*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

masked insurgent carries a police flak jacket and rocket propelled grenade launcher after a police station was attacked in Mosul November 11, 2004. Insurgents stole weapons and brazenly roamed the streets of Mosul as Iraq's third largest city appeared to be sliding out of control, residents said.

An Iraqi man views a burning pipeline near the northern refinery town of Baiji November 11, 2004 after it was severed by an explosion. Insurgents took to the streets of the oil center of Baiji in north Iraq on Thursday and clashes broke out with Iraqi security forces, witnesses said. The gunmen stopped cars in several streets, they said. Baiji is home to Iraq's biggest refinery. A pipeline network that includes the Iraq-Turkey export pipeline passes near the Sunni Muslim city.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Tracked down an (I think) accessible source for yet another point from Raed in Baghdad:



'Course that's not Napalm™: That's a Trade Mark.

An Iraqi doctor; the standard 'unimpeachable' source of anti american propaganda in Iraq.

Doctors don't lie, do they?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I see the old yarn about a supposed "slaughterhouse" being found in Falluja is being repackaged and presented alongside this chained hostage story and bears all the hallmarks of another piece of spudcheese propaganda this time from AP.

Great stuff!

Of course it's not true. No one has been beheaded in Iraq. Not even those Nepalese cooks.

 

[nino_savatte]

Of course it's not true. No one has been beheaded in Iraq. Not even those Nepalese cooks.

Aye but the word "slaughterhouse" is a tad sensational - no? Therefore the story itself is dubious.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Aye but the word "slaughterhouse" is a tad sensational - no? Therefore the story itself is dubious.

Houses devoted to the despatching of hostages. I think 'slaughterhouse' is apropos.

 

[nino_savatte]

Houses devoted to the despatching of hostages. I think 'slaughterhouse' is apropos.

Your evidence please?

Edited to add: this is the wrong thread for this sort of thing btw.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Your evidence please?

Edited to add: this is the wrong thread for this sort of thing btw.

You're right, so I won't respond, out of respect for the thread.

 

[bigfish]

Of course it's not true. No one has been beheaded in Iraq. Not even those Nepalese cooks.

Only one Nepalese was beheaded the rest were shot in the back of the head, just like the puppet prime minister Allawi shot seven men in the back of the head in a Baghdad police station in June.

I suppose the next thing that we'll be getting from those intrepid "in bed with" stenographers scribbling away for the major media will be... wait for it, the AL ZARQAWI link to the "slaughterhouse". That's the justification for the assault you see, to "liberate" Fallujer of "foreign Arab fanatics" for the seething mass of its genuine America loving inhabitants.

Zarqawi of course will have slipped effortlessly through the American ring of steel cocking a snoop at the Blackwatch as he glided past and no doubt will be back chopping off the heads of people again quicker than you can say God is Great!

How does he do that Johnny... has he got an all areas pass do you think?

 

[bigfish]

Satan hides in a hospital

This is a must read

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK11Ak03.html

The assault, dubbed Operation Phantom Fury, perversely started on Laylat e-Qadr, the most important and holy night of the year for the Islamic world.

In terms of the information war, the hospital was indeed the most strategic of targets. During the first siege of Fallujah in April, doctors told independent media the real story about the suffering of civilian victims. So this time the Pentagon took no chances: no gory, disturbing photos of the elderly, women and children - the thousands unable to leave Fallujah in advance of this week's offensive, the civilian victims of the relentless bombing.

But this did not prevent the world from seeing doctors and patients at the hospital handcuffed to the floor - as if they were terrorists. Hospital director Dr Salih al-Issawi told Agence France-Presse that the Americans blocked him and other doctors from going to the center of Fallujah to help another clinic in distress; he also said an ambulance that tried to leave the hospital was shot at by the Americans - just like in April, when all ambulances were targeted. The Geneva Convention is explicit: in a war situation, hospitals and ambulances are neutral.

The Pentagon does not do "collateral damage" body counts. But as its relationship with the people of Fallujah now consists of a non-stop barrage of heavy metal, the Pentagon is certainly in a much better position than Fallujah's doctors to estimate the amount of civilian victims of its own bombing.

