*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi police killed in ambush

INSURGENTS attacked an Iraqi police convoy travelling from the southern city of Basra to Baghdad today killing at least four police officers, police sources said. The police were ambushed near the town of Salman Pak, about 30 kms southeast of Baghdad, and between four and 10 of them were killed, a senior source said. A bus they were travelling in and two cars marked Basra Police were destroyed, he said.

Iraq's Interior Ministry and the US military had no immediate information on any attack. But Basra police confirmed that what they called a Tactical Support Unit had been ambushed south of Baghdad, although no officers from the Basra force itself were involved. The area around Salman Pak, site of a nuclear power plant and ammunition factories during Saddam Hussein's regime, has been a focal point of guerrilla activity over the past year.

Towns to the west of Salman Pak, including Mahmudiya and Iskandariya, form part of what has been dubbed the "triangle of death", where attacks by insurgents and bandits are routine. Iraq's police force is frequently targeted by insurgents, particularly when lightly armed units are being moved from one part of the country to another or are returning from training.

Guerrillas attempted to overrun a police station near the town of Mahmudiya earlier this week, but were repelled by Iraqi National Guards, backed by police. But insurgents have had more success in other parts of the country, attacking police stations in Baghdad and Mosul in recent weeks and overrunning them and looting them of weapons.

In Mosul, three-quarters of the police force have deserted.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Developments in Iraq

In Baghdad's Sadr City, gunmen shot to death Mousa Jabar, a commander in the al-Mahdi army of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Gunmen in the northern city of Mosul killed Dr. Sinan Salem Salo, a provincial council member. U.S. troops discovered eight more bodies in Mosul, bringing the number of bodies found there since Nov. 10 to more than 150, the U.S. military said. Security forces, police and government officials are frequent targets of the insurgents, who accuse them of collaborating with the Americans.

Assailants set a fire near an oil pipeline in northern Iraq, 45 miles southwest of Kirkuk.

Well done, guys what a fuck up you made - here have an honour each...........Jesus, what a fucking joke.

President Bush awarded the nation's highest civilian honor to three men central to his Iraq policy, saying they played ''pivotal roles in great events.'' Those honored were retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who oversaw combat in Afghanistan and the initial invasion of Iraq, former CIA Director George Tenet and former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer.

How did they do this with straight faces?

 

[Barking_Mad]

........

Eight more bodies found in Mosul, 150 since Nov.
U.S. troops discovered eight more bodies in the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul, bringing the number of bodies found there since Nov. 10 to more than 150, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

Senior Zarqawi Aide Killed by Iraqi Police - PM
A senior aide to Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed by Iraqi security forces, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Tuesday.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Al-Sadr wants US withdrawal guarantee

An influential Iraqi Shia Muslim leader has tied his participation in the country's 30 January elections to the departure of foreign forces, dominated by more than 140,000 US troops. Issuing the statement in Najaf on Tuesday, Muqtada al-Sadr said he was asking other religious leaders to push for a guarantee of immediate departure of foreign "occupation" troops after the elections. "Otherwise, our participation [in the elections] will be unlikely," the statement added. No member of al-Sadr's movement, which earlier was in direct conflict with US troops, features on the main Shia list submitted for candidate registration.

But up to 70 other political parties – most of whom have similarly threatened to boycott elections at various times - have registered, according to Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission on Tuesday.

 

[Barking_Mad]

New Iraq Mass Grave May Contain 500 Bodies - PM

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Labourers digging on a construction site in northern Iraq uncovered human skulls and bones on Tuesday, which interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said were part of a mass grave believed to contain some 500 bodies.

Allawi told Iraq's National Council in Baghdad that the grave was found near the city of Sulaimaniya in the autonomous Kurdish region in the northeast of the country, where Saddam Hussein's forces carried out atrocities in the late 1980s.

"Today a mass grave was discovered in the city of Sulaimaniya, with the initial number of 500 martyrs," he said.

Allawi gave no further details but residents living nearby said workers found the remains while preparing the ground for a new hospital near a highway in Debashan, north of Sulaimaniya. Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights has sealed off the site, where its staff are working. The driver of a mechanical digger told Kurdish television about 900 bodies might be in the grave but it was too early to know how many were buried there. Evidence gathered from mass graves is expected to form a central part of the trials of the former president and his top deputies, accused of war crimes and other crimes against humanity during their decades in power.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US Army plagued by desertion and plunging morale

The bleed from the US military is heaviest among parttimers, who have been dragged en masse out of civilian life to serve their country with unprecedented sacrifice. For the first time in a decade, the Army National Guard missed its recruitment target this year. Instead of signing up 56,000 people, it found 51,000.

