The attack in Mosul yesterday was the single worst attack against U.S. military personnel in Iraq to date. U.S. military spokesmen in Baghdad say 19 American soldiers were killed and three other military personnel were killed. (Probably Iraqi military, as I don't think there are too many other nationalities up there.) Other reports put the number of dead at 24 and include contractors and Iraqi civilians in the toll. Needless to say the situation is confusion and such discrepancies are normal in the chaos following such events.
[UPDATE 1150 +0300 GMT: In a release dated today, the U.S. military says, "Of the 22 people killed, 14 were U.S. military personnel and the remainder four U.S. civilians and four Iraqi Security Forces. Of the 72 wounded, 51 were U.S. Military personnel and the remainder U.S., other country civilians and ISF. Twenty-nine people have been released from the hospital."
Other reports say 15 U.S. military dead and five civilian contractors. Two Iraqi soldiers were killed. The same report says the attack was a 122-mm rocket, although "some security experts said the extent of injuries indicated that it was possible a bomb had been planted inside the hall."]
The Washington Post reports: "Before yesterday, the worst incidents were the deaths of 17 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division in the November 2003 collision of two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, also in Mosul, and, two weeks before that, the loss of 15 soldiers when a CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter crashed west of Baghdad. All three occurred after President Bush's May 2003 declaration that major combat operations in Iraq had ended."
The insurgent group Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility. An offshoot of the Ansar al-Islam group, which operated mainly on the Iranian border near Halabja in the Kurdish areas before the war, Ansar al-Sunna is made up of Salafists and a few nationalists and former Ba'athists. It is friendly with the Wahhabi groups such as Abu Massoud al-Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and it has a significant Kurdish membership, reflecting its roots in the north.
I'm doubtful that it conducted a suicide operation, as Ansar al-Sunna has claimed on its Web site, although I suppose it's possible. It's more likely it was a mortar or a rocket that finally managed to hit something. U.S. bases are peppered everyday with incoming indirect fire, but they usually fall harmlessly. This time, however...
But a real question is why were these soldiers sitting down to lunch in a soft-roofed structure? They were in a tent with concrete walls while a hardened dining facility (DFAC) was being built nearby. The new DFAC was supposed to be ready by Thanksgiving, I'm hearing from my guys up there, but it wasn't. Why not? Was there a screw-up? Was it just that some things take longer than expected in the military some times? Was it because of too many attacks that slowed down the construction? I don't know, and I've not been able to get any answers, because the public affairs officer for Camp Marez turned his phone off last night or it was out of the coverage area.
Iraq is beginning to look more and more like Lebanon in the 1980s. Sectarian violence, a brewing civil war and now a large attack on U.S. forces. In 1983, 241 Marines were killed in a suicide truck bombing that led to the pullout of U.S. forces from that beleaguered country.
In the same Post article I referenced above, experts are worried that this attack may show either the ability to gather precise intelligence from inside U.S. bases or mark an escalation of violence that could end in a storming or ground assault of a U.S. base.
As the article continues: "If anti-American violence does hit a new level, pressure is likely to increase on the Bush administration to either boost the U.S. military presence in Iraq or find a fast way to get out."
Indeed. And neither option is a good one for the White House. With the war already increasingly unpopular, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld even more so, what will the political fallout of this attack be? Especially if it turns out that the Camp Marez dining tent was the equivalent of a "hillbilly armor" humvee?
In all of this, please remember that although for the American public, the deaths of their countrymen and countrywomen obviously hit close to home, it is the Iraqi public that is really suffering. The twin attacks in Karbala and Najaf two days killed more than 70. and literally hundreds of Iraqis die every week month in violence. The security situation is dire and it's likely to get worse as the elections approach. There will be many more grieving families in America and Iraq before this is all over.
Great summary Christopher - really appreciate the comment about the Iraqi public and their suffering. Let’s hope we don’t get a commensurate response to the 4 dead conttactors in Fallujah. I can’t imagine what thet would entail if the US decided to go down that path.
I would say that the events of the last 4 days are just the beginning of the anti- election campaign of the resistance and the terrorists. Does anyone believe that those elections will happen at Jan. 30?
The elections will come and go. The polling stations will be bombed, many will die. But in the end the Shites will rule, and the Sunni will go bananas. Civil War will ensue. The Americans will run away or die fighting. Iran, Turkey, Syrian, and the Saudis will all get involved for “purely humanitarian” reasons. History will repeat itself. Humans never learn. The poor will die, and the rich will reap the profits.