The marines are not only occupying a hospital; they even turned it into a military position, as they were using positions around it to attack the resistance.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Odd how all the US reports say the insurgents are trapped in the south of the city, yet Ive read so many articles saying fighting is breaking out all across Fallujah. Double think by the truck load.

The US are now carrying out airstrikes on Mosul - my guess is that they simply dont have the troops and this is their only way of trying to 'gain control'.


Fallujah battle erupts, clashes in Baghdad Reuters report

FALLUJAH - A battle erupted near a mosque in northwest Fallujah on Friday just hours after US Marines said insurgents were now trapped in the south of the city.Insurgents determined to show they are undeterred by the four-day-old offensive in Iraq’s most rebellious city have hit back hard with attacks and bombings elsewhere, causing two days of bloody chaos in the northern city of Mosul.

US Captain Angela Bowman described Mosul as calm overnight, with its three million residents under a dusk-to-dawn curfew, after Thursday’s attacks on nine police stations.

An American soldier was killed in the Mosul fighting, the military said, and Bowman said US planes staged air strikes on Thursday as US and Iraqi forces sought to restore order.

“Iraqi National Guard and multinational forces are restoring security to those areas of the city where terrorists are attacking from, primarily in the southwestern area,” she said.

Machinegun fire and grenade blasts echoed across northern Baghdad’s Sunni Muslim Adhamiya district as insurgents fought Iraqi national guards, witnesses said.

Heavy clashes resumed in Fallujah’s northwestern Jolan district, where resistance had dwindled in the previous 24 hours, a Reuters correspondent with Marines in the area said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi Government Fires Police Chiefs

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Police chiefs in two major Iraqi cities were fired Friday amid a spike in insurgent activity as U.S. and Iraqi government forces press their attacks against rebel holdouts in Fallujah, officials said. Mosul police chief Brig. Gen. Mohammed Kheiri Barhawi was fired after rebels launched widespread attacks Thursday in Iraq's third-largest city, according to deputy Gov. Khissrou Gouran.

The police chief in Samarra, Taleb Shamel, told The Associated Press that he, too, was fired. There was no confirmation from the Iraqi government in Baghdad on the moves because offices were closed Friday, the Muslim day of rest and worship. Shamel said no reason was given, but the city has been the scene of clashes between insurgents and U.S. troops since they regained control of Samarra from guerrillas in September.

Clashes erupted about 3 p.m. Friday in Samarra, and hospital officials said one Iraqi was killed and three others were wounded. The United States hopes to deploy enough trained Iraqi police and National Guard troops so they can assume more security duties from the Americans, enabling Washington to consider drawing down the 142,000-strong U.S. troop presence. However, the performance of Iraqi forces - especially the police - has been uneven, and U.S. officials acknowledge privately that training has been ineffective.

In Mosul, Barhawi was replaced by Brig. Gen. Adel Fatouhi, the official said. The move followed allegations by local officials that police abandoned their positions and in some cases cooperated with insurgents during Thursday's attacks. Masked insurgents stormed at least five police stations, political offices and other targets in Mosul, clashing with U.S. troops for several hours, in a possible move to open a second front to relieve pressure on Fallujah, the target of a massive U.S. offensive.

Four brigades from the Iraqi National Guard have been ordered to Mosul from their bases near Syria, Gouran said. The units consist of Kurds who used to be in the Kurdish peshmerga militia before being incorporated into the government's security force.

 

[Barking_Mad]

From the 8th to the 11th Nov. the US has confirmed at least 30 troops killed in action.

http://icasualties.org/oif/prdDetails.aspx?hndRef=11-2004

 

[Barking_Mad]

Some of the US dead. Look how young these guys are - what a waste of life

11/12/04 DoD Identifies Marine Casualties
Lance Cpl. Justin D. Reppuhn, 20, of Hemlock, Mich., died Nov. 11 as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province

11/12/04 DoD Identifies Marine Casualties
Staff Sgt. Gene Ramirez, 28, of San Antonio, Texas, died Nov. 10 as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province

11/12/04 DoD Identifies Marine Casualties
Lance Cpl. Aaron C. Pickering, 20, of Marion, Ill., died Nov. 10 as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province

11/12/04 DoD Identifies Marine Casualties
Lance Cpl. Erick J. Hodges, 21, of Bay Point, Calif., died Nov. 10 as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province

11/12/04 DoD Identifies Marine Casualties
1st Lt. Dan T. Malcom Jr., 25, of Brinson, Ga., died Nov. 10 as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province

11/12/04 DoD Identifies Marine Casualties
Sgt. David M. Caruso, 25, of Naperville, Ill., died Nov. 9 as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bit of a must read this - gives a scary insight onto what it must be like in Fallujah for those involved....

