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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Jets Drop 220kg Bombs in Iraq |
| 2005-06-18 |
| US F-16 fighter planes dropped a series of 220 kg bombs on insurgent targets in western Iraq overnight as the US military launched a heavy offensive against rebels near the Syrian border. Nine of the powerful bombs were dropped, the US military said, two of them targeting suspected rebel safe houses near the town of Qaim, an insurgent stronghold on the Euphrates river about 20 km east of Iraq's border with Syria. Four more were aimed at rebels as they fired mortars and assault rifles at US ground forces near Qaim, and a further three were used to hit suspected weapons caches in the area. The airpower was in support of Operation Spear, the third major offensive US forces have launched in western Iraq in the past six weeks with the aim of crushing insurgent activity in the Euphrates valley which stretches northwest to Syria. "Operation Spear ... began in the early morning hours with the objectives of rooting out insurgents and foreign fighters and disrupting insurgent support systems in and around Karabila," Capt. Jeffrey Pool of the US Marines said in a statement from Ramadi, capital of the surrounding Anbar region. Residents in Karabila, a suburb of Qaim where the suspected weapons caches were targeted, said fierce gunbattles broke out overnight and continued. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #20 BTW I've been hacking down spanning trees most of the afternoon. Got the scratches to prove it. /tasteful glossies on request, no toast or engineers pls. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-06-18 19:47 |
| #19 Absolutely, what 3DC said. Obvious to the most causal bystander. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-06-18 19:44 |
| #18 Can't even consider a breakup without redesigning the road system. Take a look at it. A minimal spanning tree with key nodes in Sunni towns. If you look at it more closely. The best grid to lay on it would be a hex grid as most current roads are angles on the spanning tree. It really needs alternate road grid. In addition it would make it impossible for IED's to ever have a big effect on transport. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-06-18 18:54 |
| #17 There's a hard point rack under each wing, Rafael. I do believe you can do both ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2005-06-18 18:51 |
| #16 less collateral in dropping the asshole from 10K |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-06-18 18:43 |
| #15 In other news, today, Arab News reports that 220 "insurgents" died in fighting in al Anbar Province Or maybe it was 220 insurgents dropped from the F-16. Not sure which I would prefer...a 500 pounder dropped on one insurgent, or one insurgent dropped from 10,000 feet. Tough call. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2005-06-18 16:52 |
| #14 The 220 kg is probably one of our new 250lb bombs. I read awhile back that we had deployed a couple with GPS to minimize damage to the surrounding civilians. could be aljazeera mistake or maybe the above dont know. On the splitting the country I believe a real bad idea yes the shia and kurd areas will be happy but the shia by themselves I would give a very likly chance to go Iran style and the Kurds would be better more free and democratic but the sunni part would just go Afghanistan pre US invasion. I say force them together the Kurd will keep the Shia honest and in the middle ground while the kurd and shia together will either accept the sunni capitulation or when we pull out their will be a 2maybe 3month blood lust with the then capitulation of what is left of the sunni. I would be willing to bet their is huge files of tribes and Imans and names of sunnis that are involved or suspected of involvement in the Terrorism but either to contriversial or not enough evidence for the US to make a grab. When the Iraqi army gets strong enough to let the bulk of our men pull back for some R&R if things are not cooled off I would expect those files being cleaned out literaly. The way nations fight war not the bullshit way we do what changed between WW2 and today to make it were we can be called nazis because we hold enemy captured out of uniform in a active war and held in a tropical paradise in AC with Koran and special food WTF happened to this country. In WW2 I believe the infiltrators we captured in FL from Germany were hung quick trial some would say just kangaroo trial and of course the german soldgiers that were caught then executed during the battle of the buldge out of uniform causing caous in the rear or the Wearewolves who were caught after the war and executed yeah we were humane we gave them a blindfold and a cigarette before we shot them. Were we Nazis then??? What about the cities after the end of the war we shelled with artilary becuase when our forces went in one werewolf shot at a soldgier or what about how in one city when a werewolf assasin killed a US soldgier we just simply rounded up 10nazi soldgiers in the city and shot them to make a example. Yeah that is war that is how you win a war the Sunnis are still either activly resiting or staying quit becuase why risk it the terrorist will kill you the US will go out of thier way not to kill you even thou you live right next door to a car bomb factory. I say when we find a car bomb factory level the whole damm block becuase I garantee the neighbors knew something was going on. Maybe then next time thier cousin saw some weird activity he would call it in cause those crazy barbarian americans may come level his house which is next door. I am not saying kill everyone just that the assesories even if they just knew but didnt say something should be punished aswell especially in the Sunni area were it is so rampant. The tips we are getting now are the same incentive the only difference just thank god we fighting a retarted enemy that is killing the people they need support of becuase they are easier targets. |
