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REST IN PEACE HEROES!

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Smoke:


Six reported dead as blast hits Italian police HQ in Nasiriyah
(*UPDATES: IT'S 19 Italians dead*)

Sources: U.S. holds suspect in downing of copter
Wednesday, November 12, 2003 Posted: 5:11 AM EST (1011 GMT)
 
A U.S. soldier secures the site of a blast Tuesday outside a Baghdad courthouse.

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A large explosion Wednesday apparently shattered the Italian police headquarters in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, killing six people, according to initial reports from Italian police officials in Rome.

Communication with the Italian military in Iraq has been hampered by the explosion. It is still not clear what caused the blast.

Italian police in Rome say some Italian forces may be trapped in the rubble of the building.

According to the British coalition press office in Basra, a number of coalition forces were injured in the blast, which happened shortly before 11 a.m. (3 a.m. ET).

There are about 2,500 Italian forces in Iraq, headquartered in Nasiriyah.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces have detained a man suspected of shooting down a Black Hawk helicopter last Friday, killing all six U.S. military personnel on board near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, according to military sources within the 4th Infantry Division.

Acting on information from local Iraqis, some 200 U.S. forces from the 4th Infantry Division launched four overnight raids in east Tikrit and the nearby town of al-Alam, netting 36 suspected insurgents -- including the man suspected of shooting down the Black Hawk. Also arrested were five of the man's alleged accomplices, the sources said.

The eight-hour raid, dubbed "Operation Raider Justice," ended about 6 a.m. Wednesday (10 p.m. ET Tuesday) and was the largest offensive in nearly two months, the sources said.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who controls coalition ground forces in Iraq, said Tuesday that the Black Hawk appeared to have been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade during "a vulnerable time" as it attempted to land.

Last Friday, two Black Hawk helicopters were flying along the Euphrates River near Tikrit when witnesses said one was struck by enemy fire.

The helicopter, carrying passengers from the 101st Airborne Division headquarters in Mosul to the 4th Infantry Division headquarters in Tikrit, smashed into the ground. All six aboard were killed.

Pentagon sources said the lead helicopter -- the one not hit -- was carrying a two-star general, Maj. Gen. Thomas Romig, the Army's top lawyer.

Two of his staff members aboard the other Black Hawk died in the crash, CNN's Nic Robertson reported.

Coalition troops fire at vehicle carrying Iraqi politician
Coalition forces Wednesday opened fire at a vehicle carrying Iraqi Governing Council member Muhammad Bahr al-Ulum near a heavily secured area of Baghdad, according to sources within the governing council.

The sources said there appeared to be a miscommunication between coalition soldiers guarding a security gate outside Baghdad's "Green Zone" and the occupants of the car, resulting in the gunfire.

One person in the car -- not al-Ulum -- was wounded in the shooting, the sources said. A large amount of blood was seen in al-Ulum's car after it dropped him off for a council meeting.

He appeared to be uninjured when he went into the meeting.

A coalition spokesman could only confirm that "an incident did occur at a checkpoint this morning. We are still investigating."

U.S. troops have been the target of near daily attacks, including a strike inside the coalition's heavily secured Green Zone on Tuesday, sending smoke rising into the night sky. No one was wounded or killed, officials said.

Coalition officials said two rockets or mortars exploded inside the Green Zone, which houses most of the Coalition Provisional Authority's facilities, and one projectile landed outside the secure area.

Shortly after the attack, U.S.-led troops sealed off a school west of the Green Zone. Witnesses there told CNN the soldiers found rocket launchers at the school.

 
U.S. Army troops hold a moment of silence while observing Veterans Day in Baghdad.  
The coalition has yet to comment about the activities at the school, and soldiers there refused to discuss details of the operation.

The attack came just hours after Sanchez said the tempo of attacks on troops has risen, and that the coalition is responding with greater force to "send a very clear signal."

Sanchez said the number of daily engagements between troops and guerrillas has doubled from the mid-teens to 30-35 within the past two months.

Insurgents are also employing more remote tactics, using rockets and mortars to avoid direct combat with coalition troops, he said.

Sanchez said U.S. troops also have increased the "pace and intensity" of their military campaign against guerrillas loyal to deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"We are taking the fight into the safe havens of the enemy in the heartland of the country, where we continue to face former regime loyalists, criminals and foreign terrorists," Sanchez said.

CIA: Situation 'to worsen'
Sanchez's comments give credence to a recent CIA assessment of Iraq that warned the security situation would worsen across the country, not just in Baghdad.

The report is a much more dire and ominous assessment of the situation than has previously been forwarded through official channels, this source said.

It was sent to Washington Monday by the CIA station chief in Iraq. (Full story)

It was not immediately clear if the assessment was what prompted the hastily arranged trip to Washington by Iraq civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer.

Bremer met Tuesday at the White House with President Bush and senior national security officials to discuss setbacks in Iraq's political transition and continuing security problems, administration officials said.

Few details about the meeting have emerged, but it comes at a key moment with the Bush administration increasingly reportedly frustrated by growing instability in Iraq and by the performance of the interim Governing Council.

Thirty-eight U.S. troops have died this month, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war to 398. Since President Bush declared an end to major combat May 1, 259 U.S. servicemen and women have been killed.

There is no reliable source for Iraqi civilian or combatant casualty figures, either during the period of major combat or after May 1. The Associated Press reported an estimated 3,240 civilian Iraqi deaths between March 20 and April 20, but the AP said that the figure was based on records of only half of Iraq's hospitals, and the actual number was thought to be significantly higher.

www.cnn.com

Smoke:
Victims are now 12. :'(

JTSimon:
Your president is a puupy...thank him for those deaths.

Woodrow:
RIP to those who lost their lives.

Smoke:
16 Italians dead


--- Quote from: Pimp Ultra on November 12, 2003, 06:27:20 AM ---Your president is a puupy...thank him for those deaths.

--- End quote ---

Man i think you are a disgrace. First of all cause you are American, from San Diego. And you're blaming Italians for the war? Plus my President didnt do shit. We Italians are there to help Americans preserve the peace they've made (in their minds) with the war. So the last intellingent thing you can do is to blame "Us".

FUCK YOU.

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