IRAQ: Insurgents seize 5 towns near Syria ~ tell residents in 'death letters' to abandon their homes

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Tuesday, September 27, 2005 | Anna Badkhen, Chronicle Staff Writer

[ChefKeith]

Sounds like the first thing to do is bomb a moat around this area to stop tunnel use and the carpet bomb the h&!! out of the area until it is a large deep pit.

Drop it about 100' below it's current altitude.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

For those who have not ben following the Anwar Battle , the Chronicle has a graphic :

[vbmoneyspender]

The civilians are the ones who have been giving our people the GPS coordinates that cause the insurgent safehouses in the Anbar province to go kaboom.

[MNJohnnie]

God you got to love stupid foes. Get ready to meet Satan you morons.

[MNJohnnie]

I heard this morning that the towns have extensive tunnel systems underneath them to Syria

Source for this? Sounds a little too convenient for the Iraq is Vietnam crowd. This terrain is not exactly tunnel friendly.

[A Texan]

I am not sure I believe the article to begin with (no offense EatB) but this makes it a whole lot easier for us. If you leave you are a possible "good guy", if you decide to stay and the terrorist don't behead you then you are a bad guy.

I say give the "good guys" 24 hours to clear out of town then breakout the MOAB's.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Time for a demostration project for the Syrians,,,show our B-1's, B-2's and of course the Rolling Thunder.....B-52...the ancient one!

[BurbankKarl]

A tunnel which U.S. military officials said was used by insurgents to escape fighting is shown in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar

Iraqi authorities claimed nearly 200 suspected militants were killed and 315 were captured in the Sept. 8-12 offensive in Tal Afar. But U.S. and Iraqi troops discovered later that many had slipped away, some through a network of tunnels.

I must have mis heard this morning...the tunnels were in Northern Iraq

[SFC Chromey]

Neither do I. In fact it shows that the locals have been helpful! They don't want locals around ratting them out. Now we know where they are and when we are ready, we can kill them.

The only bad part is paying the people off that owned the property/homes afterwards.

[ma bell]

You think they want a mant-to-man slugfest fight with the 6th Marines? :)

[hosepipe]

Goody.. Shock and AW!(hold mah beer) event..
Time for Iraqi military prove yerself time..
American servicemen to pass the popcorn and provide intelligence.. hopefully

[ma bell]

I'd suggest anyone knowing of any operation beforehand, be it rumors or such, to not post anything please. There are those that have friends in the Box.

Don't jeapordize the Op for the sake of "being first to post" or those individuals wanting to be seen as a "knowledgeable source of information" to boost their ego.

[Eagle of Liberty]

Do you by chance have any links to stories talking about the underground structures that we heard so much about pre-war?

I have not heard anything as of late about these. Would have thought some curious reporter would have published a documentary taking the viewer on a tour of all of these underground bunkers.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

The USAF has some support for them right here.

[null and void]

That looks like an 'oops'...

[Marine_Uncle]

Roger that.

[colonialhk]

Reuters
Agence France (AFP)
Al Jazeera
Al Qaida themselves

[quantfive]

"I don't necessarily see this as bad news. It seems they're helping us out by getting the innocent civilians out of the blast zone. I hope any town that is "taken over" by jihadis will be promptly turned to glass."

I was thinking the same thing, don't have to be extra careful there, now do we?

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Judging from the way some of the bombs are breaking apart, my guess is that those are cluster munitions.

Just the thing those Al-Queda buttwipes are asking to be introduced too.

[null and void]

Ah! Maybe so. I thought a couple conventional bombs had collided in mid-air.