Bestlife
Really Really Experienced
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- Dec 16, 2004
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All these bombs going off, seems only Iraqis are dying!
Insurgent Ambush Kills 29 in Baghdad
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents lured police to a house in west Baghdad with an anonymous tip about a rebel hideout and then set off explosives, killing at least 29 people and wounding 18 in the latest in a series of deadly strikes against Iraqi security forces, police said Wednesday.
The blast at the house was triggered as officers were about to enter late Tuesday, a local police official said. Ten neighboring houses collapsed from the blast and several residents were believed trapped underneath the rubble. Seven policemen were among the 29 dead.
The police official said the attack was "evidently an ambush" and that "massive amounts of explosives" were used. He said the explosion was apparently triggered by remote control.
The U.S. military said in a statement Wednesday that 1,700 to 1,800 pounds of explosives appeared to have been used in the attack. The statement added that American soldiers and Iraqi troops searched the rubble for survivors through the night and rescued one civilian.
Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, assistant commander of the 1st Cavalry Division that controls Baghdad, said the house that exploded was booby-trapped.
"The insurgent has no respect for life and an insurgent is anti-Islam," he said.
Hammond said that U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces launched an offensive south of Baghdad on Wednesday with an aim of "capturing or detaining or killing insurgents."
Insurgents using car bombs, ambushes and assassinations killed a total of at least 54 people in the Iraqi capital and across the volatile Sunni Triangle on Tuesday, including 31 policemen and a deputy provincial governor.
The attacks are only the latest by insurgents targeting Iraqis working with the American military or the U.S.-backed government ahead of the Jan. 30 national elections.
Hammond said Tuesday that the attacks by insurgents are expected to keep up in the run-up to the ballot.
"We anticipate that the enemy will (continue with) attacks, intimidation, assassinations and other messages designed to destroy life in Baghdad," Hammond said, adding that Iraqi security forces will bear the brunt of providing security for the elections and that U.S. troops will back them up only if needed.
Iraqi leaders said the guerrillas — who are mostly Sunni Muslims — are bent on triggering ethnic strife before next month's poll.
"The terrorists intend to destroy Iraq's national unity," a statement issued by the Interim National Assembly said. "Their intentions are to harm this country which faces crucial challenges amid a very difficult period."
Shiite Muslims, who make up around 60 percent of Iraq's people, have been strong supporters of the elections, which they expect to reverse the longtime domination of Iraq's Sunni minority. The insurgency is believed to draw most of its support from Sunnis, who provided much of Saddam Hussein's former Baath Party membership.
Also on Wednesday, a Defense Ministry spokesman in Baghdad confirmed that the Iraqi National Guard — a paramilitary internal security force that has borne the brunt of the anti-insurgency effort — will be merged with the regular armed forces.
The national guard is also part of Iraq's Defense Ministry, and U.S. planners had intended it to be the main security force in the country. Several units took part in U.S.-led campaigns to retake the cities of Samarra and Fallujah from the rebels. But with the insurgency escalating and losses mounting, the move is an apparent effort to improve the efficiency of the security forces ahead of elections.
The guards raided Wednesday several houses in Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Azamiya and detained 25 insurgents, many of them with weapons and explosives, the Iraqi government said in a statement.
It added that in other raids in Mahmoudiya, a town about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the capital, ING forces detained 25 insurgents including Syrian citizens. The statement said that an Egyptian citizen, who was identified as Salah, was captured in Baghdad's central Karrada neighborhood. He was in possession of explosives and terrorist propaganda leaflets, the statement said.
In the southern province of Babil, police officials said 20 members of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Imam al-Madhi Army militia were detained on suspicion of having a role in planting explosives and carrying out attacks on police stations in the region.
The U.S. military said in a statement Wednesday that the Iraqi security guards repelled three separate attacks by insurgents as they tried to seize two police stations in Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad. The U.S. troops detained 18 suspected insurgents during separate operations, the statement said.
Iraqi government said Wednesday its forces on Dec. 23 captured a key leader of a Mosul-based terrorist group affiliated with the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terrorist network. Abu Marwan, a 33 year old Iraqi, was identified as a senior commander in the Mosul-based terrorist group Abu Talha, affiliated with al-Zarqawi, Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq and the most wanted terrorist believed to be operating in the country.
