NEWS: Surge of Baghdad Violence Leaves 60 Dead

A tragic and violent day in Iraq as insurgents hammered central Baghdad on Sunday. A day of violence that has killed as many as 60 people and left Nearly 200 people wounded, more than half of them in Baghdad. According to the following news article insurgents attacked the U.S. run Abu Ghraib prison, Several mortar shells exploded outside the complex about 6 a.m., and about 20 minutes later a pickup truck packed with artillery shells crashed through the chain-link fence on the outer perimeter, and it got worse from there...




The article also states that Colin Powell acknowledged that the U.S. led coalition faced a "difficult time" and that the insurgency "will be brought under control" "It's not an impossible task."

Not a good day to have been in Iraq for anyone. Can America ever win the fight against the insurgency in Iraq?... Will the U.S.A . ever escape the grip of conflict in Iraq and find a path to peace?

Other News Source:

Note that on the page with the following BBC news report you will find a link to a video of the day's events and the strike that killed many.



Related ATS Discussion:

In Pictures Iraqi fighters Destroy US tank

[edit on 12-9-2004 by UM_Gazz]

Do you notice that the number of places being called insurgent hotbeds seem to be increasing?

Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Naqib suggested the attacks could be in response to a government operation against the Adel neighborhood of west Baghdad, an insurgent hotbed. However, the scope of the attacks suggested they had been in preparation for some time.

Ramadi, Najaf, Fallujah, Sadr City, Samarra, etc...

[edit on 12-9-2004 by AceOfBase]

Originally posted by AceOfBase
Do you notice that the number of places being called insurgent hotbeds seem to be increasing?

Yes I have noticed that Ace, also I have noticed that things all over Iraq are getting worse and more violent with each passing day. Every time we hear about an attack involving insurgents the claim is always quickly made to tie the insurgents to Al Qaeda or a group with ties to Al Qaeda.. This in my view gives the military a reason to launch such harsh retaliations.

If it is Al Qaeda.. Kill everyone!

Why are they called insurgents inside their own country? As long as we are there the violence will continue. The only way it will end is for us to leave. There is a large chunk of the population against us. Maybe not 50% but a very large number. What happens is that every time you kill one fo them you are moving supporters over to the other side. Remember these people have friends and family. You kill that person and you turn their friends and family against you. We were supposed to get Saddam and his staff. We did. We got the bad apples running that country. We aren't going to find WMD so we might as well leave. They don't want us or our style of government. If we hold out for that we'll be there until the end of time or until the last Iraqi is dead.

Things have been bad in Iraq is just that the confrontations where on other cities, now these confrontation are turning into bomb attacks on leaders of the country, and also they are hitting closer to home meaning in Baghdad and to often for the city to function well.

I wonder how the rest of the nation is doing specially on the other major cities.

This raises another question how well the country can conduct business as usual, it seems to me that is chaos what is in charge of the country right now.

Things are getting progresively worse. My worry is our military there they will be overun by insurgents. When is all this insanity going to stop?
This is going to have a catastrophic ending, im afraid.

Originally posted by UM_Gazz
The dead from the helicopter strike included Arab television reporter Mazen al-Tumeizi, who screamed, "I'm dying, I'm dying," as a cameraman recorded the chaotic scene. An Iraqi cameraman working for the Reuters news agency and an Iraqi freelance photographer for Getty Images were wounded.

Wow, I guess AP and CBS got off easy. The Pentagon has declared war on Reuters.

Do we have video of this "friendly fire" yet? This is really getting out of hand. Keep in mind the targets were people dancing. So there's very little excuse for the immediate threat outweighing the saftey of the press.

Oh wait. They were "throwing stones" .... whew, that was a close one. That's almost as good as WMD's, right Rummy?

[edit on 12-9-2004 by RANT]

I wish I had an answer, but I'm afraid no one at this point can provide one.

Leaving Iraq is an option.. but what have we left behind?

I am greatly concerned about the harsh military retaliation today. I can't see how this can ever help the situation in Iraq. I believe it will only turn even more Iraqis against the U.S.A.

It seems like we are really damned if we do and damned if we don't now.

Of course I'm sure the NK explosion news will overshadow this and it will quickly be brushed under the rug... We are the good guys .. Right?

Why this is a surprise to anyone, I don't know. Um gee lemme think um yeah, I think it was that Tariq Aziz guy, before the war started he said that the Iraqis would turn their cities into jungles. But of course all our best intelligence said we'd be greeted with flowers.

The insurgency is very well coordinated and notice US commanders resorting to body counts to track progress.

We are not on the road to victory here and need a major new direction.

Originally posted by UM_Gazz

Originally posted by AceOfBase
Do you notice that the number of places being called insurgent hotbeds seem to be increasing?

Yes I have noticed that Ace, also I have noticed that things all over Iraq are getting worse and more violent with each passing day. Every time we hear about an attack involving insurgents the claim is always quickly made to tie the insurgents to Al Qaeda or a group with ties to Al Qaeda.. This in my view gives the military a reason to launch such harsh retaliations.

If it is Al Qaeda.. Kill everyone!

I agree. How long can we put up with this crap. It's time to actually release the hounds rather than extend the leash. Waste em!

