Posted on 11/16/2004 7:19:07 AM PST by TexKat
Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion 21st regiment of the Stryker Brigade secure the east side of one of the five bridges across the Tigris River in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.(AFP/Tauseef Mustafa)
God be with them.
Shoot first boys...terrorists first...reporters second. (duty before pleasure).
*NOT PHOTOSHOPPED*
(any skeptics should see comments)
FALLUJAH, IRAQ: A US marine from the 3/5 Lima company stands in front of graffiti scribbled on the bridge crossing the Euphrates River in the restive city of Fallujah,14 November 2004, 50 kms west of Baghdad. The bridge became famous after the death of US security officers' charred bodies were hung on display at the end of March 2004. US-led forces will probably need up to five more days to finish clearing Fallujah of rebels after a week of fierce fighting that left more than 1,200 insurgents dead, US marine officers said today.
URL here: http://editorial.gettyimages.com/source/search/details_pop.aspx?iid=51739842
The only photoshopping is the removal of the watermark, but it is real. 3/5 SEMPER FI!
Here is the pic of the Jaish Mohammed leader Muayyed Ahmed that was caught yesterday I think.
Iraqi soldiers flank Jaish Mohammed leader Muayyed Ahmed. Iraqi Prime Iyad Allawi said that the rebel leader was arrested during the assault on the restive city of Fallujah.(AFP/Iraq (news - web sites) PM office/HO)
Sad news to report this a.m.....The blackhawk that was shot down last week was from my hubby's BN....an RPG entered the cockpit from underneath and took off the pilots legs, the co-pilot was able to land the chopper...the crew is being treated in Germany....the pilot was flown to Walter Reed.....SHE,is a Major, Staff Officer, from Chicago(who my hubby knows) and is in danger of losing an arm also.......I would appreciate it if all of you would remember her in your prayers..........btw.....give that Marine a medal
By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi troops pushed into insurgent-heavy neighborhoods and stormed police stations in Mosul on Tuesday, launching an offensive to retake parts of this northern Iraqi city where militants staged a mass uprising last week in support of insurgents in Fallujah.
Mosul's five bridges were closed to start the operation and American forces began securing police stations in the western part of Iraq's third-largest city, said Capt. Angela Bowman, with Task Force Olympia.
"We are in the process of securing all of police stations and returning the police to these stations to put in place a strong police presence," she said. "Some of those stations are in neighborhoods on the western side of the city where there has been insurgent activity and presence. We are now moving through the neighborhood."
About 1,200 U.S. soldiers were taking part in the offensive to recapture about a dozen police stations abandoned by Iraqi forces after an uprising that sprung up following the U.S.-led attack on Fallujah in a week-old operation that has left at least 38 American troops and six Iraqi soldiers dead. American officials estimate that 1,200 insurgents have been killed in the Fallujah fighting.
Since the Fallujah attack began Nov. 8, insurgents have attacked police stations, Iraqi security forces, U.S. military convoys and oil installations across a wide area of the Sunni Muslim heartland following the start of the Fallujah offensive and many insurgents were believed to have slipped out of the city ahead of the U.S. onslaught.
In a speech found Monday on the Internet, a speaker said to be Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the country's most feared terror leader, called on his followers to "shower" the Americans "with rockets and mortars" because U.S. forces were spread too thin as they seek to "finish off Islam in Fallujah."
On Tuesday, residents reported U.S. warplanes and helicopters hovering over Mosul, a city of about 1 million, as loud explosions and gunfire were heard near the American base on the northern edge of the city, 225 miles north of Baghdad.
Witnesses said three police stations already under the control of insurgents were blown up this morning before the militants left.
The Zuhour police station, and a substation in northeastern Mosul were destroyed, along with Qahira police station in the northern part of the city. No casualties were seen.
Last week, a mass insurgent uprising began in Mosul in apparent support of militants in Fallujah. Masked and armed bands of men stormed more than a half dozen police stations, bridges and political offices in the city, clashing with U.S. troops and Iraqi forces.
The city's police force were overwhelmed, and in many places, failed to even put up a fight. Mosul Police Chief Brig. Gen. Mohammed Kheiri Barhawi was fired in the wake of criticism that some police forces had cooperated with insurgents during the attacks.
Reinforcements of about 300 Iraqi National Guards pulled from garrisons along Iran and Syria and a battalion of a special police task force from Baghdad were sent to Mosul in the wake of the violence.
In addition, the U.S. military recalled one infantry battalion that had been fighting in Fallujah to return to Mosul.
