Three U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=1&u=/ap/20031123/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

MOSUL, Iraq - Attackers slit the throats of two American soldiers who were waiting in traffic in this northern Iraqi city on Sunday, witnesses said. Another soldier was killed in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad.

Elsewhere, three American civilian contractors were wounded in an explosion in the northern oil center Kirkuk. First reports said the blast was from a mortar, but Lt. Col. Matt Croke said officials later concluded it was a bomb.

The killings occurred after U.S. helicopter gunships struck targets in central Iraq on Sunday, according to other witnesses.

The bodies of the two male soldiers could be seen lying in the street next to their vehicle in Mosul's Ras al-Jadda district with their throats cut. The U.S. command in Baghdad said it had no information on the incident.

more

[leftchick]

1. 3 Dead Today....

:(

[saigon68]

5. "BRING EM ON" yelled the AWOL Chimpanzee

Protected by thousands of secret service agents, acres of bullet proof glass and square miles of armor plating.

And "Bring It On" the resistance did.

[papau]

23. A day in Iraq - 2 slit throats, a few deaths, a few wounded , no US Media

are slit throats non-combat deaths?

Attackers slit the throats of two American soldiers who were waiting in traffic in this northern Iraqi city on Sunday, witnesses said.

4th Infantry Division soldier was killed Sunday and two others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Elsewhere, three American civilian contractors of the U.S. firm Kellogg Brown & Root suffered facial cuts from flying glass in an explosion on the compound of the National Oil Company in the northern oil center Kirkuk.

On Friday, insurgents rocketed the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, where many KBR employees as well as international journalists and others stay. One civilian was wounded.

On Saturday, insurgents hit a civilian cargo plane with a surface-to-air missile, but the aircraft landed safely. The plane was the first civilian airliner to be hit by insurgents, who have shot down several military helicopters with shoulder-fired rockets. DHL and Royal Jordanian, the only commercial carrier flying into Baghdad, immediately suspended flights.

Suicide bombers struck two police stations northeast of Baghdad within 30 minutes on Saturday -10 people were killed in one and four in the other.

Elsewhere, Col. Abdul-Salam Qanbar, an Iraqi police colonel in charge of a police force charged with protecting oil installations in the northern city of Mosul, was fatally shot Saturday evening while heading to a mosque.

The 25 member Council will soon replace the Shiite Muslim member killed with another Shiite Muslim (woman?) member so as to maintain the proportional division between Iraq's different sects and ethnic groups: 13 Shiite Arabs, five Kurds, five Sunni Arabs, one Christian and one ethnic Turk.

[Jacobin]

2. "And how many deaths will it take 'til we know,

that too many people have died?"

"The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind...
the answer is blowing in the wind."

Pains me to think of the thousands of american soldiers and Iraqis who will be maimed and lose their lives before we finally pick up our war toys, declare "victory" and leave their country.

[NNN0LHI]

3. And sooner or later we will leave. I hope it is sooner n/t

[Flagg]

4. OMG!!!!!!!

They slit their throats ?

this is really turning ugly

[Josh]

13. Starting to sound an awful lot like Mogadishu

How long before the Iraqi citizens starting having parades when US soldiers are killed? Something has got to change on the ground there and *fast*.

In the immediate concern for US troops, my fear is that the US will not be able to get the UN to take over and spread the burden until there is a change in administration in the United States government, as Bush pissed off everyone else and the invasion will be seen as having credibility if they accede to his wishes.

[UpInArms]

51. you got me to wondering what the

good (sic) folks were saying back then regarding Clinton's foreign policies and I came up with this lovely piece of flotsam

http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/releases/1998/kosovo.htm

"It's so simple if you read the newspapers or watch TV: Kosovo's Albanians are suffering under brutal Serbian rule, so NATO must ride to the rescue to stop the fighting and protect human rights. Of course, it may not be so simple. And that's what worries some critics, including a few veteran journalists. They fear the media and the State Department share a simple, black-and-white view of foreign conflict that drives U.S. involvement in Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti, Somalia and the Persian Gulf. . . . To some, it seems to be a policy based on melodrama, with villains committing unspeakable crimes against innocent victims who need U.S. help <"How Media Shape Foreign Policy: Seeking Melodrama, They Often Distort The News," news analysis by Brian Mitchell, Investor's Business Daily, 7/7/98>.

