U.S. helicopters strike high-rises in Baghdad - "We are firing at terrorists in those buildings,"

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/U_S_helicopters_strike_high_rises_in_Baghdad.html?siteSect=143&sid=7462335&cKey=1169657606000

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. helicopters attacked gunmen holed up inside high-rise buildings in Baghdad on Wednesday in what the U.S. military said was an operation to regain control of a major street cutting through the heart of the city.

Thirty insurgents were killed and 35 detained during day- long gunbattles in the area, Iraq's Defence Ministry said. The U.S. military said one U.S. soldier had been killed in central Baghdad but would not confirm whether it was during the clashes.

The fighting came a day after U.S. President George W. Bush told a joint session of the U.S. Congress in his annual State of the Union address that America dared not fail in Iraq and called on lawmakers to support his plan to send more troops.

U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by Apache attack helicopters and armoured Stryker vehicles firing their heavy machine guns fought militants in Haifa Street in a battle that began around daybreak, U.S. military spokesman Major Steven Lamb said.

[Little Wing]

1. I'm glad I don't live a floor underneath any suspects

:eyes:

[bdamomma]

2. they are annihilated that country. someone else's country

that did not do nothing to us. What if it happened to us?

[peace13]

9. Great point!

Why do so few of our countrymen ask 'What if'? Where is the empathy?

[asjr]

3. How can we know this is true? It came from the

Pentagon? How many "gunmen or insurgents" have been killed because Shrub needs to continue to pull the wool over our eyes. I believe nothing anymore.

[Kagemusha]

6. It's a Sunni district in the middle of a Shiite Bagdhad.

So of course it's a strategic target that must fall.

[LSK]

14. the US is joining in the war on Sunnis and siding with Iran???

[Kagemusha]

15. Basically.

There are real insurgents in this place. And just plain militia desperately defending their kind against the Shiite militias and death squads. The US makes no distinction. Once they fall, the real cleansing can begin. I mean, what, you think the cops would stop them? Americans pay lip service to trying to ensure that doesn't happen - after they finish pounding the insurgents - but, I put no stock in it.

[LSK]

17. this whole situation is so mindboggling considering the Iran war plans

[greyl]

10. We can't, and it's horrible.

The only thing keeping us from pouring into our streets in protest is unreasonable attachment to our habitual lives.

[Captain Hilts]

4. What will the neighbors say? nt

[Robbien]

5. Imagine sitting in your high rise apartment then all of a sudden

a hail of bullets tear through your living room while a military copter thunders outside. If they live through it, imagine how scarred those Iraqi families will be from now on.

[Divernan]

18. See the film, "Children of Man" for scenes exactly like this -horrifyingly realistic

There are so many powerful urban battle scenes in that film - a picture is worth a thousand words, and I can't imagine anyone being able to describe with mere words the overpowering impact of seeing, from inside a building, the impact of bullets and missiles being fired upon the building.

[acmavm]

7. I wonder how many of those 'insurgents' are under 12 years of

age? How many are elderly? How many are women? How many are just men who want to take care of their families.

What if some country were doing this to us?

[gratuitous]

12. Well, if they got in the way, they were terrorists

Because our military doesn't fire on civilians, only terrorists. So anybody getting in the way of a bullet or a rocket or a mortar round is by definition a terrorist. Geez, can it be any clearer?

[donco6]

19. I'm always suspicious of these "insurgent" numbers.

Basically, any body that's carried out is an "insurgent." Or part of a body.

[acmavm]

24. Thank you for straightening me out there.

[gratuitous]

25. Glad to be of service

By my watch, I think we're about half past Vietnam, well on the way to Cambodia.

[Virginia Dare]

8. Thirty "insurgents" were killed...

at least it's assumed they were insurgents, they could just as easily have been innocent people caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, like sitting in their apartment minding their own business.

[Turbineguy]

11. That's a normal tactic

In Beirut the Palestinians would fire from hospitals and schools. Collateral damage has good propaganda value.

[malaise]

13. No the US is slaughtering people in their homes

with no plan of anything but destruction.

[Disturbed]

16. It is a message to all Iraqis.

If any anti-US Iraqis are being sheltered by anyone, all will be fired upon. Resistance is futile. Assimilate!

[0rganism]

22. please, that's "surgical striking" people in their homes

We're not killing them, we're simply performing helpful medical procedures.

[malaise]

26. Wish I could laugh

You're right - that's the spin.

[RiverStone]

20. This is shrub's war...

He will keep shooting the bullets till the chamber is empty---and then some.

Any general who has challenged the on-going insanity has been fired.

The only way to take his weapons away is to cut off funding ASAP. No more "non-binding" bullshit resolutions.

We have run out of time. Next stop for shrub....Iran.

[lpbk2713]

21. They want to reign supreme over a pile of rubble.

With that attitude that's all they will win, if they ever do. And who the hell wants to say they won a pile of rubble that used to be one of the world's largest cities.

[Disturbed]

23. "won a pile of rubble"

It is about control of the region and the oil flow. The people and the buildings are not relevant.