Posted on 03/30/2003 10:29:04 PM PST by mikegi
SHATRA, Iraq, March 31 — U.S. Marines launched a dawn raid Monday on the town of Shatra, north of An Nasiriyah, aiming to kill senior Iraqi officials they believe are directing guerrilla attacks. Among the targets was Ali Hassan al-Majeed, or “Chemical Ali,” the cousin whom President Saddam Hussein has put in charge of the southern front.
THE MARINES were storming the town, about 20 miles north of the city of An Nasiriyah, with warplanes dropping precision-guided bombs, helicopter gunships and tanks. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
We've got the Iraqis pinned down such that we get to decide where and when we attack various pockets of resistence and/or leadership targets.
This is way past the point of no return for Hussein's forces, although we need not rush the end game for them.
How about it! I thought he was "Charcoal Ali" after the opening airstrikes.
I read that and asked, we're dropping helicopter gunships and tanks? Yup, that's what it says. I'll bet a falling tank is a real bunker buster. Drop one of them babies from about 35,000 feet and ka-blooie!
The Pentagon has never said it was 100 % certain it got anyone on March 19.
Those who know, don't talk, those who talk, don't know. We can never say we actually got someone- unoles we capture them alive, because then we would be discredited if there turned out to be a double, or some tape that could be played to imply we're wrong. All the enemy need do is produce a double and then, beginning with Reuters, virtually every news outlet on earth would unquestioningly believe the double was real if Iraq said he was. In our press, if Saddam says one thing, and the Pentagon says another - this means the Pentagon must be lying.
So I expect we will all be up in the air until this is all over.
Note the Marines retreated some 25-15 miles to attack Shatra. They abandoned their positions further north.
Do us a favor and put a bullet in "Mrs. Anthrax" of Saddam's inner circle while you are at it.
According to the Russian language site of "al Jazeera" (www.aljazeera.ru), they claim just now that "Chemical Ali", the feared cousin of Saddam Hussein, was killed this morning in Ashtent (Shatra?) north of an-Nasiriyah. Here is the flash news dispatch, below.
We would need a Freeper with good Russian skills to go to the original Russian at www.aljazeera.ru to check it. Also, it could be disinformation, saying he is killed in order to create confusion. But the twitch in my left foot tells me that the US Marines got this key Iraqi commander this a.m., and other one in charge of the Southern Front, today. Let's see:
Babelfish Translation:
"31.03.2003/ Americans do attack An-nasirih; Cousin of Hussein The today early in the morning marines OF THE USA attacked the village of ASh-tent, arranged/located to the north from An-Nasiriyah.As a result of the assault two members of the command of the armed forces of Iraq in the region were killed. General Ali Khasan al-Madjid - cousin of Saddam Hussein, heroically perished, and one of the commanders-in-chief by forces at the southern front. The officers OF THE USA, which led assault, stated that information about the presence in ASh-tent of Iraqi command they obtained from the representatives of oppositional To Saddam of motions. (I take it they mean forces learned the whereabouts due to anti-Saddam forces' intelligence). Attack was achieved with the support of bombers, helicopters, tanks and artillery. As Reuters correspondent, who accompanies the American armed forces, reported, the aircraft OF THE USA with the high accuracy accomplished the bombardment 4- X of targets/purposes in the ASh-tent. Only after this troops entered into the village. At the same time, the central command of coalition troops on the base ace -Se1li4 in catarrh declared today about the detection in An-nasirii adaptations for the protection from the chemical weaponry. British soldier found in the house, where Iraqi soldiers dwelt. In the official statement of general staff of coalition forces to be indicated that were discovered more than 300 special suits, which shield from the chemical weaponry, are more than 300 balloons with the poison gas, packings with the atropine and Alininom. In other building British marines revealed/detected, as it is asserted in the statement, 800 projectiles RPG and more than 15 thousand cartridges for the automatic weapons and another type of firearm, 300 mortar and hundreds of artillery shells.It follows from the same document that the Americans killed not less than 100 iraki, but 50 took into custody."
[End of Translation Russsian to English]
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