On Monday, a suicide driver detonated his car near an American military convoy in the western edge of Mosul, injuring five U.S. soldiers. The driver first tried to ram his vehicle into the convoy but missed. A second car then tried to approach the same patrol, but the troops opened fire, killing the driver.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military was investigating videotaped pool pictures taken Saturday by NBC that showed a U.S. Marine shooting dead a wounded prisoner in a mosque in Fallujah. The footage was taken during an operation of the Marines 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment.
On the video, a Marine can be heard shouting obscenities in the background, yelling that one of the men against the wall in the mosque was only pretending to be dead. It then briefly shows a Marine raising his weapon toward one of the prisoners lying on the ground. The video is then blacked out, but the report of the gunfire can be heard.
The blacked-out portion of the video tape, provided later to Associated Press Television News and other members of the network pool, showed the bullet striking the man in the upper body, possibly the head. His blood splatters on the wall behind him and his body goes limp.
A spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters in the Pentagon, Maj. Doug Powell, said in Washington that the incident was "being investigated."
On Tuesday, the U.S. military said in a statement that the 1st Marine Division is investigating an allegation of the unlawful use of force in the death of an enemy combatant in Fallujah during combat.
The Marine has been withdrawn from the battlefield pending the results of the investigation.
"We follow the law of armed conflict and hold ourselves to a high standard of accountability," said Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "The facts of this case will be thoroughly pursued to make an informed decision and to protect the rights of all persons involved."
In Baghdad, U.S. forces arrested Naseer Ayaef, a high-ranking member of an influential Sunni political party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, in a dawn raid on his home, party official Ayad al-Samarrai told The Associated Press.
"This action is a kind of punishment to the (Iraqi) Islamic Party because we object to what is happening in Iraq, especially Fallujah and to the security policies adopted by the Americans and the Iraqi government," al-Samarrai said.
Ayaef is a member of the interim Iraqi National Council, a government oversight body. Last week, the Iraqi Islamic Party withdrew from Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government to protest the U.S. assault, saying it "has led and will lead to more killings and genocide without mercy from the Americans."
Very sad indeed. I will pray for her.
Thanks conservativecorner, I had been looking for a closeup picture of that scene.
Notice ...no knife in his throat.
And yes that Marine deserves a medal.
I was wondering if there would be a thread today. Thanks for starting it.
Good.
After the elections maybe the Iraqis will give him the DP.
US soldiers from the 3rd Battalion 21st regiment of the Stryker Brigade on patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.(AFP/Tauseef Mustafa)
US-led troops storm restive pockets of Mosul
MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - US and Iraqi forces barged into restive pockets of Mosul to secure police stations and restore order in one of their largest joint operations in the northern Iraqi capital.
Some 1,200 US troops were sweeping the city from west to east hoping to stamp out a spike of lawlessness that has rocked Mosul over the past week, military officials said Monday.
"The operation has been launched," said one military officer, Stuart Williams. "Two battalions are sweeping from the west side to the east."
Combat helicopters buzzed overhead in case of trouble and war planes were also heard in the area, said an AFP correspondent embedded with the military.
Rebels fired mortars at one of the five bridges leading to the city, which have all been closed to civilian traffic while the operation rumbles on, but there were no reports of casualties or damage, said Williams.
A US forward operating base fired mortars at suspected rebel targets on the west side of Mosul, said Sergeant Domingo Ruiz, while the AFP reporter heard burst of sporadic gunfire from his position on a bridge in the city.
The streets of Mosul, a city of some 1.5 million people, were deserted as a nighttime curfew that starts at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) drew near.
Mosul, 370 kilometres (230 miles) north of the capital, has suffered a rise in lawlessness as rebels flocked to the city following a US-Iraqi assault on the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah.
The US-led military conducted daily operations to help secure the flashpoint city but this was the largest mission in recent times, the AFP reporter said.
"We are going through each police station in the city and making sure they are secure for the Iraqi police," said Captain Angela Bowman, a US military spokeswoman.
A battalion of Iraqi security forces are also taking part.
"These operations are targeting isolated pockets of insurgent fighters that continue to operate in the city," the military said in a statement.
There had been no major reports of trouble during the day, but two car bombs exploded in the west of the city withut causing any casualties, Williams said.
Iraq's interior ministry said Monday that seven policemen and 30 rebels were killed in clashes on Sunday, describing one gruesome incident in which a policeman was dragged from his hospital bed and hacked by insurgents.
The US military had no comment on the ministry toll but confirmed that US troops and members of an Iraqi army commando force sent up a few days ago from Baghdad had battled rebels on the city's western side.
Sure GOP_Proud, I'll add you to the ping list.
