Car bombs hit Iraq police stations-Airliner hit by surface-to-air missile

[RamboLiberal]

Several car bombs have ripped through two Iraqi police stations Saturday morning near Baquba, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Baghdad, military officials have told CNN.

Shortly before 8 a.m. (midnight ET, 0500 Saturday GMT), a car bomb hit the Baquba police station, the officials said. The U.S. military reported 15 to 25 civilian casualties.

No coalition soldiers were injured in the attack.

About 30 minutes later, two car bombs hit the Khan Bani Sa'ad police station north of Baquba.

In a separate attack, a DHL airliner landed at Baghdad International Airport with one of its engines on fire after it was hit by a surface-to-air missile, according to Coalition Provisional Authority sources.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/11/22/sprj.irq.main/index.html

[LastKnight]

1. thats no rpg thier using on the airliner...

if they got sams with guidances all bets are off, they could take down a plane or two and the death tolls could be worst yet. all bets could be off in the states too, great thought for somone whos gonna hop on a plane in less than an hour, huh? lol

-LK

[spinbaby]

13. CNN said...

...something about a SAM 7heat-seeking missle. I've no idea what that is.

[legin]

15. there was a thread in either GD or LBN about missles

a while ago. If someone can rember it can they post the link

(sorry this very hazy from memory)

Very, very Aproximatly:
3 types of missiles, 2 Russian, 1 u.s.

First Russian type, cheap and nasty, not very accurate, doesn't shoot down too much, designed in the sixties, but they are all over the place, you can buy them in bulk from Ebay for not very much money.

Second Russian type is a more recent improvement on first.

u.s. SAM-7, top of the range, much more accurate, but costs money and difficult to find in the market place.

[leftchick]

17. eek! This guy said a SAM-7!

<snip>In Baghdad, a cargo plane operated by the Belgium-based DHL landed Saturday at Baghdad International Airport with its wing ablaze. The U.S. military said it was unclear if it had been struck by ground fire but a military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the plane was struck by a SAM-7 surface-to-air missile.

......perhaps "someone" is supplying them to the resistence fighters?

[NickB79]

22. Ebay?

"you can buy them in bulk from Ebay for not very much money."

Just what I need for my collection! LOL, sorry, just givin ya crap :-)

[aquart]

2. Not exactly slowing the pace, would you say?

[Kool Kitty]

3. Well, I'm glad to know that this

administration thinks this whole operation is such a success. I'd hate to see what it would look like if it was a failure, sheesh...

[Judi Lynn]

4. I guess it's no big deal, after Brig. Gen. Kimmit explained it for us!

From the CNN article:

"They realize they can't attack us and defeat us in a conventional sense. What they are trying to do is break our will. They are trying to capture the headlines. But these attacks -- with the exception of a seriously injured civilian -- have had frankly no tactical value and they're militarily insignificant," Kimmitt said.

Kimmitt pointed out that Friday is the Muslim Sabbath, a day of rest.

"What is the purpose of firing rockets at an empty ministry building on a Friday, which is the equivalent of a European Sunday? They're trying to grab headlines." (snip)

[htuttle]

19. "Trying to grab headlines," he said.

Not that Bushco would ever do such a thing.

Wait a moment...This just in....

ALERT: WE HAVE AN UNCONFIRMED REPORT THAT AL QUEDA IS ATTEMPTING TO PLAN TO CARRY OUT AN ATTACK...

That is all.

[NJCher]

5. they have truly found our weak point

"No matter how high-tech you are, no matter how proficient you are, no matter how professional your soldiers are .... we are still dependent to a great degree on actionable intelligence," said Kimmitt, the coalition's deputy chief of operations.

But that's nothing new. This was pointed out to bushco going into this war but it, like everything else, was disregarded.

What a disaster bush has been. I never dreamed, even in the farthest stretches of my imagination, how bad a president he was really going to be. Not in a million years, and I have a good imagination. He has truly opened the gates of hell. Not satisfied to be merely an incompetent nincompoop and a stooge for corporate America, he has surpassed nearly every disastrous leader in history, save for Hitler.

Also, notice how the "coalitions" deputy chief sounds just like he got fresh out of the Karl Rove School of Spin? Here are his comments:

They are trying to capture the headlines. But these attacks -- with the exception of a seriously injured civilian -- have had frankly no tactical value and they're militarily insignificant," Kimmitt said.

Trying to capture headlines! What, what...and make you look bad? Why, shame on them. What a tawdry thing to do when being attacked by a superpower. We really must send these terrists to finishing school.


Cher

[Guaranteed]

11. It's like when the British went up against the Indians

way, way back in the day....the "savages" were hiding behind trees! They wouldn't line up in neat little rows, to be shot, like real men! What was the world coming to?

[Solly Mack]

6. My husband was at BIAP when the hotels were hit Friday

He made it to Kuwait without further incident. He flies out today (Saturday)from Kuwait and should be in Baltimore by Monday.

This has been my biggest worry over the last 36 hours.