“This is something that the President and the country should be worried about,” said Lawrence Korb, an assistant secretary of defence under Ronald Reagan and now a military analyst who opposes the war. A further sign of strain can be seen in the Army’s decision this year to mobilise 5,600 members of a pool of former soldiers that can be mobilised only in a national emergency.

 

[jwexford]

Gunmen Attempt to Take Mosul Police Posts, Repelled

Gunmen Attempt to Take Mosul Police Posts, Repelled

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters)Wed Dec 15, 2004 - Insurgents attempted to overrun two police stations in the northern city of Mosul but were repelled by Iraqi police and National Guards, the U.S. military said Wednesday.


Tuesday's attack came little more than a month after gunmen stormed a dozen police stations in the city and looted, burned or blew them up in a coordinated set of attacks. Around 80 percent of Mosul's police fled in the face of those attacks.


In Tuesday's assault, men with rifles and pistols attacked two stations, one in the east of the city the other in the west, in what appeared a coordinated effort, the U.S. military said.


"The Iraqi police and soldiers from the Iraqi National Guard successfully repelled the attacks preventing a reoccurrence of the events of Nov. 10 when many police stations were abandoned and later looted," a U.S. statement said.


"This is the third and fourth time since Nov. 10 where insurgents have tried but failed to take police stations proving that the Iraqi security forces are growing stronger each day."


Despite the successes, Mosul, Iraq (news - web sites)'s third largest city, essentially remains without a working police force, a factor Major General Carter Ham, the commander of U.S. forces in the area, has said could compromise security for Jan. 30 elections.


Mosul has seen a surge in violence since U.S. forces launched an assault on the rebel holdout of Falluja early last month. U.S. commanders have said they believe many senior insurgent leaders fled Falluja for Mosul before that offensive.


In separate operations Tuesday, U.S. forces detained 10 suspected insurgents in southeast Mosul and the nearby town of Tal Afar, a hotbed of rebellion close to the Syrian border.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Gunmen over run Iraqi police station in Samarra

Dec 15, 2004 — SAMARRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen overran a police station in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra on Wednesday and seized weapons and ammunition, witnesses said. Ten weeks after U.S. forces mounted a major operation to wrest the city from Sunni insurgents, about 10 gunmen surrounded the central Imam Hadi station, held up the officers and took their rifles, said a policeman who was among those robbed.

The gunmen left the scene without firing a shot, he said. Samarra remains a center for anti-American rebels and clashes have been frequent in recent weeks.

 

[jwexford]

Italian taken hostage in Iraq:

Dec 15, 2004 An Italian national working for a British non-governmental organisation has been taken hostage in Iraq, the Italian news agency ANSA reported, quoting Italian intelligence sources.

The news agency identified the hostage as Salvatore Santoro, 52, from the Campania region near Naples, without providing details of the kidnapping.

ANSA quoted intelligence sources as saying a previously unknown group had claimed the kidnapping in a statement published on an Arabic-language website.

The Italian foreign ministry was unable to confirm the kidnapping but was following developments closely.

The ministry has established crisis cell to "establish the authenticity of a statement claiming the kidnapping in Iraq of an Italian national working for a British NGO," said a ministry official, Elisabeta Belloni.

"For now we have no confirmation," she said.

Seven Italians have been taken hostage in Iraq since the beginning of the year. Two, including journalist Enzo Baldoni and a businessman of Iraqi origin, have been killed.

 

[Barking_Mad]

.....

Six found murdered in Iraq
"Six bodies, three men and three women, were found at around 3pm (11pm AEDT) in Mazraa," outside of Latifiyah, 40km from the capital, one witness told AFP. "All had been shot in the head, and the women also had their throats slashed,"

National Guard And Reserve Mobilized as of December 15, 2004
The Army, Air Force and Navy announced an increase in the number of reservists on active duty, while the Marines had a decrease and the Coast Guard number remained the same. The net collective result is 713 more reservists mobilized than last week.

