Gunmen Assassinate Top Iraqi Official

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq

OBEIDI, Iraq - The U.S. military pronounced its weeklong offensive near the Syrian border over Saturday, saying it had successfully "neutralized" an insurgent sanctuary and killed more than 125 militants. In Baghdad, gunmen assassinated a top Iraqi Foreign Ministry official Saturday evening in a drive-by shooting while he stood outside his Baghdad home, police said.

Jassim Mohammed Ghani, the ministry's director-general, was killed at about 9 p.m. in western Baghdad's al-Kharijiyah district, Capt. Talib Thamer said.

In the Iraq-Syria border operation, many more suspected insurgents were wounded and 39 with "intelligence value" were detained, the military said in a statement.

Nine U.S. Marines were killed and 40 injured during the campaign known as Operation Matador, the military said in a statement.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[newsgatherer]

2. Why?

I'm not sure I understand your point.

Great article, but, your comment leaves me bewildered.

[Name removed]

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[newyawker99]

14. Hi newsgatherer!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[newsgatherer]

16. Thanks

Thank you

[killbotfactory]

4. roughly: 50 us causalties vs. 200 or more insurgent casualties

Those are horrible odds for the US military.

Who the hell planned this goddamn mission?

[Teaser]

8. Yeah. These are losing odds for a counterinsurgency campaign.

In Vietnam, General Giap was happy to lose 10 of his men to every one of ours, because he knew he'd always have more to fill the gap, and that we wouldn't.

[tabasco]

17. General Giap learned from one of the best.

George Washington.

Giap said that he had carefully studied the strategy of General Washington in his military education.

[Botany]

5. Feedom's March

Want to read what the other side is saying?

http://www.freearabvoice.org/Iraq/Report/report275.htm

[lebkuchen]

6. All this killing, from a President who says, "We are a peaceful people"

[ninkasi]

9. Strange interpretation

of what constitutes peaceful, isn't it? Of course, this president is also one who lies every time he speaks. He has a lot of strange ideas, too, about freedom, as he and his thugs are doing everything they can to abolish freedom here.

[lebkuchen]

13. How long before Bush is "neutralizing" the "militant" nurses after Arnie?

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. OMG, even if just half those reports are true

we are in deep shit.

For example, I don't remember seeing this one in the M$M?


Resistance bombards US base Thursday afternoon.

Iraqi Resistance forces attacked the southern parts of the biggest US base west of the city of al-Anbar located by the al-Warrar Bridge with seven Katyusha rockets Thursday afternoon. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the part of the base which was hit was where there are runways for US aircraft and that it is an area that comes under Resistance attack virtually on a daily basis.

The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported witnesses as saying that the attack took place at 4pm local time and that it sent four plumes of thick black smoke rising into the sky as numerous secondary explosions shook the US occupied facility.

http://www.freearabvoice.org/Iraq/Report/report274.htm

[bemildred]

7. The half-life of high Iraqi gov't officials seems to be shortening. nt

[roughandtumble]

12. Was it Juan Cole who said

that the elections sheared the veneer off of the national unity that focused the Iraqi's hate against the US and focused it on internal, civil differences? Hence the growing Iraqi Civil War? He maybe onto something here..

[OldLeftieLawyer]

11. I'm sure the families of all the dead Marines...........

......... will be thrilled to know Campaign Matador was such a raging success.

[Bigmack]

15. Not only that...

but the papers are saying the Marines indicate a lot of "insurgents" fled. What they didn't add was "to fight another day".

Matador sounds like all those ops in Vietnam... questionable body count, the other guys just melt away, dead Americans. Should we just mark the area "pacified" on our maps and move on?