Troops in Falluja encounter a labyrinth of surprises

FALLUJA, Iraq The stars began to glimmer through a wan yellow-gray sunset over Falluja. The floury dust in the air and a skyline of broken minarets and smashed buildings combined for the only genuine postcard image this city has to offer for now. Sitting on a third-story roof on Thursday, Staff Sergeant Eric Brown, his lip bleeding, peered through the scope of his rifle into the haze. Moments before, a lone bullet had whizzed past his face and smashed a window behind him. "God, I hate this place, the way the sun sets," Brown said. "I wish I could see down the street," said Sergeant Sam Williams.

But these marines did see a black flag pop up all at once above a water tower about 100 meters, or 330 feet, away, then a second flag somewhere in the gloaming above a rooftop. And the shots began, in a wave this time, as men bobbed and weaved through alleyways and sprinted across the street. "He's in the road, he's in the road, shoot him!" Brown shouted. "Black shirt!" someone else yelled. "Due south!"

The flags are the insurgents' answer to two-way radios, their way of massing the troops and - in a tactic that goes back at least as far as Napoleon - concentrating fire on an enemy. Compared with radio waves, the flags have one distinct advantage: they are terrifying.

The insurgents are coordinating their attacks at a time when they have nowhere left to run. American forces have pushed south of Highway 10, the boulevard that runs east to west and approximately bisects Falluja. American intelligence officers believe that many of the insurgents have retreated as far as the Shuhada, a relatively modern residential area that is the southernmost neighborhood in Falluja. But beyond Shuhada is only the open desert, patrolled by the U.S. Army. So the insurgents are turning and fighting. And at night, they are setting up deadly ambushes in the moonless pitch blackness of Falluja's labyrinthine streets.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Another chopper down.....

U.S. military: Helicopter shot down north of Baghdad, three crew members wounded

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- A U.S. Army helicopter was shot down Friday north of Baghdad, and its three crew members were wounded, the U.S military said. The UH-60 Black Hawk was hit by anti-aircraft fire in Taji, 12 miles north of the capital, the military said.

Three of the four crew members were injured in the attack, but are expected to recover, the U.S. military said. The crew was rescued and the helicopter was recovered. This was the third time a U.S. helicopter was shot down this week. On Thursday, two U.S. Marine helicopters were downed by rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire in separate incidents near Fallujah.

 

[Barking_Mad]

From The Sun - surprisingly. Anyone want to guess at the ramifications of this? Send them all back and you have hundreds of insurgents or dead civilians - let them out and you have safe civilians or insurgents living to fight another day.

Lose lose.

Men sent back to Fallujah

HUNDREDS of men trying to flee the assault on Fallujah have been turned back by US troops, it emerged today. Soldiers have been following orders to allow only women, children and the elderly leave the city and to turn back all males aged 15 to 55.

The military says it has received reports warning that rebels would drop their weapons and mingle with refugees to avoid being killed or captured. It is thought that many of Fallujah’s 200,000 to 300,000 residents fled before the assault.Up to 3,000 fighters were believed to be holed up in the militant stronghold.

 

[bigfish]

I have just witnessed a murder on my TV screen

Matt Hamon -- 11/11/04: "ICH" -- As I sit here and write this I have tears streaming down my face, I am shaking and my heart is pounding. I have just witnessed a murder on my TV screen.*

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1043.htm


A BIG ZEIG HEIL TO ALL YOU US MARINE SS OUT THERE

 

[bigfish]

Iraq aflame over mass killings in Fallujah

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/iraq-n13.shtml

The collective punishment of the people of Fallujah by the Bush administration has entered its sixth day.

What is taking place is not so much a battle as a homicidal rampage by the US military against every Iraqi male trapped inside the city. Since the assault began on Sunday, Fallujah men aged between 15 and 55 have been prevented from leaving. As American bombs and shells rained down, they were left little choice but to fight for their lives against the advancing US troops.