Bomb kills seven at Iraqi mosque
A bomb exploded at the gate to one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines on Wednesday, killing seven people and wounding 31 others. Among the wounded was believed to be Shaikh Abd al-Mahdi Karbalai, the local representative of al-Sistani

Southern Iraq's oil exports down almost a third
Crude oil exports from southern Iraq have fallen by almost a third to around 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) from the normal 1.8 million bpd because of a technical fault, an industry source said Wednesday.

Bomb Near Shi'ite Shrine Kills Four in Iraq
A bomb exploded near the offices of a senior Shi'ite cleric in the Iraqi holy city of Kerbala on Wednesday, killing four people and wounding 16, witnesses and doctors said.[/B]

 

[Barking_Mad]

Wexford, any chance you can put links in with the articles?

Cheers.

 

[jwexford]

Wexford, any chance you can put links in with the articles?

Cheers.

I will in future

 

[Barking_Mad]

....

Death toll rises in Karbala bombing
Ten people were killed and 40 wounded when a powerful bomb exploded near one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Iraq, according to the latest toll from hospital officials.

Rebel Strikes Across Baghdad Kills Five
Rebel strikes across Baghdad killed five people on Thursday — including three paramilitary policemen and a government official — as insurgents continued their efforts to derail Iraq's upcoming general election.

Powerful blast rocks Baghdad
A powerful blast shook areas of central Baghdad on Thursday and smoke could be seen rising from a southwestern area of the city, witnesses said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Worth the read this one.

The pattern of discontent in US ranks

"What is driving the resistance is the same thing that drove it during Vietnam - a lack of trust in the civilian leadership and a sense that the uniformed leaders are not standing up for the forces," says retired Army Col. Dan Smith, a military analyst with the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington. Colonel Smith doesn't expect the kind of "fragging" incidents that occurred in Vietnam where soldiers attacked their own officers. "This force is too professional," he says. "But the lack of trust and the inequity of the tours will very likely be reflected in the numbers of Guard and reservists who vote no-confidence with their feet."

That already appears to be happening. The Army National Guard is short 5,000 new citizen-soldiers. "Although generally successful in overall mission numbers, we continue to experience difficulty in attracting and retaining qualified individuals in certain critical wartime specialties," Army Reserve chief Lt. Gen. James Helmly told the House Armed Services Committee earlier this year. The number of officers wanting to resign from the Army Reserve has jumped as well. And according to a recent report on CBS's "60 Minutes," the Defense Department acknowledges that more than 5,500 service personnel have deserted since the Iraq war began.

It's the first large-scale 21st-century conflict against an aggressive insurgency, causing thousands of US casualties; the first war in more than a generation in which homeland security and the threat of domestic terror attack seem so real; the first "semi-draft," with the Guard/reserve component approaching 50 percent of combat and combat support troops (and already taking more casualties than they did in Vietnam); and it's the first time in many years that soldiers have been ordered to serve beyond their commitments.

 

[Barking_Mad]

A cool $200bn spent on the war already......doing some maths and taking into account that the US might be there for ten years.......

War funding request may hit $100 billion

The Bush administration plans to ask for between $80 billion and $100 billion to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, rather than the $70 billion to $75 billion the White House privately told members of Congress before the election, according to Pentagon and White House officials.

Administration officials said yesterday they have not concluded how much money they will request in a "supplemental" spending package that is scheduled to go to Congress in January.

"There's work going on inside the department to understand what's needed, and there's work going on with the Office of Management and Budget," the Defense Department's chief spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, told reporters yesterday.

But some analysts and government officials said the request is expected to run as high as $100 billion, bringing the total cost of operations in Iraq alone to well over $200 billion since the March 2003 invasion.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Out of the shadows and into the fray: Ayatollah joins battle for Iraq's soul

A BLACK-ROBED Shia cleric waits patiently in a medieval alleyway, his hour almost come round at last. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has not been seen in public for a decade, refuses to meet his country’s US overlords and figures on no party’s list of candidates. Nevertheless, the grey-bearded recluse stands on the threshold of elections that are likely to allow his people to assume power in Iraq after decades of oppression.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Full credit to Rory MCCarthy for getting interviews like this. There arent many willing to put themselves on the line like this......