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An Iraqi man prepares food supplies on top of a truck at Umm al-Qura mosque. A convoy of 50 trucks laden with emergency aid travelled to the Iraqi village of Saqlawiyah, where thousands of residents from nearby Fallujah have sought shelter.(AFP/Ali Al-Saadi)
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Iraqi volunteers with The Charity Association of Social Cooperation Iraq (news - web sites) load supplies from a warehouse in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004, for delivery to the residents of war-torn Fallujah. Blankets, heaters and food were provided by charities in Bahrain and Qatar. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
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Marines of the 1st Division gather as their unit gets mail delivered to the frontline in Fallujah, Iraq (news - web sites), Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
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A Marine of the 1st Division takes a nap as his unit gets mail delivered to the frontline in Fallujah, Iraq (news - web sites), Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) For you Lady FReepers....... |
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Marines of the First Division take a break to gather for a so-called family picture in Fallujah, Iraq (news - web sites), Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
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Iraqi soldiers flank Jaish Mohammed leader Muayyed Ahmed. Iraqi Prime Iyad Allawi said that the rebel leader was arrested during the assault on the restive city of Fallujah.(AFP/Iraq (news - web sites) PM office/HO)
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U.S. General George Casey, Commander of the multinational force in Iraq (news - web sites) (R) greets an Iraqi hospital official in the war-torn city of Falluja November 16, 2004.
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Residents who fled from the battle-torn town of Falluja receive food at a temporary refugee camp in Baghdad November 16, 2004. Thousands of residents fled Falluja in advance of an offensive by U.S. military forces aimed at driving militants from the restive city. The Iraqi Red Crescent - one of the few aid agencies operating in Iraq (news - web sites) - is still negotiating with U.S. forces after being denied access to Falluja. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen
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Iraqi volunteers with the Charity Association of Social Cooperation Iraq (news - web sites) load supplies from a warehouse in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004, for delivery to the residents of war-torn Fallujah. Blankets, heaters and food were provided by charities in Bahrain and Qatar. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) |
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PING...
By Michael Georgy
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Marines rallied round a comrade under investigation for killing a wounded Iraqi during the offensive in Falluja, saying he was probably under combat stress in unpredictable, hair-trigger circumstances.
Marines interviewed on Tuesday said they didn't see the shooting as a scandal, rather the act of a comrade who faced intense pressure during the effort to quell the insurgency in the city.
"I can see why he would do it. He was probably running around being shot at for days on end in Falluja. There should be an investigation but they should look into the circumstances," said Lance Corporal Christopher Hanson.
"I would have shot the insurgent too. Two shots to the head," said Sergeant Nicholas Graham, 24, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "You can't trust these people. He should not be investigated. He did nothing wrong."
The military command launched an investigation after video footage showed a U.S. Marine shooting a wounded and unarmed man in a mosque in the city on Saturday. The man was one of five wounded and left in the mosque after Marines fought their way through the area.
A pool report by NBC correspondent Kevin Sites said the mosque had been used by insurgents to attack U.S. forces, who stormed it, killing 10 militants and wounding the five. Sites said the wounded had been left for others to pick up.
A second group of Marines entered the mosque on Saturday after reports it had been reoccupied. Footage from the embedded television crew showed the five still in the mosque, although several appeared to be close to death, Sites said.
He said a Marine noticed one prisoner was still breathing.
A Marine can be heard saying on the pool footage provided to Reuters Television: "He's f***ing faking he's dead."
"The Marine then raises his rifle and fires into the man's head," Sites said.
NBC said the Marine, who had reportedly been shot in the face himself the previous day, said immediately after the shooting: "Well, he's dead now."
THOROUGH PROBE PROMISED
The Marine commander in Falluja, Lieutenant General John Sattler, said his men followed the law of conflict and held themselves to a high standard of accountability.
"The facts of this case will be thoroughly pursued to make an informed decision and to protect the rights of all persons involved," he said.
Marines have repeatedly described the rebels they fought against in Falluja as ruthless fighters who didn't play by the rules. They say the investigation is politically motivated.
"It's all political. This Marine has been under attack for days. It has nothing to do with what he did," said Corporal Keith Hoy, 23.
Rights group Amnesty International said on Monday both sides in the Falluja fighting had broken the rules of war governing the protection of civilians and wounded combatants.
Gunnery Sergeant Christopher Garza, 30, favored an investigation but like other Marines said the Pentagon should weigh its decision carefully.
"He should have captured him. Maybe the insurgent had some valuable information. There may have been mitigating circumstances. Maybe his two buddies died in Falluja," he said.
