U.S. Fights Highly Trained Militants in Iraq

[ECH1969]

Sunni Arab militant groups suspected of ties to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia have established training camps east of Baghdad that are turning out well-disciplined units willing to fight American forces in set-piece battles, American military commanders said Thursday.

American soldiers fought such units in a pitched battle last week in the village of Turki, 25 miles south of this Iraqi Army base in volatile Diyala Province, near the Iranian border. At least 72 insurgents and two American officers were killed in more than 40 hours of fighting. American commanders said they called in 12 hours of airstrikes while soldiers shot their way through a reed-strewn network of canals in extremely close combat.

Officers said that in this battle, unlike the vast majority of engagements in Diyala, insurgents stood and fought, even deploying a platoon-sized unit that showed remarkable discipline and that one captain said was in “perfect military formation.” The insurgents had built a labyrinthine network of trenches in the farmland, with sleeping areas and significant weapons caches. Two anti-aircraft guns had been hidden away.

Sunni Arab militants there belong to the fundamentalist Wahabbi strain of Islam and are believed to be led, at least in part, by a man known as Abu Abdul Rahman, an Iraqi-Canadian who moved from Canada to Iraq in 1995 after marrying a woman from Turki, the colonel said. Abu Abdul Rahman was mentioned on some jihadist Web sites as a possible contender for the leadership of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia after the group’s founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in an American airstrike in Diyala Province last summer, said Capt. Mike Few, commander of A Troop, Fifth Squadron.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/23/world/middleeast/24diyalacnd.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Dangerman]

1. It's like Vietnam all over again!

:mad:

[oblivious]

2. 72 Iraqis killed; 2 Americans killed. Sounds more like a massacre than a battle.

A lot of use the Iraqis'well-aimed shots' were.

[ECH1969]

4. There is a reason for that

"American commanders said they called in 12 hours of airstrikes"

[Nihil]

10. Well-aimed shots score 2. 12 hours of bombing scores 72.

The only difference between a "terrorist" and an "air force" is the
existence of aircraft.

The question that isn't asked: "Did the 72 dead include the snipers?"

[Drum]

3. This makes America look so impotent! nt

[Nihil]

9. Why do you think there are so many Viagra ads on TV? (n/t)

[Ravy]

5. We should try capitalism.

Find who is training the militants, and pay them double to train the Iraqi army. We come home. Problem solved.

:sarcasm:

[xchrom]

6. every day that goes by -- they learn -- and they learn more at our expense

than theirs.

our money pit is NOT bottomless.

no matter the brainwashing the right has received at the hands of rupert murdoch -- those billions of dollars we ''throw'' at this conflict hurts us deeply -- in all kinds of ways.

our dead soldiers, innocent civilians, billions of dollars -- we are in deep trouble.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. Highly-trained militants?

Like perhaps former members of the Iraqi army? Or former members of the Elite Republican Guard?

[hedda_foil]

8. Highly trained Sunni militias fighting set piece battles?

Gotta be former Iraqi army. Al Qaeda isn't exactly known for set piece battles.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Then why don't we get these guys to train the Iraqi army?

Sounds like they're doing a better job then we are.

[benEzra]

13. They probably used to BE the Iraqi army...

in retrospect, the decision to disband the existing Iraqi army, send those soldiers home to be unemployed, and create a new army from scratch, was an exceedingly bad one.

[dbt]

12. U.S. Fights Highly Trained Militants in Iraq, Rumsfeld Boasts Cost Cuts.

Halliburton board unanimously grants bonus. Film at 11:00 on GE stations.

:freak:
dbt
Remember New Orleans