[Face Ache]

Heavy casualties in attack on US convoy





US forces took heavy casualties in a series of attacks on an American convoy in the town of Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad, witnesses said.

According to an unconfirmed report by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, eight American soldiers were killed.

The witnesses said a bomb exploded under a vehicle that caught fire with about 10 US soldiers inside. The rest of the convoy was pelted with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) as it struggled to make its way to a nearby US base.

Local resident Mahmud Ali, 45, said he saw eight badly burned soldiers taken from the bombed vehicle, while Yussif Ali, 40, no relation, said he saw four. But there was no official confirmation of any deaths.

A deafening explosion was heard from the US base outside the town, where large stocks of munitions are stored. But there was no immediate word on the cause or the consequences.

Two Iraqi civilians were reported hurt in the attacks, witnesses said. But there was no word on how they were wounded.

The US military in Baghdad said it had no immediate report of the incident, which came amid a spate of attacks on US forces a day after a purported audiotaped message from Saddam Hussein exhorted Iraqis to continued resistance.

It also came with tensions high in the region, with US troops shooting dead a teenager late on Wednesday in Fallujah, 30 kilometres to the east, where they mistakenly killed nine Iraqi security men five days earlier.

Mahmud Ali said the convoy was hit while travelling through the town en route from Fallujah to Ramadi, two hotspot Sunni towns west of the capital.

"A bomb exploded under a troop transport. It caught fire. The remainder of the convoy tried to continue and was hit by rocket-propelled grenades 500 metres away," he said.

An American helicopter circled the area, apparently poised to evacuate the wounded but did not land, the witnesses said.

The Americans again cut off the road. Four or five vehicles continued on their way and came under more RPG fire four kilometres away, and another vehicle was set ablaze, said Yussif Ali.

The Americans sealed off the area and called in reinforcements.

In the northern city of Mosul, meanwhile, US troops continued to come under a series of grenade and rocket attacks that began shortly after midnight local time.

The US military confirmed one incident, saying that rockets hit the Civil Military Operations Centre office there late on Wednesday, damaging some vehicles and leaving two people slightly wounded.

A military spokesman also said a soldier of the 4th Infantry Division was wounded on Wednesday by a bomb in the town of Taji, 10 kilometres north of Baghdad. He did not give any details.

But Mosul residents reported a run of attacks that started shortly before midnight and targeted US troops at the entrance to the northern town, in front of a restaurant and at a hotel. They did not mention casualties.

The residents of Mosul, 400 kilometres north-west of Baghdad, said it was the first time they had seen such a spate of closely timed attacks on US forces since the Americans ousted Saddam in April.

They called the assaults a response to Wednesday's audiotape message.

A nine-vehicle US convoy was attacked with grenades and rockets about 11.30am at the southern entrance to Mosul, said local resident Mohammad Yunes, 45. He said US forces quickly sealed off the area and brought in reinforcements.

A short while earlier, attackers hurled a grenade at an American military vehicle stopped in front of a restaurant where some soldiers were eating near Mosul University, said Ibrahim Taqqa, an engineer. He sad US troops quickly surrounded the university.

Attackers using grenades and rocket-propelled grenades targeted a local hotel used by American troops shortly before midnight, staff at the hotel told AFP. They said some rooms were destroyed but provided no further details.

Two Iraqi policemen were found dead, their throats slit, on the sidewalk in front of the local US-supported television station around midnight, according to an employee of the station, Samir Abed Rabbo, 50.

[kvm_mkdb]

US troops fire on American news agency car in Iraq

KHALDIYAH, Iraq, Sept 18 (AFP) - US soldiers fired Thursday on a car belonging to the American news agency Associated Press when its reporters tried to film an ambushed convoy in this town west of Baghdad, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Neither the two reporters nor the driver, all Iraqis, were hurt when the Americans opened fire in the area where witnesses said US forces suffered heavy casualties in a bomb and rocket-propelled grenade attack.