Black Sabbath said it in 1970
War Pigs/Luke’s Wall (7:55)
Gen’rals gathered in their masses,
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction,
Sorcerer of death’s construction
In the fields the bodies burning,
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind,
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh Lord Yeah!
Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave their role to the poor, yeah
Time will tell on their power minds,
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess,
Wait ‘till their judgement day comes, yeah
Now in darkness world stops turning,
Ashes where the bodies burning
No more War Pigs have the power,
And as God has struck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees the war pigs crawling,
Begging mercies for their sins
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings
Oh Lord Yeah!
armageddon!!
Actually, Hell is further south. Satan lives in Fallujah. Get your US Army quotes in line.
A suicide bomber hit the US base in Mossul - he walked into the base and blew himself up within the lunch tent. The US terrorists are not even able to secure their bases, how do they want to gain control of the whole country?
I’m probably connecting the wrong dots but I just figured that there might be some disinformation going on re the delivery of the Mosul explosion. The pictures I have seen don’t show any signs of car bomb type damage. Who would benefit from an acceptance of the ‘car bomb’ theory as opposed to the shell-through-the-fucking-TENT-roof-theory?
…the same as he who dosn’t sign his own name, or maye HAL
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Halliburton’s subsidiary KBR manages military mess halls as the contractor responsible for feeding U.S. troops, building bases and providing other logistical support. At such dining facilities, civilian workers join the troops to eat.
TENTS ? does HAL have resonsibility for TENTS?
Wow. This even sounds like a Time piece or maybe something you’d find in the New Yorker.
Good work Chris, you’re not writing that way you used to on this site. But I guess you have to bow to the machine at some point.
Best of luck.
Yeah, reality usually gets its way in the end, iconoclasm.
Does this really surprise you?? It doesn’t surprise me at all after the things we’ve seen over the past several years. These people who blow themselves and others up would stop at nothing to shed blood. They and the foundations of their “religious convictions” are so pathetic, and they know it, that the only thing they can think of to express their sense of worthlessness is to obliterate themselves in a vain explosion of violent “glory”. And the people who are supporting them could care less about religion or national pride. What they really want is to promote anarchy so they can set up some feudal networks of control, a la Saddam. Meanwhile, some people who write to this site talk as if Iraq was a very nice place in the forty years preceeding the US invasion. How many people did Saddam kill after all? Does anyone have a hard figure on that, Chris? It seems every other month there is a report of more mass graves found all over the country. What was the final body count from the Saddam regime? Beyond that, Iraq directly attacked four neighboring countries during his regime. In a previous post, Chris, you reminded us of the implications of oil prices at $100 a barrel. What would the situation in the Middle East look like today if Saddam had wrested control of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the other countries on the Arabian peninsula? Beyond the effects on the world economy, ask yourselves how much economic power Saddam would have gained, and what would he have done with it. Forget the WMD, (even though apparently he did gas the Kurds), forget 9/11 and al Qaida (even though apparently Saddam’s Baathist cronies do indeed seem entirely willing to link up with suicide bombers when their interests coincide), Saddam was a threat to peace in the region. Then you had his sons Uday and Qusay….Oh, yes, they were very nice guys, weren’t they people??? I really don’t think these militant fighters represent the interests of the people of Iraq. There may be 5,000 of them…there may be 20,000 or 50,000. But tell me….do they, can they represent the desires and future interests of the 20 million people in Iraq? What can they offer?….More bombings, killing and random violence??? The people in Iraq are going to have a chance to have elections and cast their own vote for what they want in their country. The elections may happen in an environment of violence…they may get botched or called off because of intimidation…but sooner or later they are going to happen because they are the best alternative for the people of Iraq to leave behind what has been a bitter period in their recent history.
I’m not at all clear as to how this “trackback” works, but I’ve quoted your last paragraph at http://prawnblog.blogspot.com/2004/12/let-us-not-forget.html
You might find it interesting to read the blog of Maj. Cohen, the ER doc in charge that day in the CSH for Camp Marez.
check out:
http://www.67cshdocs.com/Daily_Journals/December/dec21.htm
cu
jakob
I keep reading negative after negative but…I was in Baghdad earlier this year working for CPA helping with the reconstruction of iraq’s Fire Service. I know we did a lot of good and helped a lot folks who needed and wanted our help. I am looking forward to returning as soon as I can, maybe with State Department, KBR or however I can get back -yes many go for the money-I could care less; I’d go back for free-The Iraqi’s I met are great people and I truly know we can make things better for them even if in a small way.