U.S. base in Najaf under fire

[maddezmom]

NAJAF, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Army tanks rolled out of their base in the middle of Najaf Monday afternoon to fight back against a barrage of insurgent mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire aimed at the base.

From base rooftops, U.S. Army snipers fired single warning shots to break the silence that fell over the city as the tanks rumbled beyond the gates.

Moments before, the base, formerly the home of the Spanish contingent, was under almost steady attack from suspected members of the Mehdi Army -- the banned militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

U.S. officials said the attacks on the base were not unusual -- overnight, the insurgents launched three rounds of four to six mortars each at the base, starting a small fire and damaging an armored Humvee.

~snip~

Maj. Todd Walsh told CNN the Army had requested approval to operate in a wider area of central Najaf. The U.S. military's self-imposed exclusion zone prevents the Army from responding to many attacks against its forces.

~snip~
more: http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/03/iraq.najaf/index.html

[maddezmom]

1. Jane Araf reporting US has killed 7

fighting on going, attack helicopters doing recon at this time.

[workforpower]

2. This war is lost.

When marines retreated and a Sadamm General takes over It will be seen as a defeat. This war has been so mismanaged. Faith based forgein policy never works.

[lindashaw]

4. Yes, it's lost. But Vietnam was lost long before anyone acknowledged

that it was lost. In fact, we went to the Paris peace accords in 1968, made a deal over the Nixon administration, pulled out of the accords, then lost 30,000-some-odd men, then agreed to the same peace accords that we had previously agreed to in '68. I don't see this turning out any better unless America takes to the streets again.

[SEpatriot]

3. Mission NOT accomplished

This administration is totally lost and refuses to acknowledge the disaster in Iraq. What is happening is not "a few Saddam loyalists" operating on some "pre-war plan" but a slow but steady trickle of uprising which severely endangers the lives of U.S. soldiers.

How many people are going to be so critical of Kerry's Rolling Stone statement about Bush and the war now??