An Iraqi journalist in Fallujah told Associated Press: “The Americans are shooting anything that moves.”

The US forces have carried out a massive and indiscriminate bombardment from the air, making no attempt to avoid casualties among the estimated 100,000 civilians still in Fallujah. The city, a Los Angeles Times reporter wrote, is “a tableau of destroyed buildings, burned-out cars, battered mosques and piles of rubble”.
...
There is every reason to believe that the number of Iraqi dead in Fallujah—when the toll is finally able to be counted—will be in the thousands. Hundreds of fighters and civilians are likely buried beneath collapsed buildings. Embedded journalists have noted the stench of decomposing bodies that hangs over the city. A crime of immense proportions has been perpetrated and it will be neither forgotten nor forgiven.

Abbas Ali, a doctor in the city, told Al Jazeerah on Friday: “I’m one of the few medical cadres that survived last Monday from the massacre. We are in a very tragic situation. Hundreds of dead bodies are spread in the streets. Even the injured are still there. We cannot transfer them. We cannot do anything to save them.


“We call on all organisations and the whole world to help us. The US forces have told us through loudspeakers to get out and raise white flags. But all the city’s areas are under fierce bombing. We don’t know what to do. Stay in our place, which is under bombardment, or get out and get shot?”
...
George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday hailed the atrocity in Fallujah as showing the determination of the US and Britain to “help Iraqis achieve their liberty and to defend the security of the world”.

The reality is that Fallujah is being destroyed precisely because the resistance fighters in the city had demanded liberty—from the US occupation of Iraq. The city’s council refused to recognise the legitimacy of the US-installed puppet interim government headed by CIA asset Iyad Allawi, and had upheld the moral and political right of Iraqis to conduct an armed struggle against the American invasion.

The US military has not been able to produce any credible evidence supporting the months of propaganda—which was consistently denied by Fallujah’s leaders—that hundreds of foreign terrorists, led by Jordanian extremist Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi, were holding the city “hostage”. The people who have fought and died in Fallujah have been overwhelmingly Iraqis defending their homes.
...
Over the next two months, the US military has been ordered to slaughter or drive underground all opposition to the occupation and to Allawi’s regime, and to ensure that the only participants in sham elections planned for late January are pro-US parties and groups. Attacks are being prepared against 21 cities and towns where resistance is widespread.

The assault on Fallujah, however, has inflamed the Sunni regions of central and northern Iraq and is presenting the US occupation with the most serious military challenge since it began. Fighting or increased attacks on occupation troops are being reported in Ramadi, Samarra, Tikrit, Kirkuk, Baquaba and Baghdad, where a US helicopter was shot down overnight.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Rebels running the town of Taji.

Saboteurs set fire to oil pipeline north of Baghdad

TAJI, Iraq There's word that militants have attacked an oil pipeline just north of Baghdad.Witnesses report flames and heavy black smoke rising high into the sky. The pipeline carries crude oil to a refinery in the Iraqi capital.

Five U-S helicopters have been hovering nearby. But no Iraqi security forces or firefighters have been spotted at the scene of the fire.

Witnesses say insurgents have virtually taken control of the town of Taji, which is about 12 miles north of Baghdad. They say militants have been distributing leaflets warning people not to leave their houses or open their shops.

Inside Fallujah

A family came to me last night, asking if I knew anywhere they could get hold of some food. When I mentioned that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had died, they were shocked. "It's a conspiracy," they said. "They have killed him so that his death overshadows our plight in the news."

When people in Falluja feel the world is not interested in their fate, they start asking if the media is doing its job. A father who lost two children in the bombing wanted to know if everything I was reporting was actually being broadcast.

It is a ghost town. In between the fighting, there are periods of absolute, eerie silence. Many of the people have fled. The streets are empty, as are a lot of houses. For those that are still here, the vacant houses left behind by the refugees can themselves become a refuge - a place to go when their own neighbourhoods are under bombardment.

I have lost track of the days of the week. I barely realised when Friday came and went. Of course, there was no question of going to the mosque. All the mosques are now targets because they have been used by both sides in this conflict, the fighters and the US forces. [/QUOTE]

 

[Barking_Mad]

And another town getting US airstrikes and that cant get ambulances to its injured. For fucks sake.

