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| Iraq | ||
| The Bombing and its Aftermath in Nasiriyah | ||
| 2003-11-13 | ||
| The Italian military compound was the softest of targets. Unlike the fortresses of coalition units in Baghdad, sheltering behind concrete crash barriers, the Italian police station in Nasiriyah had only a few rolls of barbed wire and sandbags to protect it. Although the scene of some of the heaviest fighting during the war, Nasiriyah has since welcomed foreigners and the Italians were tragically ill-prepared for what was to hit them at 10.40 yesterday morning. Soft target, easy killings, minimum risk - typical Islamist SOP. A tanker lorry drove up to the gates of the police compound. Italian guards opened fire as the vehicle approached, with one of the two men in the cab shooting back as it roared towards the three-storey building. The guards could not stop it. The lorry, packed with explosives, careered into a water tanker before detonating. The explosion scattered vehicle parts over a 200-yard radius. A second vehicle that appeared to be supervising the operation drove hastily away. "As soon as I saw the truck I knew there was going to be big trouble," said Lt Amar Mohammed, who was guarding a nearby Iraqi police station. "I heard shots and then turned to see a massive explosion. I was knocked off my feet. The smoke and the heat were so intense it was impossible to approach for several minutes."
Ambulances ferried the wounded to Nasiriyah’s central hospital throughout the morning, while coalition helicopters flew overhead. Inside the building - which had been the base for 80 military policemen - the floors had been demolished and part of the roof was missing. Jassim Reath, a construction worker on a building next to the compound, said: "I lay beneath a broken wall and listened to people screaming, but I was so terrified I could not move until a medic helped me to my feet." Twenty yards away on the other side the street, homes were cracked by the force of the explosion, and pockmarked by flying debris. Taha Faisal, who lives in the street and was injured by flying glass, said: "We’ve only just moved back into my family house after it was damaged during the war. Now my two daughters are in hospital and my house is in ruins." As Faisal spoke beside an Italian checkpoint in the security cordon erected around the blast site, a heavy goods vehicle approached. Italian soldiers threw themselves on the ground, with rifles cocked. "Get back or we shoot," shouted one soldier, as the lorry reversed hastily. As evening fell yesterday, locals began to take stock of the arrival of terrorism in their hitherto peaceful city. Mohammed Fakkar, an employee with an American contractor, said: "I am deeply shocked about the attack, but I am sure there will be more in the future. "The people who did this today can do anything." ... They’re enjoying freedom that comes with total amorality. | ||
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #3 You're welcome, Super Hose. Interestingly, one Italian account I read of the June 24 incident cited the "enormous deterrent value of M-60 tanks" (which the Italians in Mog had) as a crucial factor in the rescue of the surviving Pakistanis. This was before US SecDef Aspin and President Clinton refused the local American commander's request for a small armored force, apparently on the grounds that it would look bad on TV. Most accounts indicate that the presence of a single platoon of M-1s and accompanying Bradleys could have made all the difference in the world on October 3. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2003-11-13 9:30:53 PM |
| #2 AC, Thank you, I had heard the rumor that the Italians notified the Somali militia each time the choppers took off in Mogadishu, because they thought we were being too heavy handed. I took it as gospel. I was deployed somewhere and didn't understand why we cut and ran after being bloodied. I had held the Italians complicit until this day. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-13 8:20:15 PM |
| #1 Italian troops were also on hand in Mogadishu in 1993. There were allegations that they cooperated with the various Somali militias, alerting them to American and other UN ops, but little evidence for this has surfaced. What we do know is that it was an Italian force that went to the rescue of ambushed Pakistani troops on June 24, 1993. This was the incident that precipitated the attempt to capture Mohammed Aidad and, eventually, the famous Blackhawk Down battle of October 3. 33 Pakistanis were killed (not 24, as widely reported, 9 bodies were never recovered). Word of what the relief force found and saw, the all but unspeakable butchery the mobs and their Al Qaeda allies inflicted on the Pakistani dead (some of whom, unfortunately, were probably still alive when it started), spread throughout the Italian forces, including the Carabinieri. Every Italian soldier I have spoken to in recent years (a fair number) is aware of this and it significantly colors their view of Islamic guerrillas and terrorists. The Italian military is with us in this struggle and so is Berlusconi. The large idiotarian and LLL element in Italy will wail and moan and regurgitate the rhetoric of their masters in the French and American Left, but it cannot change the resolve and clarity of thought that I see among the real people of Italy. Remember, too, that Oriana Fallaci is an Italian, and she is worth several campuses full of jihadi tools anytime. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2003-11-13 8:07:53 PM |