Many US casualties in Nassiriya battle; Footage of POWs, including woman, shown on Iraqi TV

Al Bawaba ^ | 23-03-2003, 16:47

[Lessismore]

On Sunday afternoon, the Qatar-based television al Jazeera broadcast Iraqi TV, showing a videotape of at least 10 US POWs, including one female soldier, and a room with some 15 bodies of US troops. The live broadcast included also a footage of a battle field area in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya with additional corpses of US soldiers as well as struck military equipment.

The videotape has also shown how the Iraqis investigate the American POWs. The prisoners were questioned on air and gave their names, military identification numbers and home towns.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Air Force conceded that there were American soldiers missing, but said that there were fewer than 10 troops unaccounted for in southern Iraq.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld warned Sunday it was possible that Iraqi forces had taken U.S. prisoners, saying there were unaccounted soldiers and journalists in the combat zone.

He noted that under the Geneva Conventions governing prisoners of war, "It's illegal to do things to POWs that are humiliating to those prisoners."

Earlier, it was reported that U.S. Marines battled for control of Nassiriya, taking "significant" casualties in a fight to open a route north to Baghdad, military officials said.

Reuters quoted military officials as saying the Marine battalion spearheading the fight had suffered significant casualties in the battle.

A total of 11 U.S. soldiers were captured after taking a wrong turn, and 50 military personnel have been wounded in the massive firefight in Nassiriya, ABCNEWS reported Sunday.

According to the report, 11 soldiers, maintenance workers, had taken a wrong turn outside the city on a mission to carry out repair work. They were traveling in a column of vehicles that came under heavy fire, including from an Iraqi tank. The capture was observed by other forces nearby.

The firefight at Nassiriya blocked an advance by U.S. forces, who had earlier reported securing two key bridgeheads to enable them to cross the Euphrates and strike northwards toward the Iraqi capital.

Reuters said there was heavy U.S. helicopter traffic over the area, and that hundreds of U.S. military trucks and armored personnel carriers had stopped their advance.

Iraqi Information Minister Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told a news conference in Baghdad that foreign invaders headed to Nassiriya had been "taught a lesson they will never forget." "We have placed them in a quagmire from which they can never emerge except dead," he said. (Albawaba.com)

[sinkspur]

I, for one, am sick of all the Muslim bashing going on on here.

So am I. But Asan Akbar just put a question mark in every grunt's mind who's bunked next to a Muslim.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Real brave,considering the person who your attack is directed at,can't respond.I'm impressed.

ROFLMAO - She made that her game for quite a while around here. In an orgy of mental onanism, she'd trash talk Bushes, Kissingers, Doles and the GOP - and of course none of them were around to answer her insane dribblings. For a while, she had a good run - of course, once more mainstream folks came along to FR and looked at what she wrote with a critical eye, her speculations were exposed for sensationalist gobbledygook.

Don't worry - she trash talks as good as she gets, and is no doubt spreading her crap over several different boards as we speak.

[Howlin]

I understand that completely. I'm speaking of the "Islam is a bloody cult" group. The ones who say Bush is a traitor and is in bed with the terrorits.

[Codie]

I don't like bullies.Why do care?

[RightOnline]

"Hmmmm.... Perhaps Saddam had another use for these uniforms than the one popularly thought."

Sneaky bastard that I am........and one who can read other sneaky bastards well.........I had exactly the same thought.

[sinkspur]

I don't like bullies.Why do care?

I don't.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Who is a bully? She showed her ass repeatedly and finally got bounced for going way over a clearly demarcated line. She revelled in her support of fringe causes, and would no doubt get bent out of shape if her views were, impossible as it may seem, adopted by the mainstream.

[EaglesUpForever]

Wasn't the notion of a "Muslim Chaplain" introduced in the Clinton era? His legacy has extended to include not just 9/11, but a good part of the tragedy we've seen in recent days as well.

[Codie]

She has the right to defend her position.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I'm sorry - but you must have FR confused with the drool bucket over at LF.

Some things are indefensible - and she had crossed that line again and again. The last one was too much, so she was canned.

[wimpycat]

She showed her ass repeatedly...

God, I love the South! We have such a way with words.

[wimpycat]

And Jim Rob has the right to ban her.

This isn't about rights. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I didn't think about it, but it is a very precise phrase, with very specific meaning, LOL.

[hchutch]

I'll agree with that. The most charitable way to describe her posts on that one thread was "insensitive."

[Codie]

Nope.She just kicked you asses.

[JMJ333]

I thought the banning of Catholicguy was unwarrented, and I think the same about banning askel. I'll miss her. And it just goes to show you that if your not into republican groupthink your opinions won't be allowed to be expressed here, as if this stupid forum is going to have any sort of outcome in the real world in regard to Bush or whoever. Agree with her or not, she made for lively debate. That was what I liked about this place 3 years ago. It was fun to get into long throwdowns with people you didn't agree with, but still liked and respected. Not much fun anymore. Sheeeet...is that a village mob with torches I see...?

[JMJ333]

I'm sure she appreciates your lively defense of her, Codie.

Hey askie...we'll miss you! Cheers.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

If you call her interminable babbling and half baked conspiracies an "ass kicking", then you are as deranged as she is.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Catholicguy was another who didn't understand the clear demarcation between acceptable dissent and the unacceptable. He baited people into flamewars - and got burned for it.

[JMJ333]

I saw the thread and I know Catholicguy's temperment. Did it warrent banning? Not in my opinion.

Is it true you're OPH?