US troops target Iraq's Baiji

US helicopters fired missiles at suspected insurgent targets in the northern Iraqi city of Baiji today, witnesses said. US forces backed by tanks moved into the centre of the Sunni city, site of Iraq’s biggest oil refinery, after clashing with insurgents who have stepped up their operations in several towns and cities in Iraq’s Sunni Muslim region.

Baiji is about 200km north of Baghdad. Ahmad Mar-Hassan, an emergency doctor at the city’s hospital, said seven people were injured in the fighting. “The helicopters hit several houses but the Americans have blocked the roads and ambulances cannot reach them,” he said. Witnesses said dozens of shops had been damaged in the fighting, which later subsided as US forces took control of the main streets in the city.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US use bunker busing bombs in Fallujah

'Bunker busters' pound Falluja

FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. forces dropped bunker-busting bombs overnight on an underground insurgent complex in Falluja, military officials said Sunday, as the American death toll rose to 31.

U.S. Marine Lt. Gen. John Sattler announced the new casualty figures, and said six Iraqi forces had also been killed in the assault since the operation began on Monday. Between 1,000 and 2,000 insurgents also have been killed, Sattler said, and coalition wounded number in the "high 200s."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Insurgents 'patrolling Iraq city'

Iraqi rebels are patrolling parts of Mosul following an upsurge of violence in the northern city, eyewitnesses say. "They are guarding hospitals, schools and fire stations," one resident told Reuters news agency. Other reports say gunmen are holding the governor's office and other key buildings - but US-led forces insist they still control the city.

The Baghdad government sent reinforcements to Mosul after police stations there were overrun by rebels. And the US army is reported to have diverted 500 soldiers from the fighting in Falluja and sent them to Mosul. Brig Gen Carter Ham, commander of American forces in Mosul, said US forces had expected "some reaction" in the city in response to the US-led assault on Falluja.

But he told US news network CNN he doubted the militants had come to the northern city having escaped from Falluja. Most "were from the northern part of Iraq, in and around Mosul and the Tigris river valley that's south of the city," he said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

In the last 5 days 51 US troops have been confirmed as dying in Iraq.

 

[Barking_Mad]

List of oil pipelines that have been attacked since the invasion

http://www.iags.org/iraqpipelinewatch.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

38 US soldiers killed in Fallujah operation

BAGHDAD, Nov. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- The US military said Sunday 38 ofits soldiers have been killed and 275 others wounded in the week-long battle to retake the restive Iraqi city of Fallujah. Some 1,200 insurgents have been killed in the offensive against Fallujah since it began on Nov. 7, the military said, adding 450 to 550 were captured.

The US forces claimed that most parts of the city have been "liberated," though there were pockets of fierce resistance.Fallujah, 50 km west of Baghdad, lies in the Sunni Muslimheartland in central Iraq. The US military and the interim Iraqi government vowed to retakethe key rebel stronghold to pave way for the general elections slated for January.

Falluja rebels 'make last stand'

The Iraqi Red Crescent reports that civilians are hiding in their houses, without drinking water and running low on food. "Our situation is very difficult," one resident in the centre of the city, Abu Mustafa, told Reuters news agency by telephone. "We don't have food or water. My seven children all have severe diarrhoea. One of my sons was wounded by shrapnel last night and he's bleeding, but I can't do anything to help him." The US-led assault on Falluja is aimed at stabilising the country before planned elections in January.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US-Iraqi forces battle insurgents in Mosul to retake control

BAGHDAD, Nov. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- US-Iraqi troops are locked in battles with insurgents in the northern Iraq city of Mosul Sunday,reports reaching here said. The battle was aimed at wresting back control of a police station, which was taken by rebels earlier Sunday.The clashes were mainly centered on the city center with both sides exchanging fire, witnesses said.

Parts of Mosul, the third largest city in Iraq, were now virtually in rebels' hand after insurgents stormed and took control of several police stations last week. After that, the police chief of the city, some 400 km north of Baghdad, was sacked and reinforcement of the Iraqi National Guard was dispatched.