For faith and country: insurgents fight on

Abu Mojahed said he spoke for all three groups, whom he called the "Haifa mujahideen". He said his targets were the US military and "those supporting them", and that his men had attacked helicopters, tanks and individual soldiers, although he would not describe specific incidents. Unlike other more secular elements in the insurgency, the Salafis have their own agenda for the future of their country, shaped in a language of anger, revenge and rigid Islamic conservatism.

"We fight for our land, against those who are fighting Islam, for our country and for our women," he said. "Our goal is to fight whoever fights us and not just the Americans. And we want this country ruled by the Tawhid and Sunna," he said. The two words are fundamentals for the Salafis: Tawhid meaning monotheism and Sunna the ways of the Prophet Muhammad. "If that doesn't happen, that means all of us die because we fight until the last breath," he said.

In a second interview, conducted several miles away, a young fighter from a different group spoke of his motivation. He said he fought for his religion. He used a more secular Arabic vocabulary and, typical of many in the insurgency, appeared to have no clear agenda for his country's future. He gave his name as Abu Abdul Rahman, and sat with a red-and-white keffiyeh wrapped so uncomfortably tight around his face that his dark brown eyes were only occasionally visible. "Before the war I was an ordinary person living my life and minding my own business," he said. "After the Americans came and invaded my country there was no war to go to except jihad."

Abu Rahman, 25, had been a student, working occasionally. He said he had not supported Saddam, but had chosen not to fight the regime. "You could say we were hypnotised by it," he said. Like others, he was grateful that the war brought the dictator's fall, but was angered by the American occupation that followed. "Thanks to the Americans for getting rid of Saddam, but no thanks for still staying in Iraq," he said.

"The idea of jihad came step by step as I watched what the Americans were doing to our country," he said. "In the beginning we were only cousins and friends, and later other people came to join us, people who were presented to us by the sheikhs."

.......

Abu Rahman said that although he belonged to a tribe, his motivation was religious, not tribal. He also said some Iraqi police and soldiers should not be touched, and were "serving for the good of their country". Foreign contractors should not be targeted either, he said. In the end, he said, it was the lack of reconstruction and the continued occupation that had left people so embittered.

"We don't want them, thanks. We can rebuild our own country, we have a long and ancient history. All we are asking is for them to pull out."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Better keep an eye on this one.......Thought police visit 11 year old for 'anti-American' statements

When the two plainclothes Loudoun County sheriff's investigators showed up on her Leesburg doorstep, Pamela Albaugh got nervous. But when they told her why they were there, she got angry: A complaint had been filed alleging that her 11-year old son had made "anti-American and violent" statements in school.

She was aware of an incident at Belmont Ridge Middle School in which her son, Yishai Asido, was assigned to write a letter to U.S. Marines and responded, according to his teacher, by saying, "I wish all Americans were dead and that American soldiers should die." Yishai and Albaugh deny that the boy wished his countrymen dead.

They asked how she felt about 9/11 and the military. They asked whether she knows any foreigners who have trouble with American policy. They mentioned a German friend who had been staying with the family and asked whether the friend sympathized with the Taliban. They also inquired whether she might be teaching her children "anti-American values," she said.

Toward the end of the conversation, Albaugh's husband, Alon Asido, arrived home. Asido said the pair then spent another hour talking to him, mostly about his life in Israel and his more than four years in an elite combat unit there.

Before the investigators left, one deputy said their "concerns had been put to rest," Albaugh said.

"It was intimidating," she said. "I told them it's like a George Orwell novel, that it felt like they were the thought police. If someone would have asked me five years ago if this was something my government would do, I would have said never."

 

[jwexford]

'Italian hostage killed' in Iraq

Gunmen in Iraq claim to have shot dead an Italian photographer they had taken hostage, reports say.A blindfolded body - purportedly that of 52-year-old Salvatore Santoro - was shown to a group of Iraqi journalists in the desert near the town of Ramadi. Mr Santoro is believed to have been a resident of the UK. Officials in Rome and London cannot confirm the reports.

Source

 

[Barking_Mad]

Oh dear, desperate times and all that.....

