Posted on 03/26/2003 9:04:14 PM PST by Centurion2000
Good Morning.
This is the Daily Thread of Operation Iraqi Freedom - LIVE THREAD.
It is designed for general conversation about the events of the day. In depth discussion of events should be left to individual threads - but links to the threads or other articles is highly encouraged. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information.
Please have mercy on us dial up limited FReepers! Limit the big graphics, post links instead. A breif description of what the graphic is would help:
Special thanks to null and void for keeping these running over the weekend and Monday, to all of you for keeping these threads alive, the AdminMods for their tolerance, mhking for the video links, and, of course, Belly Girl...
Unintended telling of truth?
God speed the liberation of the Iraqi people! Thanks for your great posts!
I can't really say. I was outside doing yardwork and am exhausted so I am typing slow, and posting slow.
Free Republic sandstorm?
I heard the awesome booms, but their webcam still sucks. Alas. it is the only one I've been able to open....:-(
Dat Saddam be a tricky fella, huh?
Speaking of surprise. Breaking News excerpt, full detail on post #88 . . .
Powerful blasts rock Baghdad
03/27/2003
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Massive explosions rocked central Baghdad late Thursday night, sending a towering plume of smoke skyward in the strongest blasts felt in the city in days.
Shortly after 11 p.m. in Baghdad (2 p.m. CST), explosions shook the capital near the city center. Buildings close to the Information Ministry appeared to have been hit, sending a huge plume of smoke skyward.
Earlier Thursday, Iraq's defense minister said the real battle for Baghdad will be on its streets, and that Saddam Hussein's regime will prolong the war as long as possible.
"The enemy must come inside Baghdad, and that will be its grave," said Defense Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmed.
"We feel that this war must be prolonged so the enemy pays a high price," he said at a news conference at a downtown Baghdad hotel.
Asked whether the fighting in Baghdad will be on the streets, Mr. Ahmed replied, "Yes."
He called the two-day sandstorm that engulfed Iraq this week and slowed the U.S.-led coalition "a divine gift to tell the aggressor that he is an aggressor."
President Bush said Thursday the United States was prepared to fight "however long it takes."
The Iraqi health minister said 36 civilians were killed and 215 wounded in U.S. airstrikes on Baghdad a day earlier, and he accused U.S.-led forces of deliberately targeting civilians to break the people's will.
Loud explosions were heard in and around Baghdad again Thursday, and witnesses said an unknown number of people were killed and injured when a housing complex for employees of a weapons-producing facility came under attack. The Military Industrialization Authority of Iraq complex is in the Al-Youssifiah area, about 12 miles south of the capital.
Another blast about 700 yards west of the Information Ministry, possibly from a missile, sent scores of journalists fleeing. Anti-aircraft guns on the roof of the ministry opened fire, witnesses said, but there was no immediate information on damage or casualties.
One of Baghdad's main telephone facilities also was hit early Thursday, causing some disruptions in service.
We are doing this because on 9/11, 3,000 people went to work... and never came home! Remember them... and forget the world.
3215 posted on 03/21/2003 2:30 PM EST by carton253 (God Bless President Bush, the USA, and the troops who are moving to protect freedom)
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