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Iraq | |
Bush Told in Baghdad: Guerrillas Taking Heavy Losses, Retreating from Sunni Triangle | |
2003-12-01 | |
from Debka, FWIW. US ground forces commander in Iraq, Lt.-Gen. Ricardo Sanchez suffered the misfortune of mistimed optimism. Saturday, November 29, he told a news briefing that the number of Iraqi attacks had dropped by 30 percent in November. No sooner had he spoken then a succession of five deadly ambushes left 12 non-Americans, one American civilian and two 3rd Armored Division troops dead between Saturday and Sunday morning.
Weâve been intercepting a lot of wanna-bes trying to cross that border. In just a few hours, Novemberâs death toll in Iraq shot up to 115, the highest since May. Still, Gen. Sanchez was technically correct. November saw 30pc less attacks by Iraqi insurgents and their foreign helpers. On the other hand, it was the bloodiest in terms of coalition casualties - up 35pc â meaning enemy assaults were fewer but more effective. DEBKAfileâs military sources reveal that of the two hours, 32 minutes President George W. Bush spent in Baghdad on his surprise Thanksgiving trip last Thursday, November 27, he visited the troops for one hour. Away from the cameras, he was closeted very privately for another hour with US and military commanders in Iraq and the remaining half hour with four members of the interim Iraq Governing Council. This was another major reason for the trip, I suspect. Given the news of the 30pc decline in guerilla attacks in November, Bush was also handed four intelligence assessments recording shifts in the Iraqi-US balance. They are revealed here for the first time by DEBKAfileâs military sources: 1. Iraqi guerrilla commanders find it much harder to execute their original hit-and-run tactics against large American military convoys which are now much better defended, often with air cover. Small convoys, lone vehicles and soft targets are easier prey. Contrast this with Vietnam ...While the US President was encouraged by the progress report he received during his brief stay at Baghdad airport, as soon as he left, Saddamâs guerrilla forces redoubled their offensive. Two days later, on Saturday, November 29, they singled out targets near the Iraqi-Syrian border and around the Shiite holy city of Najef, as well as the Sunni Triangle, to demonstrate the lengthened extent of their reach. On the last day of November, US forces struck a counter-blow to even the score. Men of a 4th infantry division convoy armed with heavy tanks and helicopters confronted Saddamâs guerrillas ready to mount an ambush in Samara. They killed 46 guerrillas and captured eight, losing five American wounded. Reports are now that 54 were killed. | |
Posted by:rkb |
#5 3rd AD was inactivated in 1992. I think the 3rd AD is still extant. You may be thinking of the 2nd AD. |
Posted by: badanov 2003-12-1 7:56:03 PM |
#4 Typo, I'm sure. Should be 3ID, which would make sense, since they took part in the opening salvos of the current war. Besides, it's DEBKA - who has a history of making mistakes in their haste to publish. |
Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-12-1 5:17:16 PM |
#3 Ah, Steve, the Bush Illumanti/Zionist cabel only wanted you to think it had been deactivated. In reality it has been kept hidden and supplied with black helicopters for over a decade until it was inhumanely unleashed on a cowering Iraqi populous in order to obtain the oil and frustrate legitimate Iranian and Turkish security concerns. |
Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2003-12-1 1:33:16 PM |
#2 3rd Armored Division? When did they get there? Must be a typo, 3rd AD was inactivated in 1992. |
Posted by: Steve 2003-12-1 12:04:34 PM |
#1 This...by an article that Saddam Hussein.. must have heard about. âDivide Iraq into Three States..â the article appearing in The New York Times.. November 26, ---------------------- So before the war, The NY Times got its news from Saddam and now its the other way around. |
Posted by: mhw 2003-12-1 8:29:57 AM |