Sites said: "I have witnessed the Marines behaving as a disciplined and professional force throughout this offensive. In this particular case, it certainly was a confusing situation to say the least."
The U.S. military has been embarrassed by scandals in Iraq, most prominently the Abu Ghraib affair in which at least eight U.S. soldiers have been tried or face courts-martial over the abuse of prisoners at the jail outside Baghdad.
There have also been several cases in which soldiers have been charged with wrongfully killing Iraqis during operations.
In this image taken from pool video, Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, Commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, is seen in Fallujah, Iraq, Tuesday Nov. 16, 2004. The U.S. military said Tuesday an investigation is underway into allegations that a Marine shot a wounded and apparently unarmed Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. 'We follow the law of armed conflict and hold ourselves to a high standard of accountability,' said Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler. 'The facts of this case will be thoroughly pursued to make an informed decision and to protect the rights of all persons involved.' (AP Photo/ APTN, Pool)
Thanks for thread & ping Tex.. lotsa good news. AND it seems that pix with cigs are no in vogue!!!
That reporter who accoused the Marine of wrongful murder better say his prayers & watch his back....
off .. will catch you all later.
continued prayers for the safety of our men cleaning up the mess there
I will most certainly remember this hero in my prayers.
US soldier killed in attack on convoy north of Baghdad
Tue Nov 16, 6:05 AM ET Mideast - AFP
BAGHDAD (AFP) - A US soldier was killed and another injured in an attack on their convoy north of the Iraqi capital.
The convoy was attacked at about 10 am (0700 GMT) by "indirect fire," the military said in a statement Tuesday.
A spokeswoman said this meant a weapon was launched at the soldiers, such as a mortar or rocket.
The casualties were from a support unit based in Balad, 75 kilometres (40 miles) north of Baghad, which provides the US-led forces in Iraq with supplies such as food and fuel and spends a lot of time travelling in convoys, transporting the equipment to military bases.
A second soldier from the unit died in a vehicle accident on Monday.
Prayers for her recovery.
But I must ask, what is a woman doing flying a chopper in front line combat? I can understand (but not agree with) their being in a support role.
Just old fashioned, I guess, about women in combat roles.
She is a blackhawk pilot, this is her job...she was flying air cover for our troops during battle....there are many more just like her.....re your question...you'll have to ask the DOD, I don't know.
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
In Iraq, American commanders say they‘ve retaken the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. “TIME” magazine‘s Michael Ware has been embedded with the Army‘s 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry, and joins us now from Fallujah.
Michael, thank you for joining us. Are we winning this war?
MICHAEL WARE, BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF, “TIME”: Well, I wouldn‘t say that we‘re losing this war at this stage, but I‘m certainly not of the view that we‘re winning.
The best that we can say that we‘re doing is that we‘re holding ground. I mean, just as an example, as a journalist, I was free until March this year to travel the breadth of this country. Then, after April, I was much more restricted to the confines of the metropolis of Baghdad. Well, we‘ve lost Baghdad.
Sitting in my own compound in the city, I‘m prone to mortar fire. They have kidnapped teams circling our block. A journalist was kidnapped 300 meters outside our gate. Zarqawi controls central nodes of the city, including the most infamous Haifa Street, the scene of bloody engagements for months now, where he is within range of mortars directly impacting into the Green Zone and the U.S. Embassy. So, are we winning? That doesn‘t feel like winning to me.
MATTHEWS: What role has the taking of Fallujah played in the war?
WARE: It is a significant event. And it cannot be underrated.
In military terms, this was a sweeping victory. We have reseized the rebel stronghold of Fallujah. We‘re now denying them sanctuary from which they could launch their suicide car bombs and other attacks on Iraqi and coalition targets. We‘ve denied them meeting and recruiting and training grounds. We‘ve also removed a political eyesore, upon which there was an imperative to rid it from the landscape of Iraq before the elections.
But have we beaten the insurgency? No. No, I suspect we‘re far from that. They will now be more decentralized. I was interviewing cells weeks before the operation who had long fled. Documents I have from Zarqawi‘s people which are after-action reports on the previous uprising in April show just how they did it then, evacuating the leadership. All indications are that they did this again, leaving a rear guard action behind to fight a suicidal death march, just like the one that we‘ve seen here in Afghanistan and in Northern Iraq against Ansar al-Islam. In many ways, this is deja vu.
MATTHEWS: Well, is it going back to the wars in Indochina? The American forces in Indochina and Vietnam and South Vietnam were able to hold the cities and retake them when they were lost. The same with the French back in the ‘50s.
Are we in the same kind of syndrome, where the outside forces are able to take cities, hold them, retake them when they have to, but all the time, the enemy is growing in force?
