American troops and warplanes killed at least 25 insurgents as they attacked a U.S. outpost in Mosul with a car bomb and explosives, the military said Thursday. One U.S. soldier died in hospital after the firefight. The clash occurred late Wednesday after rebels detonated a car bomb near a U.S. outpost in the restive northern Iraqi city. As reinforcements arrived, they came under fire by guerrillas using automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, military spokesman Staff Sgt. Don Dees said. The Americans then called in an airstrike by warplanes which attacked some 50 insurgents at the Yarmouk traffic circle, Dees said. More details from NYT:
The attack today began about 3:45 p.m., when insurgents armed with a car bomb tried to blow down the concrete barriers of the combat outpost, which is manned by a small force of soldiers. Insurgents then ambushed an armored military vehicle as it sped to the outpost. The armored vehicle "found itself pretty much in the middle of a bunch of I.E.D.'s and V.B.I.E.D.'s," said Lt. Col. Paul Hastings, a military spokesman in Mosul, using military acronyms for improvised roadside bombs and car bombs. The armored vehicle, he said, fired its .50-caliber machine gun to explode or disable the bombs, and proceeded to the outpost. There, the troops were attacked by a coordinated force of about 50 insurgents who fired rocket-propelled grenades and semi-automatic weapons. At that point, two F-18 and two F-14 military jets swooped down on strafing runs and firing Maverick missiles, wiping out much of the insurgent force. "That's when the close-air support came in and did a job on them," he said. "Initial estimates indicate that there were 25 (insurgents) killed," Dees said. Fifteen U.S. soldiers were wounded.
why "insurgents"? what was wrong with whatever term Dees used?