and this little jewel

http://www.afa.org/magazine/oct1998/10verb98.asp

"I am increasingly concerned that our military has begun a downward spiral that, if left unchecked, will lead to a weakened military no longer able to underwrite our interests. This spiral results from fewer and fewer military people and less and less equipment and supplies being called to do more and more around the world. This in turn causes more wear and tear on people and equipment, which results in fewer people and less equipment."
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), in an August 1998 letter to Senate Republican defense leaders.

[deutsey]

58. "Iraqi mob beats bodies of slain U.S. soldiers"

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1069588863179&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi teenagers dragged two bloodied American soldiers from a wrecked vehicle, pummelled them with concrete blocks and slit their throats today, witnesses said, describing a burst of savagery in a city once safe for Americans.




:evilfrown:

[underpants]

15. That was what Isaid (outloud) when I read that

Welcome to DU Flagg :hi:

Yes this really is getting really ugly.

[fishnfla]

56. Its worse

their bodies were desecrated and lay in the streets for hours. Just horrible.

[0007]

39. Max Cleland comes to mind

[megaplayboy]

6. Bloody November

Geez, with the chopper shootdowns, and two to three GIs killed every day besides, we could wind up having 80 to 100 deaths this month:-(

slit throats, and rockets fired from donkey carts--while we're bombing them, they're not letting up either. It costs them, what, a million bucks or so a week, and costs us a billion a week.

We'll have 500 deaths before the end of the year, and there's a chance we might have 1000 deaths by the one year anniversary of the war. Not to mention ten times that number in wounded.

What will our justification be for this war when Al Qaeda strikes us again in the USA, a year or two down the line?

[Snoopy2]

16. 95 coalition soldiers killed this month so far

according to the Irag Coalition Casualties website. It is pretty alarming - 74 US soldiers this month. There have been more killed so far in Nov. than any other month since the war began. This has been one bloody month.

The total killed since the war began is 510 total coalition consisting of 432 US soldiers.

Very sad numbers.

[janx]

44. Now I find myself wondering...why don't we count fatalities

such as those caused by the bombing of Brits and others in Istanbul? We're kidding ourselves if we don't admit those are in retaliation to our war in Iraq and therefore part of it.

[PurityOfEssence]

41. Just-say-"no"-vember

Still a few more chopping days before the end of Ramadan.

[Occulus]

42. At that point, it won't matter.

We'll be under matial law. Gen. Franks said as much a day or two ago; something to the effect of our Constitution not surviving another terrorist attack.

And I thought part of their oath was to uphold and protect the Constitution....

destroying the nation to save it.

[Lorien]

64. It costs them a million or so a week?

I think it costs them a good bit less; knives aren't all that expensive. Here we're spending $500 billion to go after people who fight back with donkey carts and knives! And least we forget; this is all done in the name of "retaliation" against people from Saudi Arabia and Egypt who were armed with nothing more than box cutters!

[UpInArms]

7. I guess that according

to the logic (sic) of the * junta, that November marks a definite turning point for the better -

remember those words (paraphrasing): the more they attack and kill us, the better we are doing -

and with 28,000 Iraqi teachers out on the streets (courtesy of Bremer), you know that the educational system in Iraq will improve drastically.

I wonder if we have planted some more flowers around the palaces that we are occupying?

This gives the phrase "pushing up daisies" a whole new meaning :mad:

I am so sorry for these soldiers and their families, the tragedy seems to grow for all of us.

[saigon68]

8. IT IS DISGUSTING and unfortunately ONLY BEGINNING

A long way to go, thousands yet to die

[rfranklin]

9. Laying in the street with their throats slit--like "Blackhawk Down?"

Where is the outrage? Where are the screaming freepers? How could Bush humiliate America like this? Why weren't they riding in an Abrams tank? Why weren't Cruise missiles launched immediately? Why isn't Iraq a pile of glass?