WARE: I mean, I try to shy away from analogies or comparisons to Vietnam. But, sometimes, it can be chilling.
It was once said that the only ground the U.S. soldier could control is that beneath his feet. Well, in many regards, so it is in Iraq. We do not control this country. We may have territory, but we do not have the substance of the people, nor of the land. So it‘s difficult to say.
We‘re certainly encountering very similar insurgency practices, methods, techniques, tactics, a mind-set that we did see in Indochina. And indeed, indeed, something that resonates with me to this day is interviews I‘ve done with senior insurgent leaders, the upper echelons. And they talk to me about reading Vo Nguyen Giap, the Vietnamese general. They talk to me about reading Che Guevara, Mao Zedong.
They‘re bringing it straight from the Vietnam and the broader insurgency playbook.
MATTHEWS: Well, one of the key pages in that playbook, Michael, was to swim in the sea of people. Are they able to swim in the sea of Iraqi people and hide from us moving from city to city and, as we defeat them in different cities, they simply move to Mosul or somewhere else?
WARE: Absolutely. It is almost as if we‘re blinded, despite all our best efforts. The manner in which they can dissolve back into the population is almost magical.
I mean, this is one of the fundamental tenets of classic counterinsurgency warfare. The name of the game is deny the population to the insurgents. That‘s what we‘re trying to do, winning hearts and minds. But we‘re not winning them. Day by day, there‘s a steady drip feed of hearts and minds slipping away us from. Last year, middle Iraq was sitting and waiting, giving us the chance to see how we fared, to see what we delivered. Well, that window is closed.
And I fear that we‘ve lost them. The insurgents may not have won them, but we certainly don‘t have their attention anymore. So, yes, we will see the insurgency continue to evolve as it moves almost with complete freedom of movement throughout the country.
MATTHEWS: Michael Ware, it is great to have your report from “TIME” magazine, Michael Ware who is with the troops through the battle in Fallujah. Thank you, Michael.
What a nervy guy.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The husband of British-Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan said on Tuesday she may have been killed by hostage-takers, citing a video tape that had surfaced.
"I have been told that there is a video of Margaret which appears to show her murder. The video may be genuine but I do not know," Tahsin Hassan told Reuters in Baghdad.
We had quite a bit of activity over in our little patch of desert last night...two incoming followed shortly by all kinds of noise indicating that somebody who had stepped out of line was getting a good old-fashioned butt-kicking, sponsored by the U.S.A. All is well, though...it was all just rather noisy. Most of the noise was made by the good guys, so we don't worry at all when we hear that.
Take care and good night from the "other side."
Love the picture of the inscription on the bridge.
Thanks for the info. Goodnight Allegra.
Stay safe, friend.
Terrorist leader al-Zarqawi may have used the Internet to call for attacks across Iraq.
By Robert H. Reid, The Associated Press
November 16, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. soldiers battled insurgents northeast of Baghdad on Monday in clashes that killed more than 50 people. Some guerrillas were said to be "fighting to the death" inside Fallujah, where American forces struggled to clear pockets of resistance.
At least five suicide car bombers targeted American troops elsewhere in volatile Sunni Muslim areas north and west of the capital, wounding at least nine Americans. Three of those bombings occurred nearly simultaneously in locations between Fallujah and the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, the U.S. command said.
The zone between Fallujah and Ramadi was one of at least three areas Monday in which insurgents pulled off almost-simultaneous attacks against U.S. or Iraqi forces, suggesting a level of military sophistication and planning not seen in the early months of the insurgency last year.
Pressing their own offensive in central and northern Iraq, insurgents attacked police stations, Iraqi security forces, U.S. military convoys and oil installations across a wide area of the Sunni heartland.
In a speech found Monday on the Internet, a speaker said to be Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the country's most feared terror leader, called on his followers to "shower" the Americans "with rockets and mortars" because U.S. forces were spread too thin as they seek to "finish off Islam in Fallujah."
The worst reported fighting Monday took place about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad after assaults, at almost the same time, on police stations in Baqouba and its twin city, Buhriz.
Gunmen abducted police Col. Qassim Mohammed, took him to the Buhriz police station and threatened to kill him if police didn't surrender the station. When police refused, the gunmen tied the colonel's hands behind his back and shot him dead.
U.S. and Iraqi troops rushed to the scene, setting off a gunbattle that killed 26 insurgents and five other Iraqi police, Iraqi officials said.
At the same time, insurgents attacked a police station in Baqouba and seized another building. U.S. aircraft dropped two 500-pound bombs before the end of the fighting, in which four American soldiers were wounded, the U.S. command said.
