Iraq War News. Please post here!

Viper52 SG

I'm starting this thread as a dedicated thread to post all news/information articles on the current war in Iraq here to prevent too many new threads being created.

To posters:

1) When pasting an an article, please include a source for the article (at the very least) or a link to the URL where the original article can be found. Its not just for the readers here, but also as a common courtesy of the original authors/copyright holders.

2) When replying to an article, for the sake of reducing the length of each reply and saving bandwidth for other readers, please do not include the whole of the original article, but instead just include the Title, Source organization, and author (except where inapplicable) and delete the body of the original article. Thank you.

Viper52 SG

Desert wait for US Marines

By David Willis
BBC correspondent with US Marines in central Iraq

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/2900541.stm

Digging in or maybe just bogged down - American Marines in this convoy are now stuck in the mud after vicious sandstorms brought their move on Baghdad to a shuddering halt.

Hundreds of American Marines are kicking their heels in the desert and may not be moving for several days.

The strain is starting to show on supply lines, which are stretched to the limit and the infantry is getting short on food.

Awaiting supplies

"Food right now is one meal a day until supplies come and we re-supply," says Lance Corporal Juan Gonzales.

When asked how long that will that be, he shrugs and says: "We don't know - hopefully soon."

But it's not just food that is a problem.

These tanks do half a mile to the gallon and their advance has outrun their supplies. The convoy is to stop for up to a week while the food and the fuel, the bullets and the bombs catch them up.

Captain Matthew Kolich says: "It's just that we moved a long way from Kuwait and our supply lines are stretched.

"We're just making sure that we have the right pieces in place to make it all the way to Baghdad."

Under attack

And all this while the Marines have been coming under constant ambush from small but determined groups of Iraqi fighters.

Some of these men have been out in the desert for many weeks and are keen to get back to family, friends and loved ones.

They are kicking their heels in the desert and just want to "get on with the job" as they put it.

It's a sign of the nervousness here that a group of Marines opened fire on a civilian vehicle after hearing what they thought was a gunshot. Later, it emerged that the car had simply backfired.

All three occupants were killed.

It is hoped that this massive convoy will soon be on the move again.

But for now the world's most powerful army is regrouping, its confidence dented, the march on Baghdad currently on hold.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporters with the US and British military are restricted in what they can say about precise locations or military plans.

Viper52 SG

Rumsfeld and his goons can deny all they want about the advance stalling. I'd believe someone whos out there in the dirt over someone in an airconditioned tent hundreds of miles away or even worse, safely ensconed in an office in a different continent.

Viper52 SG

Truck hits US soldiers in Kuwait

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2900535.stm

A truck has rammed into a group of United States soldiers at a camp in northern Kuwait but none have been killed, according to US central command.

A spokesman said 15 soldiers have been injured but could not confirm whether it was a deliberate attack, nor could he comment on the nationality of the truck driver.

The white pick-up truck had driven into a line of personnel lining up outside a military shop known as the "PX" at the Udairi Camp.

Eyewitnesses said shooting then broke out, and an ambulance was called in. Egyptian immigrants who were working at the base were reportedly taken outside and forced to the ground before being questioned.

The commander of the US-led forces in Iraq, General Tommy Franks, told a news conference in Qatar that an investigation was being carried out into the incident.

Tight security

Udairi Camp is a springboard for operations in Iraq.

According to the BBC correspondent Allan Little in Kuwait security is tight at the base making it virtually impossible for an unauthorised driver to enter.

An apparent suicide attack against US forces near Najaf in southern Iraq left four soldiers dead on Saturday.

Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan declared that the attack marked the start of the "routine" use of suicide bombing to fend off coalition troops.

Viper52 SG

Troops' anger over US 'friendly fire'

By Patrick Barkham
On the RFA Argus in the Gulf

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2901515.stm

Three wounded UK soldiers have described how they survived an attack by a US A-10 Thunderbolt anti-tank aircraft that killed one of their troop and destroyed two armoured vehicles.
One of the survivors criticised the US pilot for showing "no regard for human life" and accused him of being "a cowboy" who had "gone out on a jolly".

Another survivor said he stumbled out of the burning wreckage of his light tank and waved frantically to the American pilot to try to halt his second attack.

The so-called friendly fire incident, 40 kilometres (24.8 miles) north of Basra, left one soldier missing, presumed dead, and another in intensive care on RFA Argus, the UK forces' hospital ship in the Gulf.

Another soldier who had been in one of the two destroyed Scimitar light reconnaissance tanks, manned by the Household Cavalry, escaped without injury.

Nursing shrapnel wounds and burns, the three injured soldiers, Lieutenant Alex MacEwen, 25, Lance Corporal of Horse Steven Gerrard, 33, and Trooper Chris Finney, 18, spoke of their bewilderment and anger.

They said the US pilot apparently failed to recognise that their tanks were a British make, with special coalition identification aids and even a large Union flag on another machine in the five-vehicle convoy.

Advanced technology

Lance Corporal Gerrard said: "All this kit has been provided by the Americans. They've said if you put this kit on you won't get shot.

"We can identify a friendly vehicle from 1,500 metres [4,921 ft].

"You've got an A-10 with advanced technology and he can't use a thermal sight to identify whether a tank is a friend or foe. It's ridiculous.

"Combat is what I've been trained for. I can command my vehicle. I can keep it from being attacked.

"What I have not been trained to do is look over my shoulder to see whether an American is shooting at me."