Soldier charged in fake shooting to avoid Iraq

Police have arrested a soldier they say had his cousin shoot him so he wouldn't have to return to Iraq. Army Spc. Marquise J. Roberts, of Hinesville, Ga., suffered a minor wound Tuesday to his left leg from a .22-caliber pistol, police said. He was treated at a hospital, then arrested after he and his cousin allegedly admitted making up a story about the shooting. Police charged Roberts with filing a false report and charged his cousin, Ronald Fuller, with aggravated assault and other charges.

Roberts, who was visiting family in Philadelphia, initially claimed he was shot during an attempted robbery, but Fuller said the incident occurred at another location, according to Philadelphia police Lt. James Clark. Roberts, 23, was on a two-week leave from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which led the assault on Baghdad in 2003. He is scheduled to return to Iraq within the next few months. The division has been home since the summer of 2003.

 

[Barking_Mad]

This is the 21st US soldiers to die this month in Al Anbar.

U.S. Marine Killed in Fighting West of Baghdad

Insurgents killed a U.S. Marine during fighting in the violent Anbar province west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Friday. The attack occurred Thursday while the Marine was conducting "security and stabilization" operations, a statement said, but did not say where exactly the attack took place. Anbar, a vast province covering much of western Iraq, includes the cities of Falluja and Ramadi, which are infiltrated with insurgents and where there has been near constant fighting for the past six weeks.

 

[Barking_Mad]

18 months in and the US troops are in the process or "building a relationship with the local population". Bit late for that isnt it?

US battalion condemned to isolation in Ramadi

By Pierre Celerier - RAMADI, Iraq
The US battalion that has set itself up in the western Iraqi insurgent bastion of Ramadi lives in total isolation thanks to the city's insecurity and the local population's refusal to cooperate. The 1st Battalion, 503rd Regiment is "in the process of building a relationship with the local population", said Captain William Snook, whose responsibilities include media relations.

But the process is taking some time if you think that the army has been in this mainly Sunni Muslim city, a hundred kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad, for more than a year. Since he arrived a week ago, Snook's only contact with city authorities has been with the man in charge of the technical college that serves as the battalion's headquarters.

Yet this city of 400,000 is not lacking in officials, including a mayor who is also governor since his predecessor, Mohammed Awad, fell ill and was reportedly hospitalised in Baghdad. "Since November's assault on Fallujah no local leader has stood up as a go-between," between US forces and the local population, said Lieutenant Colonel Justin Gubler, who commands the battalion and half the city.

The reason is simple: "They are scared. Their fear is that they will help, then we will leave, and then the insurgents will kill them," said Gubler. Lacking partners of any sort, American soldiers try to learn about the influence of tribal and religious authorities in the city as they conduct hundreds of house searches. In this hostile environment, the battalion lives in a kind of fortified bubble, the daily target of somewhat inaccurate mortar fire and victim of random harassment as soon as they leave their compound.

"Everything we use... is brought from the outside, and we burn all our trash," said Snook. Even shower water is brought in, and drinking water comes all the way from Saudi Arabia. Electricity comes from generators. As for using local manpower to look after the base, that seems to be out of the question.

"All I know of is the interpreters," Snook said of locals employed by the US army. In any case, it seems unlikely that local businesses will run the risk of being accused of collaborating with the occupying forces. Even the interpreters, who come from all over the country, wear balaclavas to hide their faces as soon as they have anything to do with the local population. As for Ramadi's police force, they chose to resign en masse rather than have to enforce martial law decreed by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi ahead of the US-led offensive in Fallujah.

"They're also scared," said Gubler.

 

[fishfingerer]

Sad story.

'US soldier killed Iraqi teenager after sex'
18/12/2004 - 20:32:13

A US national guardsman who pleaded guilty to killing a 17-year-old Iraqi soldier said he shot the young man after they had consensual sex in a guard tower, a newspaper reported today, citing court-martial records.

Private Federico Daniel Merida, 21, of the North Carolina National Guard, pleaded guilty to murder without premeditation and other charges during a court-martial in Iraq on September 25.

Merida was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Merida, who was born in Veracruz, Mexico, has a wife and toddler son.

 

[Barking_Mad]

According to Al Jazeerah the US are carrying out air strikes on Fallujah - again.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Fallujah on the 17th December.