Originally posted by Indy
Why are they called insurgents inside their own country? As long as we are there the violence will continue. The only way it will end is for us to leave. There is a large chunk of the population against us. Maybe not 50% but a very large number. What happens is that every time you kill one fo them you are moving supporters over to the other side. Remember these people have friends and family. You kill that person and you turn their friends and family against you. We were supposed to get Saddam and his staff. We did. We got the bad apples running that country. We aren't going to find WMD so we might as well leave. They don't want us or our style of government. If we hold out for that we'll be there until the end of time or until the last Iraqi is dead.

Cuz a large # of these insurgents are from countries other than Iraq.

Originally posted by flashburn

Originally posted by UM_Gazz

This in my view gives the military a reason to launch such harsh retaliations.

If it is Al Qaeda.. Kill everyone!

I agree. How long can we put up with this crap. It's time to actually release the hounds rather than extend the leash. Waste em!

For the record it was sarcasm in my post and you may have taken it wrong.. I would never advocate "killing everyone"... The point I tried to make was that if they can lable a group of chanting, dancing people as terrorists they then have a reason to kill them all.

They weren't just "DANCING" and throwing rocks.
They were waving the flag of an extreme terrorist group as well.
"Several young men placed a black and yellow banner of Tawhid and Jihad in the barrel of the Bradley's main gun."
To me, that would be a bulls-eye.

Harsh military reaction?
How about an Un-harsh millitary reaction, or sensitive one?
May we should have thrown rocks as well?

Insurgents, I agree that should not be the terminology, after all they are
in their OWN country...Or are they? Where are all these weapons coming from?

Dead journalists, unfortunately, thats part of being a war correspondent.
Thats the risk you take..

What Iraq needs more than anything is a solid political figure (with heavy security) to rise up from the people and begin to pull the country together. Sadly I do not see how military action alone will ever end this. Without someone for the "average" Iraqi to support who is devoted to peace I fear we will see this level of attack continue and worsen. The insurgents are getting new members from somewhere. It seems for every one we kill there is at least one ready to take their place. Whether we like to say it or not we are occupiers in this, even if for the good of the entire Iraqi nation.

I am not aware of anyone who might fill this role in the Iraqi politcal scene. I guess I hoped Chalibi would be the person but not anymore. Anyone aware of any other leaders or figures in Iraq that might become a solid leader?

Originally posted by nativeokie
I am not aware of anyone who might fill this role in the Iraqi politcal scene. I guess I hoped Chalibi would be the person but not anymore. Anyone aware of any other leaders or figures in Iraq that might become a solid leader?

If you put it to an honest vote among Iraqis.... I'd put money on Saddam.

He knew how to deal with fundamentalists. That's why he was our secular puppet for so long. But fall guys don't grow on trees when you need an Osama distraction. His time was up. All there was to it.

Eventually we'll figure it out and put a new Dictator back in...or the people will. Total wasted cause through and through.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
They weren't just "DANCING" and throwing rocks.
They were waving the flag of an extreme terrorist group as well.

Oh well, if someone in a crowd waves a flag, by all means kill the lot of them. Now I see the point. Thanks.

Originally posted by RANT
Wow, I guess AP and CBS got off easy. The Pentagon has declared war on Reuters.

Do we have video of this "friendly fire" yet?

I saw it on NBC just now.
It's on the BBC website also.
news.bbc.co.uk...

It looks like the Al-Arabiya reporter was about 20-30 feet away from the vehicle when he was hit by the helicoptor.

Al-Arabiya lost a couple of reporters back in March too:

www.wsws.org...
According to Al-Arabiya, US soldiers at a Baghdad military checkpoint fired on a car carrying a cameraman and correspondent at 10 p.m. on Thursday. Their news team had gone to cover an insurgent rocket attack on the Burj al-Hayat hotel but US forces had cordoned off the area. Cameraman Ali Abdel-Aziz was killed immediately. Reporter Ali al-Khatib died in a hospital within hours.

Rant,

It wasn't just "a flag".
It was an indication that they were supporting the "insurgents".
AKA, terrorists groups.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Rant,

It wasn't just "a flag".
It was an indication that they were supporting the "insurgents".
AKA, terrorists groups.

Yeah, I just watched the video. Thanks AceofBase.

I'm not saying there was no flag (though I didn't see it), but I did see children standing in the street watching. Clearly this was a bad idea, if for no other reason than there's now a VIDEO of us killing innocent bystanders.

Take the most extreme example you can think of... that old video of 12 year olds dancing and cheering for the camera by the dead bodies at the bridge. Would blowing them up on camera be a good idea too?

This was stupid. Even if nobody sees the video (which they will) we just made dozens if not hundreds of new terrorists among the Father's, brothers and Uncles that know their kid wasn't armed. So one had a flag. The horror. That's one we won't be getting any intel out of.

Sheer stupidity on our part IMO...assuming we still give a hoot about "hearts and minds."

[edit on 12-9-2004 by RANT]

Originally posted by nativeokie
What Iraq needs more than anything is a solid political figure (with heavy security) to rise up from the people and begin to pull the country together. Sadly I do not see how military action alone will ever end this. Without someone for the "average" Iraqi to support who is devoted to peace I fear we will see this level of attack continue and worsen. The insurgents are getting new members from somewhere. It seems for every one we kill there is at least one ready to take their place. Whether we like to say it or not we are occupiers in this, even if for the good of the entire Iraqi nation.

I am not aware of anyone who might fill this role in the Iraqi politcal scene. I guess I hoped Chalibi would be the person but not anymore. Anyone aware of any other leaders or figures in Iraq that might become a solid leader?

Guess what, they had one: Saddam Hussein. He was the guy making Iraq a nightmare, remember?