However, the US military in the city said despite the police station attack, order and security have been restored.Violence in the north coincided with a full-scale military assault spearheaded by US-Iraqi forces in Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim flashpoint city some 50 km west of Baghdad. The campaign, designed to retake the rebel-held city to pacify security situations before a January election, was declared over Sunday.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US troops suffer post-action trauma

Los Angeles, Nov 14 - One in six American soldiers returning from Iraq is suffering from psychological trauma, and the problem is likely to get worse as more troops return from longer tours, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

A study by a US Army Research Institute found that 15.6 percent of marines and 17.1 percent of soldiers surveyed after they returned from Iraq suffered major depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, the Times said.

The disorder, formally identified by the American Psychiatric Association in 1985, is a debilitating change in the brain's chemistry that can include sleep disorders, panic attacks, violent outbursts, and acute anxiety, among other symptoms.

More than 30 percent of US veterans of the Vietnam war were afflicted, plunging tens of thousands into homelessness, addiction, crime and despair. Mental health experts said the psychological fallout of the Iraq war was likely to worsen.

"The bad news is that the study underestimated the prevalence of what we are going to see down the road," said Matthew Friedman, executive director of the national center for post traumatic stress disorder at the US veterans administration.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Murder...

People in Falloojeh are being murdered. The stories coming back are horrifying. People being shot in cold blood in the streets and being buried under tons of concrete and iron... where is the world? Bury Arafat and hurry up and pay attention to what's happening in Iraq.

They say the people have nothing to eat. No produce is going into the city and the water has been cut off for days and days. Do you know what it's like to have no clean water??? People are drinking contaminated water and coming down with diarrhoea and other diseases. There are corpses in the street because no one can risk leaving their home to bury people. Families are burying children and parents in the gardens of their homes. WHERE IS EVERYONE???

Furthermore, where is Sistani? Why isn't he saying anything about the situation? When the South was being attacked, Sunni clerics everywhere decried the attacks. Where is Sistani now, when people are looking to him for some reaction? The silence is deafening.

We're not leaving the house lately. There was a total of 8 hours of electricity today and we've been using the generator sparingly because there is a mysterious fuel shortage... several explosions were heard in different places.

Things are deteriorating swiftly.

More on Falloojeh crisis here:

Aid agencies say Falluja "big disaster"...

Eyewitness: Smoke and Corpses...

Iraqis will never forgive this- never. It's outrageous- it's genocide and America, with the help and support of Allawi, is responsible. May whoever contributes to this see the sorrow, terror and misery of the people suffering in Falloojeh.

 

[Barking_Mad]

One of Those Weeks...

These last few days have been explosive- literally.

The sounds seem to be coming from everywhere. I've gotten tired of running upstairs and out on to the roof to find out where it's coming from. It feels like the first days of the war sometimes- planes, explosions, bullets, smoke... roads cut off.

We haven't attempted to leave the house but an uncle who was supposed to visit called to say he wouldn't be able to come because so many roads were blocked. Many people were told not to go to work and students stopped going to college yesterday. It's one of those weeks. Some areas in Baghdad seem to be cut off by armed gangs.

Eid is in a couple of days and that means there's Eid cleaning to do. The water was cut off all day today and the electricity was gone too. This seems to be happening all over Baghdad- we heard about the same situation in several areas. Can someone say 'collective punishment'?! WE didn't kidnap your relatives Allawi... it was Zarqawi, remember?!

Falloojeh is still being destroyed and the stories we hear are mixed. It's difficult to tell what's true and what isn't. All we know is that there are dozens of civilians being killed. They also say 18 Americans have died and over a hundred are wounded.

Mosul is also a mess. They are saying there isn't a tank or patrol car in sight in that city.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Attacks Spread

A gunbattle erupted Sunday between militants and U.S. troops in the main market in the northern town of Beiji, killing at least six people and wounding 20 others, according to witnesses.

The clash followed an attack in Beiji against American soldiers, who responded with tank rounds and Hellfire missiles, the U.S. military said.

A dozen explosions rocked an American base in the western part of Ramadi, about 30 miles west of Fallujah, after insurgents fired missiles. Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke billowing from the base.

One U.S. soldier was injured when a suicide bomber blew up his car near a U.S. convoy traveling between Balad and Tikrit, the military said. A Bradley fighting vehicle was damaged by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, injuring one soldier, the military said.

One Marine and an Iraqi soldier were hurt when five mortar shells struck a checkpoint outside Fallujah.