During the fighting, U.S. troops came under fire from a mosque, the U.S. military said. Iraqi security stormed the mosque and found rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and other weapons and ammunition, the statement said.
In one of the car bombings along the Fallujah-Ramadi corridor, the attacker rammed into a Marine armored vehicle, wounding the four troops inside. The two other bombings caused no injuries — including one in which the driver rammed his car into a tank but his explosives failed to explode.
Witnesses reported a fourth car bombing late Monday in Ramadi against a U.S. convoy but there was no report of casualties.
In Mosul, where an uprising broke out last week in support of the Fallujah defenders, a suicide driver tried to ram his bomb-laden vehicle into a U.S. convoy, the military said. He missed but set off the explosives, wounding five soldiers, four of them slightly.
Four American soldiers were wounded when their patrol ran over a land mine Monday near Beiji in northern Iraq, the military said.
Saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline Monday, shutting down Iraqi oil exports from the north, and set fire to a storage and pumping station in northern Iraq, officials said.
In Baghdad after nightfall Monday, heavy explosions rocked the Green Zone — the barricaded neighborhood that houses the Iraqi government and U.S. Embassy. Loudspeakers warned, "Take cover, take cover."
Gunmen carried out near-simultaneous attacks on a police station and an Iraqi National Guard headquarters in Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, killing seven Iraqi police and soldiers.
During a news conference in Baghdad, Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Naqib, himself a Sunni, condemned the growing attacks on Iraqi police and security forces, calling them part of a campaign "to divide this country and thrust it into a civil war."
"They are trying by all means to divide this country and to create an ethnic and sectarian war," al-Naqib said of the insurgents.
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said police had arrested the leader of a militant group behind the killing of some foreign hostages. Moayad Ahmed Yasseen, leader of the group Muhammad's Army, was captured along with some of his followers, Allawi said. He did not say what kidnappings the group has been involved in.
However, a statement by the prime minister's office later described Muhammad's Army as the "armed wing of an organization created by Saddam Hussein" to fight for the return of the Baath party to power.
The spike in violence accompanied the American-led assault against Fallujah, the main insurgent stronghold, 40 miles west of Baghdad. The week-old offensive in Fallujah has left at least 38 American troops and six Iraqi soldiers dead.
The number of U.S. troops wounded is now 320, though 134 have returned to duty. U.S. officials estimated more than 1,200 insurgents have been killed.
In a telephone interview with reporters at the Pentagon, Marine Col. Michael Regner, operations officer for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said U.S. and Iraqi forces had captured more than 1,052 prisoners in Fallujah, most of them are Iraqis but some foreigners.
"Very few of them are giving up," Regner said. "They're fighting to the death."
He said U.S. troops and Marines were working their way back from the southern part of the city toward the northern part, clearing out pockets of resistance and recovering caches of weapons.
The offensive was intended to secure Fallujah so that national elections can go ahead in January as scheduled.
But Iraq's deputy prime minister, Barham Saleh, told The Guardian newspaper in Britain that the insurgency could derail the plan to hold elections in January.
"Holding free and fair elections on time is an obligation that we have undertaken toward the Iraqi people," Saleh was quoted as saying. But he added: "Nearer the time, the Iraqi government, the United Nations, the independent election commission and the national assembly will have to engage in a real and hardheaded dialogue to assess the situation."
Meanwhile, a convoy of ambulances and relief supplies trying to enter Fallujah was forced to turn back because the fighting made it too dangerous, the head of the Iraqi Red Crescent said. The Red Crescent and Red Cross have been unable to gain access to people inside Fallujah during more than a week of violence.
Allawi's office confirmed that two of his female relatives who were kidnapped last week have been released. Allawi's cousin, Ghazi Allawi, 75, his cousin's wife and his cousin's pregnant daughter-in-law were abducted at gunpoint last Tuesday in Baghdad. There was no word on the cousin.
———
Contributing to this report were Associated Press reporters Edward Harris and Jim Krane in Fallujah; Tini Tran, Sameer N. Yacoub, Mariam Fam, Sabah Jerges, Katarina Kratovac and Maggie Michael in Baghdad; and Robert Burns in Washington.
Updated: 11/16/2004 11:11 AM
By: Amy Ohler, News 10 Now Web Staff
Julia Cook, of Mannsville, and her friend Jessica Hodge went to Pennsylvania this weekend to visit their high school friend Nikole Carriera. All three went to high school together at South Jefferson in Adams.
They went shopping Sunday night at a Giant grocery store near York.