| Posted by: C-Low 2005-06-18 16:22 |
| #13 The Sunnis better think about getting along. They need to look at their resource base. Oilfields in the north, oilfleids and marine terminal in the south. They ain't got squat except the rivers, so they just have farming. Cut off Baghdad's power and they are shiite outa luck. It's get along or game over for the Sunnis. They better grow a brain quick. The smart ones better get the dumb ones in line. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-06-18 16:11 |
| #12 I think partitioning Iraq has always been a fallback plan. The Shiites get theirs, the Kurds get their well-deserved part and for you Sunnis, well, not only do you get squat, but you have to deal with the 30 years of enmity and ill will you generated under Sadaam. Bummer, doods! A strong, federated Iraq will be an example to the rest of the foo'ed up Middle East. I think it is starting to work, although you would not know it from the mainstream news. Some things that convince me: One is the increasing involvement of Iraqis in their own security. The other is the locals starting to rat out the jihadis over and over. The third is the Sunnis splitting into two camps; one the Death-to-Everyone crowd and the other the people who are finally realizing that deliberately refusing to participate in the political process is to be forever marginalized. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2005-06-18 13:15 |
| #11 True, Raptor, that's the ideal. I just don't know if it is possible. After all, Japan KNEW it was beaten. We crushed their spirit. Iraq doesn't feel beaten, we just deposed Saddam for them. Plus we OCCUPIED Japan but we just try to keep the peace in Iraq: there's a big difference. |
| Posted by: anon1 2005-06-18 13:15 |
| #10 On the other hand there is virtue to a Federal system that puts faction against faction and ensures that no tyranny can easily arise again. Witness the USA, and Switzerland. In both cases there are large groups of people who think they'd be (or would have been) better off if they could set up their own tyranny while splitting from the rest of the country. Long term, we're better off with a federal Iraq, where both minorities and majorities have learnt to live with each other and prosper in freedom and trade. A free and prosperous Iraq ought to be our modern Japan in the Middle East. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2005-06-18 11:55 |
| #9 Hope they could hear/feel those bombs in Syria |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-06-18 11:47 |
| #8 I think we should just flatten all sunni areas to give the revenge minded Shites and Kurds a head start. |
| Posted by: JackAssFestival 2005-06-18 10:33 |
| #7 I've been thinking the last couple of days(agin)that the U.S. should let the Sunnies know that if the U.S.pulls-out they are on thier own.Without Saddams military and goons they would be at the mercy of the Shias and Kurds,not a nice place to be. |
| Posted by: raptor 2005-06-18 09:00 |
| #6 Kurds deserve their own country. It'd be a nice little thankyou to Turkey, too! Meanwhile the Iraqi Stock Exchange is open for business at http://www.isx-iq.net/page/contact.htm and if i can work out whether the country is going to hang together or not, I will buy some shares. It'll have a great future due to all that oil. But i just can't see yet whether it will hang together. |
| Posted by: anon1 2005-06-18 05:49 |
| #5 I think partition is definitely lurking nearby, anon1. If the Sunnis keep it up - they've been nothing but dead weight when they weren't killing Shi'a clerics or running the "insurgency" - then it will end that way. Agreed that Iraq is a foolish Brit/French confabulation that is no more legitimate than Yugoslavia. If it won't work, and you make the perfect point of the only reason why it didn't disintegrate before now, then there's no overriding reason to try to force it to work. I don't know if the Shi'a are really ready, they not showing much sense with guys like Jaafari, but sure as hell the Kurds are. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-06-18 04:52 |
| #4 perhaps Iraq should be split, after all it was never one country except by the arbitrary border-drawing of the British. It could be a mistake of our pro-multi-culti cultures that thinks it's possible to cobble together a nation out of shitites sunnis and kurds and expect them to live harmoniously with a consensual government. It only worked under the jackboot of a dictator: why should it work now the threat of force is gone? Maybe it should just be three countries and maybe this would stop the problems? |
| Posted by: anon1 2005-06-18 04:36 |
| #3 In other news, today, Arab News reports that 220 "insurgents" died in fighting in al Anbar Province. Us Military Command, however, stated that 226.796185 bodies were recovered. Details. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-06-18 01:30 |
| #2 500lbs=226.796185kg I guess they rounded down, for some reason ;) |
| Posted by: Rafael 2005-06-18 01:23 |
| #1 220kg bombs, huh? I'm thinking they were 500 pounders, MK-82's (see pg 3), myself. Took about 45 seconds to verify there's no such critter. ArabNews. Almost like reporting. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-06-18 00:34 |