Insurgent Ambush Kills 29 in Baghdad
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents lured police to a house in west Baghdad with an anonymous tip about a rebel hideout and then set off explosives, killing at least 29 people and wounding 18 in the latest in a series of deadly strikes against Iraqi security forces, police said Wednesday.
The blast at the house was triggered as officers were about to enter late Tuesday, a local police official said. Ten neighboring houses collapsed from the blast and several residents were believed trapped underneath the rubble. Seven policemen were among the 29 dead.
The police official said the attack was "evidently an ambush" and that "massive amounts of explosives" were used. He said the explosion was apparently triggered by remote control.
The U.S. military said in a statement Wednesday that 1,700 to 1,800 pounds of explosives appeared to have been used in the attack. The statement added that American soldiers and Iraqi troops searched the rubble for survivors through the night and rescued one civilian.
Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, assistant commander of the 1st Cavalry Division that controls Baghdad, said the house that exploded was booby-trapped.
"The insurgent has no respect for life and an insurgent is anti-Islam," he said.
Hammond said that U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces launched an offensive south of Baghdad on Wednesday with an aim of "capturing or detaining or killing insurgents."
Insurgents using car bombs, ambushes and assassinations killed a total of at least 54 people in the Iraqi capital and across the volatile Sunni Triangle on Tuesday, including 31 policemen and a deputy provincial governor.
The attacks are only the latest by insurgents targeting Iraqis working with the American military or the U.S.-backed government ahead of the Jan. 30 national elections.
Hammond said Tuesday that the attacks by insurgents are expected to keep up in the run-up to the ballot.
"We anticipate that the enemy will (continue with) attacks, intimidation, assassinations and other messages designed to destroy life in Baghdad," Hammond said, adding that Iraqi security forces will bear the brunt of providing security for the elections and that U.S. troops will back them up only if needed.
Iraqi leaders said the guerrillas — who are mostly Sunni Muslims — are bent on triggering ethnic strife before next month's poll.
"The terrorists intend to destroy Iraq's national unity," a statement issued by the Interim National Assembly said. "Their intentions are to harm this country which faces crucial challenges amid a very difficult period."
Shiite Muslims, who make up around 60 percent of Iraq's people, have been strong supporters of the elections, which they expect to reverse the longtime domination of Iraq's Sunni minority. The insurgency is believed to draw most of its support from Sunnis, who provided much of Saddam Hussein's former Baath Party membership.
Also on Wednesday, a Defense Ministry spokesman in Baghdad confirmed that the Iraqi National Guard — a paramilitary internal security force that has borne the brunt of the anti-insurgency effort — will be merged with the regular armed forces.
The national guard is also part of Iraq's Defense Ministry, and U.S. planners had intended it to be the main security force in the country. Several units took part in U.S.-led campaigns to retake the cities of Samarra and Fallujah from the rebels. But with the insurgency escalating and losses mounting, the move is an apparent effort to improve the efficiency of the security forces ahead of elections.
The guards raided Wednesday several houses in Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Azamiya and detained 25 insurgents, many of them with weapons and explosives, the Iraqi government said in a statement.
It added that in other raids in Mahmoudiya, a town about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the capital, ING forces detained 25 insurgents including Syrian citizens. The statement said that an Egyptian citizen, who was identified as Salah, was captured in Baghdad's central Karrada neighborhood. He was in possession of explosives and terrorist propaganda leaflets, the statement said.
In the southern province of Babil, police officials said 20 members of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Imam al-Madhi Army militia were detained on suspicion of having a role in planting explosives and carrying out attacks on police stations in the region.
The U.S. military said in a statement Wednesday that the Iraqi security guards repelled three separate attacks by insurgents as they tried to seize two police stations in Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad. The U.S. troops detained 18 suspected insurgents during separate operations, the statement said.
Iraqi government said Wednesday its forces on Dec. 23 captured a key leader of a Mosul-based terrorist group affiliated with the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terrorist network. Abu Marwan, a 33 year old Iraqi, was identified as a senior commander in the Mosul-based terrorist group Abu Talha, affiliated with al-Zarqawi, Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq and the most wanted terrorist believed to be operating in the country.