The two Scimitars, followed by two armoured engineers' vehicles and another Scimitar light tank, set out on a "recce" of a road north west of Ad Dayr, north of Basra in southern Iraq, on Friday.

After coming under fire from Iraqi artillery, they were instructed to investigate a shanty town.

Troop leader Lieutenant MacEwen, 25, with special plastic bags now tied around his hands to treat his burns, described how the convoy tensed as villagers waving white flags approached from behind a large bank on the marshland by the Shatt al-Arab river.

"You could see the white flags above the bank but you didn't know whether they had any intention of surrendering or ambushing us," he said.

White light

Lance Corporal Gerrard said he suddenly heard the distinctive, relentless roar of an A-10's anti-tank gunfire.

"I will never forget that noise as long as I live. It is a noise I never want to hear again," he said

"There was no gap between the bullets. I heard it and I froze. The next thing I knew the turret was erupting with white light everywhere, heat and smoke.

"I felt I was going to burn to death. I just shouted 'reverse, reverse, reverse'.

"My gunner was screaming 'get out, get out'. How I got out of that hole I don't know. Then I saw the A-10 coming again and I just ran."

Lying on his hospital bed, he said the A-10 circled and made a return attack run.

"On the back of one of the engineers' vehicles there was a Union Jack," he said.

"For him to fire his weapons I believe he had to look through his magnified optics. How he could not see that Union Jack I don't know."

Tempting fate

The front two Scimitars, packed with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, grenades, rifle rounds and flammable diesel fuel tanks, exploded into flames.

One of the soldiers' colleagues, Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull, did not escape the explosion
Lance Corporal Gerrard also criticised the pilot for shooting when there were civilians so close to the tanks.

"There was a boy of about 12-years-old. He was no more than 20 metres [65.6 ft] away when the Yank opened up. There were all these civilians around.

"He [the pilot] had absolutely no regard for human life. I believe he was a cowboy. He'd just gone out on a jolly."

He added: "I'm curious about what's going to happen to the pilot.

"He's killed one of my friends and he's killed him on the second run."

Trooper Finney, who was hit in the leg when the A-10 made its second attack, said all the British soldiers and their families joked about "friendly fire".

He said: "I got a letter off my dad the day before the attack and it said 'Be careful, come home soon and watch out for those damn Yanks'.

"Looks like he tempted fate a bit there."

This is pooled copy from Patrick Barkham of the Times on RFA Argus in the Gulf.

duotiga83 SG

Sticking to His Guns

Saddam showed movie, "Black Hawk Down" to troops as way to defeat U.S.

farni eh? Rolling Eyes

duotiga83 SG

BBC News Complains About Pentagon Control of the News: Getting More Truth From Baghdad

March 29, 2003

By Julie Hyland WSWS.org

An unnamed "senior BBC news source", cited by the Guardian, went further, stating: "We're getting more truth out of Baghdad than the Pentagon at the moment."

The BBC has become so concerned at false and misleading information being put out on the war against Iraq that it has stressed to its journalists that they must clearly attribute military sources.

According to the Guardian, BBC news chiefs met to discuss the problem after the broadcaster carried several reports later shown to be inaccurate. The misleading reports were all favourable to the US/UK forces and so their exposure has undermined the BBC's claims to be providing unbiased coverage.

On Sunday March 23, British military sources claimed to have taken the port of Umm Qasr in southern Iraq. Three days later, they were still fighting to quell resistance.

The BBC then ran headlines with reports of the discovering of a chemical weapons factory in An Najaf, which was later dropped.

On Tuesday, March 25, the British news was filled with reports of an uprising under way in Basra, Iraq's second largest city. Claims of the 'popular uprising' were first made by British military forces, but were later found to be untrue.

On Wednesday, March 26, the British military were cited reporting that 'up to 120 tanks' were leaving Basra. The convoy was later found to be just three-strong.

Numerous other examples can be cited, including the continuous downplaying of the extent of popular opposition to the US/UK invasion and the particularly cynical claim that the Iraqi regime was responsible for the missile attack on a Baghdad market that killed 17 civilians.

A BBC spokeswoman confirmed that a meeting had been held to discuss recent events.

"There's been a discussion about attribution and it's been reinforced with people that we do have to attribute military information," she said. "We have to be very careful in the midst of a conflict like this one to be very sure when we're reporting something we've not seen with our own eyes that we attribute it."

An unnamed "senior BBC news source", cited by the Guardian, went further, stating: "We're getting more truth out of Baghdad than the Pentagon at the moment."

"We're absolutely sick and tired of putting things out and finding they're not true. The misinformation in this war is far and away worse than any conflict I've covered, including the first Gulf war and Kosovo."

Many news sources in Britain are now admitting that much of the key information they are relaying has been proven to be inaccurate. But this is often put down to the pressures of 24- hour coverage and the 'fog of war'. For example, the BBC source cited by the Guardian went on to claim that the misinformation was an accident, rather than deliberate deceit: "I don't know whether they [the Pentagon] are putting out flyers in the hope that we'll run them first and ask questions later or whether they genuinely don't know what's going on? I rather suspect the latter."

In truth, much of the British and US media is simply a propaganda tool of their respective military forces. Some 900 journalists and reporters are "embedded" with US/UK troops, effectively functioning as part of an act of armed aggression against the Iraqi people and paid to conceal that fact. The concern expressed by the BBC's top brass is that this fact has become so obvious to millions in Britain and around the world that its own credibility - and hence its considerable political influence internationally - will never recover.