What, is everyone on the East Coast sleeping in this morning? For shame. I mean, coalition forces have entered Baghdad, which is good news even if they just made a quick sweep through the city.
Despite incursion, no sign of Americans in Baghdad "The city seemed strangely normal in the afternoon." This includes traffic even near the soon-to-be-renamed Saddam International Airport. I guess these people forgot to check if their flights were canceled. Speaking of the airport: US says now hold Baghdad airport "secure" Iraq is disagreeing with this report, naturally. However, the US has found "underground facilities" there and we can assume they don't mean the baggage carousels. In other news, sadly, eight of Jessica Lynch's fellow soldiers didn't survive their captivity. This includes the first woman soldier killed in the war, Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa of Tuba City, Arizona. Pfc. Piestewa was a Hopi Indian who leaves behind a 4-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl. The search for the much-hyped WMDs continue, with Marines checking out a girls' school in Aziziyah, 50 miles southeast of Baghdad. (Get your mind out of the gutter. Iraqi schools are probably on extended spring vacation. I'm sure there will be a change in the curriculum -- their pledge of allegiance to Saddam, for example, will no longer be mandatory, I'm sure.) In the north, US-backed Kurdish fighters are making a push to seize Guare, which apparently would cut off the main road between Kirkuk and Mosul, the main targets in the north. Iraqi fighting is being led by elements of Saddam's Baath Party, which apparently seems to be headed the way of the Whig Party. The Kurdish fighters are called "peshmergas." [Dave Barry]Which would make a great name for a rock band.[/Dave Barry]
Obituaries for Michael Kelly: The Washington Post An appreciation from a fellow Post reporter The New York Times
The lack of opposition as we enter Baghdad first encouraged, then frightened me. Either a majority of the people in the city want a regime change and are welcoming to US soldiers (which it really doesn't sound like they are) and the Republican Guards are all gone, or the Rep. Guards are hiding in wait of US troops along with a mob of civilians ready to attack. I just kind of picture the final scenes of 'Saving Private Ryan' (i.e. the US soldiers waiting for the German soldiers to get to a certain distance into the city, then unleashing everything they had on them.) I got that spooky "It's too quiet" feeling going.
The information recieved from the helpful Iraqi lawyer only pertained to Lynch. The special ops didn't go in with information on the whereabouts of anyone other than her, but did search briefly for others, but found only bodies.
I'm watching BBC news UK and it isn't exactly what they're saying. They say US troop made an incursion in Baghdad's southern suburbs, encountered republican guards troops, there was a battle and US troop turned back. I'm watching BBC news UK through this website: http://wwitv.com/portal.htm (to the right, the bottom "BBC news" button)
My luck that this had a response within seconds of posting it. I thought about it for a few seconds and deleted the post. It's still an awful % and sounds terribly suspiscious, but I we'll have to wait for the details. I'm still unhappy that the presentation we're getting is nearly as biased as Iraqi TV's. Beautiful girl gets rescued gets 99.9% of the attention. 8 dead is virtually a footnote.
NY Times account of our little day trip into Baghdad: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/05/international/worldspecial/05CND-MILI.html KUWAIT, April 5 — An armored force of 60 American tanks and other vehicles wheeled suddenly into the center of Baghdad today, taking the city's defenders by surprise and triggering a rolling firefight along boulevards lined with some people waving, and others shooting. The demonstration of American force left at least hundreds of Iraqi fighters dead and was intended, United States military officials said, to show the 4.5 million residents of Baghdad that the Army and Marines now encamped at the city's edges could attack at will. "We just wanted to let them know that we're here," said Maj. Gen. Buford C. Blount III, commander of the Third Infantry. As such, the goal of the raid appeared more psychological than military as Washington and London debate whether to challenge Saddam Hussein's political grip on Iraq by naming an interim government. It also seemed possible that coalition commanders decided to respond to Friday's dramatic appearance of Mr. Hussein on the streets of Baghdad amid a cheering crowd of supporters. The adulation for the Iraqi leader, no matter how carefully staged or taped in advance, was beamed out on Iraqi and Arab satellite television as a measure of proof that he had survived all allied attempts to kill or silence him. ...
Ok, this is pretty grisly. British find hundreds of body parts in makeshift morgue And. BBC link saying similar but with further infromation about Basra Though, despite the fact that clearly some, if not most of these body parts were significantly older than this conflict (bare bones etc) - I just saw an e-mail from someone in Dubai read out on Sky saying that this is a typical trick of the US to kill these people, wrap them up and claim it was the Iraqis. Whether you take the cynical line or not - these bones came from somewhere... Edit - Better BBC link
Well... the badly damaged APC that Iraqi soldiers are posing on top of (and that Iraqi TV is claiming is a destroyed American APC) looks suspiciously Russian-made to me... The American M113 rides much higher on its tracks and generally has a taller body. The APC shown is clearly one of the Russian BMP series.
what channel? i have not seen this... they are showing this huge weapons dump found in iraq on msnbc...i forget where <all the damn city names sound the same> but the said there are some 120 bunkers full of stuff <mines, rpgs, guns, mortars, etc.> and the american commander said there was more ordinance in these bunkers than in all of ft. pendleton.
Officially yesterday's news but only found a link today: British soldiers arrest Khalid Barour (an official of the Baath party) over the deaths of two British Engineers.
macze. help me out. maybe a week ago there were pictures on iraqi television of two 'british' POW's...two black fellas. i have not heard a thing about them since then. any word on who they were b/c i just saw an updated list of deaths, injuries and POW's and the report i saw said that no british have been captured by iraqi forces.
It's so painfully obvious even to me that these aren't US equipment. Odd to see the celebrating Iraqis dancing atop one of their own smouldering vehicles. @ Fid: Don't know if you can get Sky news over there but that's where I saw it. But Fox is Sky's 'sister' (abandoned at birth) channel, so you'll probably see it on there soon enough.
When I saw those supposed POWs on TV, my suspicions were immediately aroused by the fact that these really didn't look like UK army material. One was clearly past it and the other had a head full of dreads. I mentioned it a bit ago, you must have missed it, but... it turns out they were Kenyans subcontracted to UK forces They were found by British forces, tied up and dumped in a school.
got ya, thanks. my new favorite picture... tanks ride in to baghdad...but seriously folks, they are not anywhere near baghdad, oh wait...
That reminds me of that footage they always show on FOX when that guy stole the tank and drove down interstates outside of San Diego.
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12280825,00.html UNION JACK 'PROTECTION' from the Americans!
What happened to all of those complaints last week of stretched thin supply lines, not enough troops in theater and a lousy battle plan? Sounds like the media is making the same mistake they made during the Afghnistan war.