[niteowl77]

"Huge" is such a quantitative term (LOL!) but it appears as precise as the rest of the piece. For all we know, Mohammed Al-Handi tripped in the tunnel and dropped his box of grenades onto a pile of RPG's, but I suppose it is more exciting if we all speculate on something nuclear. But why not... the press has apparently been reduced to the wartime equivalent of watching grass grow in the back yard, even when the fact that grass grows isn't necessarily newsworthy.

After the last two days, perspective has become a precious commodity on FR- don't let AP, Reuters and the UK press make hyperbole your yardstick. Go outside, pace off 1000 feet, and then contemplate reality.

Ed

[Blueflag]

Thanks, Ed. 1000' (if reported accurately) is NOT very high. Most high-heat explosions at ground level will produce a 'mushroom' cloud.

Another scenario is that sappers ID'd and then touched off a weapons/ammo cache, but then there'd be secondaries (like fireworks) going off. Also fuel tends to burn for a while after being set on fire by a detonation.

As usual, the highly skilled media on the scene have likely not reported well, and we now have noe REAL idea what happened.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Good point. 1,000 feet is less than the height of the World Trade Center. I suspect this type of ordinance (whatever it was) has been used many, many times over the past 3 weeks but this one just happened to be close enough to a journalist to get reported.

I do hope it found it's way into Taliban ammo storage.

[blackbag]

"huge.... size is relevant.

I saw the cloud on Fox ... Big but notb really a mushroom.