Combination handout pictures released on December 17, 2004, (Upper L frame) showing U.S. Marine Platoon Gunnery Sergeant, Ryan P. Shane, from the 1st. Battalion of the 8th. Marine Regiment as he pulls a fatally wounded comrade to safety while under fire during a military operation in the Iraqi western city of Falluja. (Upper R frame) Shane and another member of the 1/8 pulled their fatally wounded comrade under fire. (Lower L frame) Shane (extreme, L) is hit by insurgent fire and (Lower R frame) lies wounded (L).

On the same day this was happening in Fallujah the Iraqi "government" was saying Fallujah was all ready for the refugees' return. The Marines were forced to issue a denial.

Blast at US Mosul base kills 22

Twenty-two people have been killed and at least 50 injured in an attack at a US military base in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the US military says. Unknown assailants fired multiple rocket and mortar rounds, apparently at a dining hall in the base, at around 1200 (0900 GMT).

It is not clear how many US troops were among the casualties. The attack comes amid an upsurge in violence in the run-up to elections planned for 30 January next year. Mosul has experienced a spate of attacks since the middle of November when insurgents overran police stations, looting weapons. The city, which is Iraq's third biggest, 370km (250 miles) north of Baghdad, is mainly Sunni Muslim. There are simmering tensions between Arab and Kurdish communities. There have been almost daily attacks on US and Iraqi forces in the city during the last month. About 80 bodies have been found in and around Mosul since the beginning of December. Many were members of the Iraqi National Guard.

 

[Barking_Mad]

BBC piece on Mosul attack includes these extra bits of info

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4115145.stm

The US military said that earlier in the day Iraqi police repelled an attack by insurgents on a police station in the city centre

And AP news agency reported that hundreds of students have been demonstrating in the city demanding that US troops stop breaking into homes and mosques.

Mosul, Iraq's third biggest city and 370km (250 miles) north of Baghdad, is mainly Sunni Muslim. There are simmering tensions between Arab and Kurdish communities.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Saboteurs hit north Iraq oil pipeline complex

Saboteurs have set a complex of oil pipelines ablaze in northern Iraq but exports on the line had already been halted by a separate attack at the weekend, oil officials and witnesses said on Tuesday.

Gunmen assassinated an Iraqi nuclear scientist

In Baqouba, a city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, unidentified assailants shot dead an Iraqi nuclear scientist as he was on his way to work, witnesses said.

U.S. Warplanes Bomb Rebel Target in Iraq

A U.S. jet bombed a suspected insurgent target in central Iraq on Tuesday.

 

[Barking_Mad]

1000 Iraqi police killed

One thousand policemen have been killed in Iraq since the US-led coalition re-established the war-torn country's security forces, interim Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib was quoted as saying on Tuesday

 

[Barking_Mad]

19 US dead confirmed in rocket attack on US base

Officials confirm 24 fatalities in Tuesday's attack on a U.S. military base near the Iraqi city of Mosul. A military spokesman in Iraq says 19 U.S. soldiers were killed in the attack on a mess tent.

BBC report also says...

Mosul, Iraq's third biggest city, has experienced a spate of attacks since the middle of November, when insurgents overran police stations, looting weapons.

Much of the city centre is off limits to Iraqi security forces and US troops, who have been the target of daily attacks during the last month.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Amid the smoke and screaming, soldiers turned their lunch tables over to be used as stretchers

An explosion in a US Army mess tent at lunchtime in a base near the northern city of Mosul killed at least 26 people and wounded 60 others in one of the most lethal attacks on American forces in Iraq since the invasion. The dead included US troops, American and foreign contractors and Iraqi security troops. The force of the explosion knocked soldiers off their feet and out of their seats. A fireball enveloped the top of the tent, and shrapnel sprayed into the diners. Amid the screaming and thick smoke, soldiers turned their lunch tables upside down, placed the wounded on them and gently carried them into the parking lot. "Medic! Medic!" soldiers shouted. Medics rushed into the tent and hustled the rest of the wounded out on stretchers.

Outside, scores of troops crammed into concrete bomb shelters. Others wobbled around the tent and collapsed, dazed by the blast. "I can't hear! I can't hear!" one female soldier cried as a friend hugged her. Near the front entrance to the canteen, troops tended a soldier with a gaping head wound. Within minutes, they zipped him into a black body bag. Three more bodies were in the parking lot. Soldiers scrambled back into the hall to check for more wounded. The explosion blew out a huge hole in the roof of the tent. Puddles of bright red blood, lunch trays and overturned tables and chairs covered the floor.