[NNN0LHI]

11. Better question is just what in the hell are they even doing there?

We have no business occupying these peoples country. I know what I would do if another countries army was occupying America. Same thing.

Don

[fshrink]

21. We're in Mosul because

that's where the big oil reserves are. That's also where the Kurds and the Turks are, with the 6-century-old tension that we know... We leave the area and it's hello confrontation, with radicalization of Turkey in sight. It's not for nothing that the CIA put SH where he was...

[dArKeR]

10. Bush/Rum tell us the hatred doesn't run deep and just a few

'trouble makers' attacking Americans!

This is just unbelievable. 1 or 2 Iraqis without guns just knives going after soldiers who are equipped with the most technologically advanced gear the world has ever known. And they are going after us with knives.

Our leaders (Repuke and Dem) should be jailed immediately. They have done nothing but tell lies about the entire situation in Iraq. And they're using the lives of our children to gain personal profit.

Witnesses say attackers slit victims’ throats
http://msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CB10



In the late 80s, Pakistan's then head of state, Benazir Bhutto, told the first President George Bush, you are creating a Frankenstein. But the warnings never quite filtered down to the cops and G-men on the streets of New York.
http://msnbc.com/news/632825.asp

[UpInArms]

12. related article: Attacks on convoys kill 3 U.S. troops

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/11/23/sprj.irq.main/

With the deaths, 429 U.S. troops have been killed in the Iraqi war, 300 from hostile fire. Since May 1, when President Bush declared the end of major combat operations, 290 U.S. troops have died, 185 from hostile fire.

No reliable estimate of Iraqi deaths over the course of the conflict is available. The Associated Press reported an estimated 3,240 civilian Iraqi deaths between March 20 and April 20, but the AP said the figure was based on records of only half of Iraq's hospitals and that the actual number was thought to be significantly higher.

[markses]

14. 3 also died yesterday, though in "accidents" so you won't hear about it

2 dead:
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Two 1st Armored Division soldiers were killed and one was injured in a traffic accident Nov. 22.

An M-1 Abrams tank struck a HUMVEE at approximately 10:30 p.m. near Baghdad International Airport. The injured soldier was taken to the 28th Combat Support Hospital for treatment.

http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/Casualty_Report.asp?CasualtyReport=20031128.txt

1 dead:

TIKRIT, Iraq – One 4th Infantry Division soldier died in an apparent drowning when the vehicle the soldier was driving slid off the road and went into an adjacent canal.
Soldiers were in pursuit of a suspicious vehicle, near Balad, at approximately 9:15 p.m. on Nov. 21, when the incident occurred. Other soldies in the vehicle attempted to extricate the soldier but were initially unsuccessful. The soldier was removed from the submerged vehicle a short time later.

http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/Casualty_Report.asp?CasualtyReport=20031127.txt

[saigon68]

17. SWEPT UNDER RUG " FORGOTTEN"

"Bring em on"---the chimpanzee

[underpants]

19. Thanks for the link. How long has this been going on?

I know that they have never reported on all of the attacks let alone all the accidents. We only heard reports of attacks in which someone was "injured" ( to what extent?) when those were becoming a drumbeat attacks in which soldiers died (there, immediately, not counting those who die later). I don't think we have any idea of the actual numbers involved.

Wasn't there a report ~2 weeks ago that 9,000 US troops had left Iraq for all kinds of reasons? 37 dentals if I remember correctly.

Subject line "thaks" edited

[teryang]

18. Worst month in war (for coalition) equals progress

This is the worst month of the war so far for the "coalition." Stories about improvement, progress, and no strategic significance are absolute nonsense.

Mosul the relatively quiet city.

Another deliberate misrepresentation from our government.

[underpants]

20. I'm getting the feeling our troops are completely surrounded by "success"

:scared:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

22. Population of 22 million, 4 million of which are males...

...capable of fighting against the "coalition".

Surrounded sounds just about right.

[pdove]

24. There is no way we can win this war

when we have lost heart and mind of Iraqi people.

Either we have eliminate all iraqis or we have to leave.