Bush deserves no mercy.

[Wwagsthedog]

7. My sincere wishes are with you that he gets home safely!

Good Luck to both of you!

[greyl]

8. I'm so happy for you that he'll be home soon.

I can't imagine how stressful it's been for you.
Hang in there. :)

[Judi Lynn]

9. Here's the AP report

16 killed in car bomb explosions north of Baghdad

Saturday, November 22, 2003

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



(11-22) 00:52 PST BAQOUBA, Iraq (AP) --

Two car bombs, one of them driven by a suicide attacker, exploded Saturday at police stations in a pair of towns near Baghdad, killing at least 16 people, most of them policemen, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

The first blast occurred in Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Minutes later, a suicide driver blew up his car at the gate of the police station in Khan Bani Saad, a crowded market town about 12 miles south of Baqouba on the road to Baghdad.

Lt. Hussein Hazem said six officers died in the Baqouba explosion, which left a large hole at the entrance to the building. He said at least 10 civilians were hurt.

Capt. Ryan McCormick of the 4th Infantry Division said the explosion in Khan Bani Saad killed six policemen and three civilians apart from the suicide driver. Iraqi police said one of the dead was a 5-year-old girl. Ten people were wounded, McCormick said. (snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/11/22/international0352EST0456.DTL

[0rganism]

10. Even if no US soldiers die, these attacks are scaring off collaborators

American troops are going to have to leave before anything resembling a stable gov't can develop. This runs quite counter to the notion of remaining in Iraq to establish democracy.

[dArKeR]

12. 16 killed in seperate blasts - News24

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1449309,00.html

[mikehiggins]

14. Jack Straw new Iraqi Info Minister

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1448937,00.html

He sure seems to be in the running for the job. He reassures the Brits that Iraq has nothing to do with the Instanbul bombings.

What a wit.

[Robb]

16. Gotta say, DHL....

I don't know about you all, but this bit from CNA raised my eyebrows:

"...DHL, the formerly US-owned courier now owned by German giant Deutsche Post, said its staff had suffered no injuries.

"I'm delighted to confirm that all on board escaped any injury," spokeswoman Patricia Thomson announced in Brussels, adding that it was too early to say whether the company would continue its Baghdad service, the first authorised by the US-led coalition after its troops seized the airport in April."

Made of sterner stuff than I, those Germans. I'd be assuring everyone my butt would be on the next train outta there.

[Jacobin]

18. Everything is going fine. Take your Soma and "shut-up"

William Oh'Really

[Rose Siding]

20. When Iraqis are in charge of security next summer

and the attacks continue, Bush can urge the Palest...er, the Iraqis to "do more", to be a better "partner for peace" in the War On Terror.

[seafan]

21. Here are two more links.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/58575/1/.html

-------
BAGHDAD : A civilian plane belonging to international express courier DHL was hit by a SA-7 surface-to-air missile over Baghdad forcing it to make an emergency landing, the US military said.

"A DHL plane took off from Baghdad airport this morning and was hit by a SAM-7 surface-to-air missile," said a military official who asked not to be identified.
--------


AND...


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/58586/1/.html

--------
KHAN BANI SAAD, Iraq : Fourteen people were killed and more than 50 wounded in twin suicide attacks on Iraqi police stations, as a civilian cargo plane was forced to make an emergency landing after the first successful missile strike on a plane in the seven-month-old insurgency.

The scale of the carnage from the almost simultaneous car bombings against the two police stations north of Baghdad overwhelmed local hospital staff. Police were forced to fire in the air to disperse anguished residents so they could evacuate the wounded and clear the human remains.

International express courier firm DHL confirmed that all of its staff were unhurt after what the US military said was a SA-7 surface-to-air missile strike on its Airbus A-300 aircraft.

Witnesses told AFP that they saw the plane's left wing ablaze before the plane made an emergency return to Baghdad airport, which has remained shut to scheduled civilian flights ever since the US-led spring invasion because of the persistent missile threat from anti-coalition insurgents.
---------


This is getting really, really scary.

[KDLarsen]

23. 2 things..

.. regarding the air services to Iraq. From what I've been told, when the airlines starts flying to Iraq, the aircraft will be instructed to remain in a holding pattern over the airport, while ground troops search through the area, looking for any possible terroists (good luck, that's a circle with a diameter of around 20 miles).

Also, the problem with SAMs & civil aircrafts, is that the latter have a very small heat profile compared to military aircrafts, who are usually the SAMs normal targets. That's what happened in Kenya, the missile was simply unable to lock onto the small heat profile generated by the engines.

[54anickel]

24. Why must they say No coalition soldiers were injured? Why are Iraqi

police called civilians? This is so devisive. They call contractors Coaltion contractors, why aren't the Iraqi's considered part of the Coalition effort?
Coalition seems to only be used to refer to US folks. Seem to report as Italian troops, Polish troops, British troops and Coalition troops.

Coalition: An alliance, especially a temporary one, of people, factions, parties, or nations