"The Americans opened fire when I took out my camera to film" a military vehicle on fire, said one of the AP journalists, Karim al-Ubeidi.

"The mention of AP was clearly visible on the car but they opened fire nevertheless," he said.

Source: AFP Newswire

[kvm_mkdb]

Local Iraqis take joy in attack on US convoy

KHALDIYAH, Iraq, Sept 18 (AFP) - Cries of triumph and allegiance to Saddam Hussein mixed with the joyous honking of car horns for weddings here Thursday as locals celebrated the ambush of a US convoy on the "highway of death."

About 200 demonstrators gathered at the site where the Americans reportedly took heavy casualties. They brandished bits of US vehicles, hoisted portraits of Saddam and pledged to die for the US-ousted leader.

"With our blood, with our soul, we will sacrifice for you O Saddam," they chanted once the US tanks cleared out from this town 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Baghdad. Others wailed, "Saddam is the glory of my country."

With traditional Thursday evening wedding corteges trying to snake through the crowd, residents here recounted the attack on the convoy, giving it epic dimensions in the telling.

"The mujahedeen were lying in wait for hours," said a man in a red keffiyeh (headdress) who lives near the road. "They had video cameras. I saw them near the mosque. When they attacked they filmed the operation."

The man surveyed the blue dome of the mosque, situated on a slope in the road where the ambusher staked out their prey.

"They attacked the first convoy that passed. The Americans will be attacked and killed all along the road between Ramadi and Fallujah. It's the highway of death," exulted the man, who refused to give his name.

Around him echoed shouts of glee from the crowd that barely drowned out the horns of cars packed with smiling men, abundantly made up women and young girls from the numerous marriage parties.

"We struck them here, there and there," said Adel Faidawi, 22, dressed in greasy, torn overalls and pointing his finger at where the US vehicles were caught by the ambush.

A witness said the attack was launched by a bomb that exploded under a transport vehicle which caught fire. The rest of the convoy was hit with rocket-propelled grenades as it tried to limp back to base in nearby Ramadi.

Residents said they saw several badly burned soldiers pulled out of a flaming vehicle, but the US military would not confirm heavy casualties and said only that two soldiers were wounded in an attack near Ramadi.

The Americans said they had no knowledge of a deadly ambush in Khaldiyah, but the dozens of shell casings on the side of the road along with burning remains of tires testified to a fierce clash.

Ali Khaled Ismail al-Azzawi, a local tribal chief clad in Bedouin robes, said that the Americans were lying when they say the problems in Iraq were confined to a "Sunni triangle" west and north of Baghdad.

"All Iraqis are united in the jihad (holy war), whether they be Kurds, Arabs, Sunnis or Shiites," he said.

"We don't need America, we did not ask for their help," Azzawi said. "We pulled off the revolution in 1920 against the British."

One of his relatives, Yasser Khodayyir al-Azzawi, 45, came with him to get a first-hand look at the US setback. He thinks the Americans are simply reaping the whirlwind they have sown.

"It gives me great cause for joy because we are fighting an occupying power that has come with false promises and brought chaos to the country," he said.

Yasser Khodayyir recalled bitterly how the Americans dropped leaflets from the sky during the war promising the Iraqis a better life once they got rid of Saddam.

"All that was lies," he hissed. But asked if he missed the old regime, he became quiet and slightly embarrassed.

"We want progress but things were better in the days of Saddam," he said. "At least there was order and security."

Source: AFP Newswire

[eklipse]

At least the Iraqis are dancing in the streets.......

[Face Ache]

Originally posted by eklipse:
At least the Iraqis are dancing in the streets.......

US Tactical Choreography Team undergoing training.

[Spliffdaddy]

Just goes to show that some Iraqis aren't very bright.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
Just goes to show that some Iraqis aren't very bright.

While this may be true, this realization doesn't exactly improve the situation any, does it?

I mean, the realization that it's *stupid* people doing the killing doesn't make people less dead, right?

-s*