"More Suicide Attacks" ("Just the beginning" says Iraq's vice president)

Sky News ^ | March 29, 2003

[Asher]

'MORE SUICIDE ATTACKS'

The suicide bombing which killed four American troops is "just the beginning" Iraq's vice president has said.

The attack, described by Iraqi TV as the "Blessed beginning on the road of martyrdom" against the US, was the first instance of a suicide bombing since the war began

But Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan has threatened more will follow.

He said: "This is just the beginning. You'll hear more pleasant news later.

"It will be routine military policy. We will use any means to kill our enemy in our land and we will follow the enemy into its land.

"The United States will turn the whole world to martyrs against it. What do they expect? The Arabs and Muslims are not allowed to develp missiles and bombs as powerful as theirs."

The bombing happened on Saturday at a road checkpoint north of Najaf.

US military Captain Andrew Wallace said the four victims were part of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Divison.

Sky News reporter Collin Brazier said the driver of a taxi had pulled up at the checkpoint.

"Two soldiers went to the front of the car, two to the rear. The driver beckoned to them and there was an explosion. All the soldiers were killed," said Brazier.

"This marks a significant change of tactics."

The suicide bomber, named as non-commissioned army officer Ali Jaafar al-Noamani, has been awarded two posthumous medals by Saddam Hussein.

Last Updated: 18:54 UK, Saturday March 29, 2003

[Centurion2000]

Hmmm ... so they are adopting Japan's suicidal tactics ... islamikazis ......

[montag813]

There has been a corresponding change of tactics by those manning checkpoints. 3 drivers have been shot trying similar things since then. ABC Radio news this morning.

As we should use Israeli tactics in urban fighting we should also use Israeli rules of engagement at checkpoints. Any out-of-line behavior is dealt immediately with lethal force. More taxi drivers have been shot to death at Israeli checkpoints then any other people (when they have tried to avade or run the checkpoints, typically) because the IDF knows taxis are often used as a mask for suicide bombers.

Here is another case where if we just allowed the IDF to fight with us, the Brits and the Aussies, there would be fewer U.S. casualities. We have no closer ally in the world, yet no army we keep more at arm's length to satify Jew-hating Arab dictatorships. I cannot understand this.

[DannyTN]

Where's Osama? He's been pretty quite since the war started. Didn't he promise a lot of terror to coincide with the start of the war? Things bigger than 9/11?

The only thing he has delivered is his Leutinant Mohammed.

Osama is impotent. He's a non-factor.

[jejones]

The suicide bomber, named as non-commissioned army officer Ali Jaafar al-Noamani, has been awarded two posthumous medals by Saddam Hussein.

And Hussein can hand them to him in person, I hope...

[Mark17]

How do say in Arabic: Halt, step away from that vehicle(if there is one) and remove all your clothes or you will be shot dead?

I don't know, but I suspect the business end of a .50 caliber machine gun will convey the proper message.

[CyberAnt]

I find it interesting that just the day after we KILL 200 of their terrorists (with bombs destroying their building), these people are now threatening MORE TERRORIST BOMBINGS. How can that be ...?? We just killed 200 of them. Surely they cannot mount a more serious effort.

FEAR - is how these people operate.

To me this statement about inflicting more terrorist attacks upon us after losing 200 of those terrorists is just their way of trying to recover from such a devasting loss - by trying to make us think that just because we killed 200 of their men, they still have more than that with which to attack us.

Sorry ... I just don't believe it, and I believe it is nothing more than a scare tactic!

[countrydummy]

I know. It makes me sick. Little children and the soldiers that may have to destroy them because of these tactics. I know it would eat me alive for the rest of my life if I had to do such a thing......perhaps Saddam and his henchmen won't go this far, I hope and pray! But nothing out of them would surprise me.

[peeve23]

The media can't figure it out because of their bias, but I think a more important issue is that they have a basic inflexibility of thinking that prevents them from seeing things from different vantage points.

They truly are NOT open-minded in the best sense of that term. They're locked into one perspective and therefore lack creativity of thought.

[ChadGore]

Shees, at least the Japanese waited a few years before trying pissing-in-their-pants tactics like these.

It didn't work for the Kamakazi, and it won't work for saddom.

[EGPWS]

We will use any means to kill our enemy

When they are desperate, to think they would do anything other than use any means, would be foolish.

[RISU]

If there was ever a case for genocide, this is it. Perhaps we should justy kill em all, and let Allah sort them out.

[glock rocks]

hmmm. sounds like somalia.

[Mitchell]

Remind me what this war is supposed to be all about again?

I would like to see a poll that asks members of the U.S. public what they believe the purpose of the war is. My guess is that the #1 answer would be: "To free the Iraqi people from tyranny." It wouldn't surprise me if the #2 answer were something like: "To help Bush's friends in big oil."

Needless to say, neither of these is the right answer. But if Pres. Bush did a clearer job of explaining the rationale behind the war (the WMD threat), cogently and succinctly, without mixing it with secondary considerations, public support for the war would solidify. However, he is apparently still unwilling to do that in an unambiguous fashion.

[The Great Satan]

However, he is apparently still unwilling to do that in an unambiguous fashion.

Perhaps because if he did, the penny would drop, light bulbs would go off over peoples' heads, folks would be slapping their foreheads saying "D'oh," and so on and so forth.

[dixiechick2000]

"Perhaps we should justy kill em all, and let Allah sort them out."

Well, maybe the Ba'athists. They are evil and I doubt even Allah would have anything to do with them.

[P8riot]

Back in WWII Japan used to Kamikaze attacks as a sort of last resort. Could be the same thing here. The sign of a dying regime.

[Starstruck]

In other words "Saddam passed out two posthumous awards posthumously."

[MississippiMan]

If they think that these cowardly acts of death helps their cause, they're wrong. It will make the entire world demand (out of fear) that they all be corraled into a single country and kept contained; thus losing all status in the world of Humanity.

You're wrong. The world will for the most part take their side. Just like they take the side of the Palestinians who've been doing the exact same thing for years. The world hates Israel. The world hates us. It's that chillingly simple.

MM

[SuziQ]

I'm all for protecting the innocent, but how can our troops figure out who's the good guys and who's the bad guys? I'm at a point now where I feel that "if it moves, shoot it." Never thought I'd be thinking that way, but I am now.

It is very interesting how these events are affecting those of us here at home.

Compare this to how the media presented the soldiers in Vietnam killing innocent civilians. What the media never said was that many of these 'innocents' were carrying grenades into American camps, bombing restaurants where GIs would gather, hiding NVA in their villages, etc. My cousin served in SAR, and there was a young man who had been helping them in their camp for quite a while. He rode in one day, parked his bike and left, leaving a bomb to go off. After that, the guys were VERY unwilling to trust any Vietnamese. Since we didn't have reporters along with our soldiers for the most part then, most Americans didn't know about these instances until AFTER the war, and were told by the soldiers who were there.

With this war, we're learning about these duplicitious actions first hand from imbedded reporters, so we are much more aware of the things our guys have to face. There may be some innocents killed in the action, but not because our guys really WANT to kill them. This will only help in NOT branding our guys 'baby killers' etc. when the war is over.