I guess we can not repeat what we did to the Indian people here in America, we better leave now!

[catmandu57]

25. I read the headline, then the story of three more dead

then I go to lunaville and discover it should have read six dead, all I can do is shake my head and ask how long?. There was a report on the news the other night in which the reporter asked in a soft voice at the end of his piece if all we've done is stir up a hornet's nest, to which I replied yes.
The soldiers there have no choice in the matter, but, the civies working for kbr and haliburton certainly do have a choice of staying or getting the hell out. Personally, no job is worth losing my life over, maybe that's the goal of the Iraqis drive out these people and the military will follow.
We've lost more soldiers this month since this ilegal invasion and occupation began, passing April, when it was still a "war" and there's time left in this month.

[KoKo]

27. CNN reported that 6 were killed not just 2, but yahoo has 3 on

their front page. Also the CNN reporter said that their was an accusation of "torture" or brutality with two of the soldiers in the "road side" attack but they didn't have any more info.

They are covering up the numbers by only reporting incidents in areas and then later reporting revised numbers. Their are constant discrepancies.

[RamboLiberal]

31. Yes I too just heard on CNN - 6 dead

3 of which were accidents. Guess they don't count.

And I read more and more of how the bases are mortared every night. This does sound like Vietnam redux.

[molok555]

32. CNN Inter just reported

the 6 dead figure and said that they heard that the 2 in Mosul "had their throats slit AFTER being shot, and then a crowd stripped the bodies" (emphasis mine).

BTW, wasn't/isn't Mosul a) a Kurd (read: friendly) area; b) in the northern No-Fly Zone and thus relatively Saddam-free for the better part of a decade; c) where the Torture Twins (Saddam's boys) turned in and killed; d) waaaaay out of the so-called Sunni Triangle?

[pinkpops]

26. "They hate the Americans in this area,"

said a man waiting for petrol near the scene. "They've been doing many raids around here and so it's not surprising they've been attacked."


Who woulda thunk?

[wryter2000]

28. OMG

Damn you, chimp. Damn you, damn you.

[alcuno]

29. Wasn't Baquba the town they were talking about pulling out of last week?

There were stories about how well things were going and that the Americans thought they could leave the Iraqi police in charge by January 1.

I heard last night that as a result of Saturday's bombing, 38 Iraqi police are either dead, injured, or missing.

When is the US media going to start putting together the fact that these are not simply random acts.

[fizzana]

30. They're not random, just "insignificant"

n/t

[Yavin4]

33. It's Official. November Is THE WORST Month for US Casualties

Six months after Bush delcared the war a success, we have the highest number of deaths in Iraq:


http://www.lunaville.com/warcasualties/summary.aspx

[markses]

36. If you view it in "months" - which is deceptive

since March was only 12 days and saw the worst of the fighting (once we pass the 7.67 daily average, you'll be right).

[Barrett808]

43. Note the slope of the graph -- same throughout Eisenhammer

Pentagon claims 70% reduction in enemy activity, but you'd never know it by looking at this graph:

http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html

[IndianaGreen]

34. Their throats were slit

This is a message, one only slits the throats of animals that are about to be butchered. The Americans's throats were slit because Iraqis now see Americans as animals, not humans.

This is a blood feud now!

[markses]

35. Or, it was just a good way to kill them

We need not intepret everything to death (the priestly-paranoiac machine).

[VolcanoJen]

38. CNN just reported that the soldiers were indeed shot first.

According to two eyewitnesses, the soldiers, who were travelling in a convoy, were shot. Their vehicle was disabled by attackers, who cut their throats. Next, a mob scene looted the vehicle, and looted the bodies of the soldiers.

Read a transcription of CNN's latest report in the other LBN thread that addresses the specific incident in Mosul:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=236251&mesg_id=236251

[saigon68]

40. said that before on the other thread

thanks

[mmm]

37. I hadn't thought of that...

seems to make sense, tho

[silverchair]

45. you gotta love the

reaction: is this guy smoking crack?

Despite the losses, Kimmitt said the guerrilla attacks are not having a major impact on the occupation forces' mission in Iraq.