While they were getting into the car, a man pulled in behind the vehicle and shot Cook in the head. He ran away after that.
Cook's family says she is between 5 and 6 months pregnant.
Cook was taken to York Hospital in Pennsylvania.
Noel Gomez of York was taken into custody Monday. That's when he admitted to shooting Cook.
He told investigators he planned on shooting and killing someone and the parking lot was the place he picked to do it.
At this time, charges of aggravated assault and criminal attempt homicide are pending against Gomez.
Family and friends we talked to Monday declined to go on camera but told us, "Cook and her friends are good girls, they don't drink or do drugs and this is a fluke thing that shouldn't have happened."
Cook's husband Justin is a U.S. Marine currently fighting in Fallujah.
Friends of the family say they are going to try to bring him back.
Cook's family is with her in Pennsylvania.
As for her baby, the hospital is telling us at this time they don't have any information.
By Seif Fouad
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Margaret Hassan, a British aid worker kidnapped in Baghdad a month ago, has probably been killed, her Iraqi husband and British diplomats said on Tuesday after viewing a video apparently showing her being shot.
"I have been told that there is a video of Margaret which appears to show her murder," Tahsin Hassan told Reuters in Baghdad, adding he was not entirely sure of its authenticity.
"There is a tape that appears to show Margaret's murder," an official at the British embassy in Baghdad told Reuters, adding that it was "probably genuine."
Al Jazeera television said it had received a video tape which appeared to show a gunman shooting her.
Tahsin Hassan appealed to the kidnappers to return his wife's body for burial if indeed they had killed her.
"I want to know if she is alive or dead. If she's dead I want to know where she is so I can bury her in peace," he said, stressing her dedication to her adoptive land.
"Margaret lived with me for more than 30 years in Iraq and dedicated her life to serving the Iraqi people."
Dublin-born Margaret Hassan, who has joint British and Iraqi nationality, was seized on Oct. 19 while on her way to work at Care International, for which she was Iraq country director.
Hassan had appeared in video tapes released by her unknown captors calling on the British government to withdraw its troops from Iraq. At one stage, her captors threatened to hand her over to a group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi if Britain did not pull out its troops within 48 hours.
But earlier this month, Zarqawi's group posted a message on an Islamic Web site urging Hassan's captors to free her unless she were proven to be a spy.
It remained unclear who had been holding the aid worker most recently.
Few foreign women have been taken hostage in Iraq. Last month, Zarqawi's group beheaded British engineer Kenneth Bigley after London refused to withdraw its forces.
Militants have waged a campaign of kidnappings and killings to try to force U.S.-led troops and foreigners to leave Iraq. More than 35 foreign hostages have been killed.
Good night and stay safe.
The husband of British-Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan said on November 16, 2004 she may have been killed by hostage-takers, citing a video tape that had surfaced. 'I have been told that there is a video of Margaret which appears to show her murder. The video may be genuine but I do not know,' Tahsin Hassan told Reuters in Baghdad. This undated photograph released by Iraqi hospital officials on October 20, 2004, shows the manager of the Care International agency in Iraq, Margaret Hassan in Baghdad. REUTERS/HO/File
This is fantastic information.
Mike...you can answer this better than I.
Helping out my better half here(Mystery-ak); Army Aviation not considered a Combat Arm, No MOS's in Army Aviation are closed to females. I have known many female Blackhawk, Chinook and Apache Pilot's. Combat Arms restricted to females would include Infantry, Field Artillery, Combat engineers, etc.
oh my.. Mystery.. I am so sorry about this. I am sure this tears up Mike also... Prayers for her...
By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer
FALLUJAH, Iraq - Murmuring "God is great," two dozen Iraqi men collected corpses Tuesday in a U.S. Marine-directed effort to rid Fallujah of festering bodies in keeping with Muslim burial principles.
Officers said the Marines themselves could more quickly pick up the estimated 1,200 insurgents killed in a week of fighting, but agreed with Iraqis who felt it was crucial they retrieve the remains of their fellow Muslims.
"We're Iraqis and they're Iraqis and we want to get them," said Mohammed Ali, a 32-year-old farmer helping remove bodies. "It's in our religion. The rules say that relatives or families or Arabs should help them."
Gagging amid the overpowering stench of rotting flesh, the Iraqis had to take special care because of the danger that insurgents have booby-trapped some bodies with explosives. On one stoop, the Iraqis pushed over a corpse and a grenade rolled out of its pocket. The weapon didn't detonate, but Marines quickly hurried the workers away.
Bodies lay in homes, on verandahs and in shallow, makeshift graves, buzzed over by flies and darkened by days of decomposition. Muslims generally bury their dead within 24 hours, but the fighting prevented the interment of most corpses.
