Air Force jets destroy Basra building where Iraqi paramilitary forces were meeting

Associated Press ^ | 3-28-03

[Oldeconomybuyer]

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar (AP) -- A pair of F-15E Strike Eagles destroyed a two-story building in Basra where some 200 Iraqi regime paramilitary members were believed to be meeting Friday night, the U.S. Central Command said.

The U.S. Air Force jets used laser-guided munitions to destroy the building, while leaving undamaged the Basra Christian Church 300 yards away, the officials said. They said a delayed fuse allowed the bombs to penetrate the structure before detonation, minimizing the effects of the blast.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[zarf]

Good work. Culling the herd.

[patriciaruth]

Bump!

[FredZarguna]

Is this outfit going to have to change its name or mascot?

[johniegrad]

No. Great logo and honors our Indian brothers who continue to serve with distinction in our armed forces.

[grobdriver]

Is this outfit going to have to change its name or mascot?

Neither. That's for wimpy a$$ schools and pro organizations that have to curry favor with civillians.

[denydenydeny]

This is the way you do it. Kill them little by little.

[Professional]

Well, if they do rename them, "Fighting Whities" would be perfectly acceptable to me.

[wretchard]

This is the new kind of seige that Ralph Peters was talking about in his article "Trapped". It calls for the maintenance of a semblance of normalcy within an invested city. That normalcy provides the environment for Allied intelligence assets to roam the city, noting a bunker here, a checkpoint there and in this case, a meeting in a specific place.

There's probably a standing close air support group hovering over soutnern Iraq at any time, so that meetings like this can be caught if they persist for more than 15 minutes. All that is needed is an agent with a GPS receiver and a compass to plot azimuth from his position. The Brits have also used snatch teams to swoop down on a Basra street and pick up individuals.

[EggsAckley]

That's some mighty good shootin'!!

[Professional]

This is the way you do it. Kill them little by little.

I prefer the valupak killing. It saves gas and reduces the amount of waste.

[JOE6PAK]

Slow fuse on a fast bomb. They must of had a second kiss each others A$$ goodbye and ..BLAM!

[error99]

That reminds me - Last night I heard one of the Generals
in an interview, use the word "attrit" as a verb.
Now, I am quite familiar with the word attrittion,
but this was a whole new usage for me.
He said (paraphrasing),
"We will continue to attrit their forces
for as long as it takes to reach our objectives".
- -
Sounds to me like we got a whole lot of attritting going on in Basra!

[cavdad]

Go Tar Heels, Wolfpack, Demon Deacons and Blue Devils

[Mr. Lucky]

Good Lord! If you think putting a couple of 1000# bombs into a building full of bad guys is killing them little by little, what would you think it would take to kill them quickly?

You got a mean streak. (not that there's anything wrong with that)

[Professional]

Wow, that's pretty interesting. I'd imagine that the forces inside the city will become so paranoid after a while, they either start shooting themselves, or make a mad dash out, like those tanks did the other day in Basra.

[aristeides]

I wonder how we knew they were meeting there.

[grobdriver]

With ya there.

[SamAdams76]

With each day, we continue to diminish the Iraqi resistance. And they aren't going to be replenishing these destroyed tanks and building and soldiers. Meanwhile, we have another 100,000 troops on the way and an inexhaustible supply chain moving through Iraq on a massive scale. Some are comparing it to the Berlin Airlift. After all, we're not just going to remove the regime from that nation but we're going to feed it too. Not only that but some Army engineers just tapped an artesian well on the front lines and pumped 100,000 gallons of water on the first day. Pretty amazing what our military is doing over there.

[zarf]

Bingo. Your analysis is quite correct. We have been training Shiite and other indigenous forces to filter into regional cities to do just what you wrote. This will not be your fathers siege of Baghdad.