"This is a enemy that cannot defeat us militarily, and in engagement after engagement, we see the enemy breaking off, running away," he told reporters.


http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/11/23/sprj.irq.main/index.html

[markses]

47. If your focus is "engagement," then of course

you seem to win.

Needless to say, the enemy is operating by a different set of criteria - engagement in the conventional sense ain't it. It may very well be that judged according to their criteria, they are doing quite well, thank you. Another fucking idiot that doesn't get the simple idea: It is not only the judgments that are in question, but the criteria we use to reach those judgments.

Didn't we already learn this lesson in Vietnam?

[leftchick]

46. Has Anyone Seen This Death From Friday Anywhere?

I found this at the end of an Al-Jazeera article....

<In another incident a US soldier died in an apparent drowning when his vehicle slid into a canal.
A US military spokesman said the incident happened on Friday at 9:15 pm (1815 GMT) but gave no further details. He said the soldier was from the 4th Infantry Division deployed east and north of Baghdad.>

....Perhaps it was not reported because it was "non combat"?

[markses]

48. That's listed and counted on lunaville.com

It is one of the six that CENTCOM announced today (2 hostile in Mosul, 1 hostile in Baquba, 2 non-hostile in vehicle accident Saturday, 1 non-hostile in drowning death Friday).

So, short answer, yes. It is reported.

[BuckeFushe]

49. Next we'll see Bush inpersonating Officer Barbrady

"Nothing to see here, move along".

[moroni]

50. From the same story..... different lead paragraph

Three U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq
40 minutes ago

By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press Writer

MOSUL, Iraq - Iraqi teenagers dragged the bloody bodies of two American soldiers from a wrecked vehicle and pummeled them with concrete blocks Sunday, witnesses said, describing a burst of savagery in a city once safe for Americans. Another soldier was killed by a bomb and a U.S.-allied police chief was assassinated.


<snip>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=1&u=/ap/20031123/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[saigon68]

52. Winning hearts and mnds of young people

Wonder how many of them had relatives or friends killed by the U.S.

[janx]

53. I cannot for the life of me understand if the concrete block

story and the throat-slit story are one and the same.

And I hate to even mention it because both are so gruesome.

But is this the same incident, or is it two separate ones?

[markses]

54. It's the same incident

The initial reports say throat slit, because they were slit - after the two guys were shot - and at the same time that their bodies were bashed with concrete. It's the same story.

[janx]

55. So I've now been told. But thank you for the explanation.

.

[fishnfla]

57. The implications of these sort of acts are horrific

Attacking in such a physical way indicates a deep seated hatred. this is just horrible. The twisted body of one of the troopers is being shown on a web newsite.

[janx]

59. Of course there's a deep-seated hatred!

We have to be realistic here. We have removed a dictator, but we have bombed, shot up, and occupied a country. Our military brass are living in the palace of the former dictator. We have selected a council to govern that country. Our military are rounding up citizens, many of whom are families trying to live in peace in their homes. Some people in that country, if not most, are going to be VERY pissed off. I think that to deny this view is to be very naive. (I am not suggesting that you don't realize this.) But I wonder if some people just don't understand what is going on.

I don't think most Americans have come to terms with this. Many don't even know what's going on.

[Alpharetta]

60. CNN main page now saying report of throats slashed "in doubt"

"After the deaths, witnesses told CNN the soldiers had their throats cut and were stripped of personal effects after they had been shot and wounded while riding in a civilian vehicle. But further investigation by CNN casts doubt on the allegations. "

www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/11/23/sprj.irq.main/index.html

[VolcanoJen]

61. kick (n/m)

...

[ElementaryPenguin]

62. Unless a Draft threatens their family - most Americans DON'T GIVE A SHIT!!

This is so fucking disgusting!!

:puke:

[saigon68]

63. Do what the Chimpanzee did

Let someone else die in the "War of Liberation"

[Lorien]

65. Very true

ask a bedwetting Freeper and it will tell you "that's the price of freedom"! Even the fact that we're all being fleeced for bushs cronies doesn't faze them from their blind loyalty; and repugs have ALWAYS loved their money far more than any soldiers life!