U.S. Marine Capt. Alex Henegar, a civil affairs officer attached to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, arranged the body pickup in Fallujah's hotly contested northern neighborhoods.
The collection began Sunday, with 22 corpses removed for a pauper's burial in a dusty lot on the outskirts of town.
The effort stalled Monday when the workers provided by a local religious leader demanded that Marines first open a road to their village, but they resumed work after Henegar arranged for a shipment of humanitarian aid. The crew recovered 14 bodies Tuesday.
Henegar, from Lookout Mountain, Ga., said he didn't think any other collection efforts were under way in Fallujah.
"There's no real theory behind it. It's the appropriate way of collecting the dead," he said. "It's their religion. They have their rites and we want to allow them to do it. The idea is to show respect to them, the Iraqi people, and their religion."
Henegar said authorities were eager to clear the city of bodies quickly, to lessen health risks for returning civilians.
Dr. Salah Al-Issawi, acting director of Fallujah General Hospital, voiced similar concern. "The city is completely isolated and we expect the decaying of dead bodies and the spread of diseases," he said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television.
Henegar and a small group of Marines escorted 24 Iraqis on three flatbed trucks into the northern Jolan neighborhood, where the volunteers were given latex gloves, surgical masks, hand disinfectant — but no payment.
"We have a whole pot of money for short-term reconstruction projects like this, but they won't take a dime," Henegar said.
The Iraqis said the Quran prohibits payment for helping in a burial.
In a state of barely contained panic, the Iraqis rushed into housing compounds to lift bodies onto blankets, then into the same body bags Marines use to transport the remains of their dead colleagues. The Iraqi men coughed, gagged and choked from the stench.
With each body, the Iraqi men whispered "Allahu akbar" — "God is great — three times.
They found four bodies that had been hastily buried outside a house in shallow graves, marked by cinder blocks. The Iraqis dug up the bodies, wrapped them in blankets and lifted them onto a truck. A message written on a wall in front of the graves identified the corpses as two men and two women.
"This is a disaster. But unfortunately it's the war," Sheik Hamed Farhan Abu Shahin, a local elder helping arrange the collection, told Henegar, who nodded agreement.
Bodies are scattered across Fallujah after fighting that began Nov. 8. The U.S. military declared the Sunni Muslim stronghold captured within a week, with 38 Americans, six Iraqi soldiers and an estimated 1,200 insurgents dead.
"This exemplifies the horrors of war," said Marine Capt. P.J. Batty, from Park City, Utah, of the body pickup. "We don't wish this upon anyone, but everyone needs to understand there are consequences for not following the Iraqi government."
Hi Mike, I didn't see your post before I posted. Hope you are well.. I know it hurts you to see you friends injured ...
warm thoughts and prayers for all concerned
Give us a thread on her?
I am well, I do know her, She is a fine Officer and my thoughts and prayers are with her and her family as she recovers.
Tue 16 November, 2004 18:01
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces have killed at least 1,600 insurgents and detained over 1,000 in its offensive on Falluja, Iraq's minister of state for national security says.
Kassim Daoud told Reuters the Iraqi government was fingerprinting and photographing the dead, most of whom were not carrying identification papers.
"We can say the number of dead exceeds 1,600," Daoud said after meeting the mayor of Falluja.
"The number of detainees last night was 1,052. There are detainees of different nationalities taken in the city of Falluja," he said.
U.S.-led forces launched an offensive against Falluja eight days ago to root out foreign Islamists and Saddam Hussein loyalists entrenched there.
The U.S. military says it has taken control of Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of the capital, but scattered resistance remains.
Residents say they are short of food as power cuts have spoiled frozen supplies and shops were closed. They say taps are running dry and the wounded have been unable to seek medical assistance because of the fighting.
Iraq's government has dismissed reports that civilians in Falluja are desperately short of supplies.
The government has also dismissed reports that the city was devastated by the attack, saying only 200 out of a total 1,700 buildings were damaged.
Most civilians are believed to have fled Falluja ahead of the offensive, some of them to nearby villages. Daoud said more than 90 percent had left.
The Iraqi government would compensate residents for damage to their property and was giving food and medical aid to refugees, he said.
It was also working to get a civilian administration back in place and return police to the streets of Falluja, which U.S.-led troops had not entered for six months.
"We will pay compensation to the Fallujans so they can begin building and repairing immediately," he said.
"There is a fair and immediate financial compensation programme for all those whose properties were damaged."
I almost posted a thread for prayers for her...but I don't know if I should release her name and unit........Mike?
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