem, 42, a truck driver who works for a Kuwaiti transport company, was abducted near a U.S. military base in Iraq last week, officials said.
8 U.S. Marines Killed, 9 Wounded in Iraq
US marines and US Army soldiers treat an injured comrade shot by a sniper in Ramadi, 100 kms west of Baghdad. Eight US marines were killed conducting security operations in an Iraqi province that is home to rebel strongholds, as five people died in the latest car bomb to rip through the heart of Baghdad.(AFP/Patrick Baz)
A US marine (R) briefs a US Army soldier taking over in Ramadi, 100 kms west of Baghdad. Eight US marines were killed conducting security operations in an Iraqi province that is home to rebel strongholds, as five people died in the latest car bomb to rip through the heart of Baghdad.(AFP/Patrick Baz)
A wounded journalist, with the Al-Arabiya TV channel, passes a U.S. Humvee vehicle following a blast at the nearby television station in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, October 30, 2004. A bomb exploded outside the office of Dubai-based Al Arabiya television in western Baghdad Saturday, wounding 16 employees, the channel said. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
Marines of the 1st Division burn their waste as they leave their temporary base for a mission outside Falludah, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004. US forces are preparing for a possible attack on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Aa Marine of the 1st Division kisses a local child before he joins a foot patrol outside Fallujah, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004. US forces are preparing for a possible attack on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Marines of the 1st Division prepare for a mission outside Fallujah, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004. US forces are preparing for a possible attack on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
U.S. Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment rush to defensive positions during a close-range insurgent mortar attack on their base, Combat Outpost, in Ramadi, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004. There were no U.S. casualties. (AP Photo/Jim MacMillan)
Iraqis gather at the scene of four burning trucks after the trucks came under attack in the northern city of Mosul, October 30, 2004. At least four trucks, carrying supplies to a nearby U.S. military base came under attack by unknown gunmen before being set ablaze on a highway in Mosul, eyewitnesses said. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen
An Iraqi youth chants anti-U.S. slogans at the scene of four burning trucks following an attack in the northern city of Mosul, October 30, 2004. At least four trucks, carrying supplies to a nearby U.S. military base came under attack by unknown gunmen before being set ablaze on a highway in Mosul, eyewitnesses said. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen
U.S. Marines from Charlie Company, second Tank Battalion check tanks and weapons ahead of an expected offensive on Iraq's rebel city of Falluja, in a U.S. Military camp near Falluja.
A U.S. Marine from Charlie Company, second Tank Battalion sits atop a vehicle with his weapons, west of Baghdad, October 30, 2004. U.S. Marines are checking tanks and weapons ahead of an expected offensive on Iraq's rebel city of Falluja.
Iraqi police officers remove the body of a civilian after he was shot by U.S. troops in central Baghdad, October 30, 2004. U.S. forces shot dead an Iraqi driver after he approached with his car towards the soldiers, who were defusing an improvised explosive device in front a hotel in central Baghdad, Iraqi police and eyewitnesses said. REUTERS/Ali Jasim
A video image aired by Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya October 30, 2004 shows two masked men pointing rifles at a Sudanese translator, named as Noureddin Zakaria, taken hostage in the Iraqi rebel town of Ramadi by an Iraqi resistance group. 'The group said his employer, the American 'Titan' company, should stop its activities in Iraq and leave the country in return for his release,' the Dubai-based channel said. The company name appears to refer to the Titan Corp., which provides technology and translation services to the U.S. military. NO SALES, NO ARCHIVE, MUST SHOW ONSCREEN LOGO, MANDATORY CREDIT AL ARABIYA REUTERS/Al Arabiya via Reuters Television
U.S. Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine search for a position on a supply route security mission in Ramadi, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004. Eleven roadside bombs exploded on a nearby mission Friday night, including several detonated by insurgent attackers while Marines disposed of the remainder by means of controlled demolitions. (AP Photo/Jim MacMillan)
U.S. Marine Sgt. Sean Riley of Orange County, CA, from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, watches over a supply route in Ramadi, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004. Eleven roadside bombs exploded on a nearby mission Friday night, including several detonated by insurgent attackers while Marines disposed of the remainder by means of controlled demolitions. (AP Photo/Jim MacMillan)
Smoke rises after U.S. Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment disposed of a roadside bomb with a controlled explosion in Ramadi, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004. Eleven roadside bombs exploded on a nearby mission Friday night, including several detonated by insurgent attackers while Marines disposed of the remainder by means of controlled demolitions.(AP Photo/Jim MacMillan)
U.S. Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment ride low in their Humvee enroute to a supply route security mission in Ramadi, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004. Eleven roadside bombs exploded on a nearby mission Friday night, including several detonated by insurgent attackers while Marines disposed of the remainder by means of controlled demolitions. (AP Photo/Jim MacMillan)
A U.S. Marine (C) from Charlie Company, 2nd Tank Battalion, dressed as Spiderman talks with other soldiers during a Halloween event near Falluja, in western Iraq, October 30, 2004. U.S. Marines are preparing for an expected offensive on Iraq's rebel city of Falluja. REUTERS/Eliana Aponte
Ping
Stay safe and make every bullet count.
Marines of the 1st Division take a nap after a overnight mission outside Fallujah, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004. US forces are preparing for a possible attack on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
May God Be with them and my prayers are Incoming. I am with them all and I pray all their fire will be on target. They are the Best of the Best! God Bless them all.
http://tv.reuters.com/ifr_main.jsp?st=1099157282514&rf=bm&mp=WMP&wmp=1&rm=1&cpf=true&fr=103004_123053_17d5d2axffe72e4c89x58e9&rdm=968154.7828471131
Amen JOE43270.
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