BREAKING NEWS ONLY

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-03-26 05:31am

From Merriam-Webster Online:

One entry found for gulch.

Main Entry: gulch
Pronunciation: 'g&lch
Function: noun
Etymology: perhaps from English dialect gulch to gulp, from Middle English gulchen
Date: 1832
: a deep or precipitous cleft : RAVINE; especially : one occupied by a torrent

Post by **K. A. Pital** » 2003-03-26 08:15am

About one hour ago a missile struck a marketplace in the very centre of Baghdad. Presumably 15 killed and 200 wounded, all civilian. The missile caused much destruction to all nearby houses.

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2003-03-26 08:35am

Humanitarian aid being handed out in Safwan.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-03-26 09:08am

Stas Bush wrote:About one hour ago a missile struck a marketplace in the very centre of Baghdad. Presumably 15 killed and 200 wounded, all civilian. The missile caused much destruction to all nearby houses.

Assuming it was a coalition missile, it wasn't intended for that target. But with hundreds of bombs and missiles slamming into Baghdad, one or two are bound to miss their targets...

On the other hand, the mortars being fired by Saddam's thugs at their own people are aimed at and intended for defenseless civilians, but few seem to distinguish that fine point.

KhyronTheBackstabber · Post by **KhyronTheBackstabber** » 2003-03-26 09:09am

MSNBC reports that thousands of chem. suits, and antidote injectors have been found in Iraq

theski · Post by **theski** » 2003-03-26 11:04am

Just like Apocalypse Now!! "God I love the smell of Napalm in the Morning it smells like victory"http://www.thisislondon.com/til/jsp/mod ... Id=4015882

Ted · Post by **Ted** » 2003-03-26 11:14am

jegs2 wrote:On the other hand, the mortars being fired by Saddam's thugs at their own people are aimed at and intended for defenseless civilians, but few seem to distinguish that fine point.

That is troops putting down an insurrection and revolt.

The US on the other hand, pegged a market in Baghdad, where they are only saying they are targeting military places like palaces and museums.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-03-26 11:18am

theski wrote:Just like Apocalypse Now!! "God I love the smell of Napalm in the Morning it smells like victory"http://www.thisislondon.com/til/jsp/mod ... Id=4015882

'Just like Apocalypse Now'
By Hugh Dougherty in Qatar, Evening Standard

An eyewitness tells today of the heaviest battle of the war so far which has left 750 Iraqis dead.

Sean D Naylor of the American Army Times quotes a US soldier describing the fighting as so intense that "it looks like Apocalypse Now".

Naylor reports the destruction of American tanks, rocket-propelled grenade assaults and deadly air strikes called in on the Iraqi attackers.

So intense was the fighting that at one stage the 3rd Squadron commander's driver, Private First Class Randall Duke Newcomb, was forced to steer his Humvee with one hand while firing out of the window with the other.

The battle on the Euphrates came when a US armoured column of the 7th Cavalry was caught in a deadly ambush by hundreds of Iraqi soldiers on the road to Baghdad at Najaf.

Although first reports suggested there were no American dead, intelligence sources in Washington say it is feared the Allies may have taken "heavy casualties".

US Abrams tanks were hit by Iraqi missiles fired from tripods on pick-up trucks, and vicious close-quarters skirmishes continued even after the Iraqis took heavy losses. Meanwhile, a large contingent of Republican Guard was reported to be heading south from Baghdad to meet US troops head on.

holy shit batman!

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-03-26 11:22am

Ted wrote:
That is troops putting down an insurrection and revolt.

The US on the other hand, pegged a market in Baghdad, where they are only saying they are targeting military places like palaces and museums.

Keep it in the debate thread please. I know it's difficult- I made the mistake myself, but we really can't clutter this thread up.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-03-26 11:56am

FOX News is reporting that Republican Guard units are moving south in an apparant attempt to engage the USMC 1st MEF head on.....someone in Baghdad needs to lay off the khat, cuz you need to high as a kite to think that is a good idea.

meNNis · Post by **meNNis** » 2003-03-26 12:38pm

Stas Bush wrote:About one hour ago a missile struck a marketplace in the very centre of Baghdad. Presumably 15 killed and 200 wounded, all civilian. The missile caused much destruction to all nearby houses.

Link Please.

Otherwise shove it.

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2003-03-26 01:03pm

meNNis wrote:
Stas Bush wrote:About one hour ago a missile struck a marketplace in the very centre of Baghdad. Presumably 15 killed and 200 wounded, all civilian. The missile caused much destruction to all nearby houses.
Link Please.

Otherwise shove it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle ... 887555.stm

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-03-26 01:21pm

Ted wrote:The US on the other hand, pegged a market in Baghdad, where they are only saying they are targeting military places like palaces and museums.

...and you of course assume that was on purpose. Try coordinating a massive bombing campaign of a single portion of a city, using hundreds to thousands of bombs. You'll find that a couple miss their intended targets. My point, which you seemed to have missed, is that the Iraqi terrorists are purposefully attacking their own people and soldiers -- no accidents or misses involved there. Where is the similarity in those two cases?

Edit: If we were truly interested in killing Iraqi civilians, don't you think we would have leveled any city that showed any sign of resistance, instead of risking Coalition lives as we are now doing? Furthermore, why not just carpet-bomb Baghdad, eliminating its population grid-square by grid-square?

It now appears as though the Iraqis may have been placing missiles near residential areas, hoping either that we wouldn't hit them because of their proximity to civilians or that they could capitalize, for propaganda purposes, on any civilian deaths due to a strike on their hardware. Lesson available to civilians may be, "Stay well away from Iraqi military hardware."

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2003-03-26 01:52pm

Aren't they going in the wrong direction?

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-03-26 01:55pm

I heard about the column from Baghdad BUT this column from Basra?? What the hell is going on??

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-03-26 02:12pm

Stravo wrote:I heard about the column from Baghdad BUT this column from Basra?? What the hell is going on??

Looks like Coalition aircraft are pounding them, since the Iraqi forces are nice enough to move in a column, like ducks in a row:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2889635.stm

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-03-26 02:29pm

i don't see the sense in his strategy anymore. for a while i thought Saddam was playing Russia to our Napolean... fighting retreat into baghdad, burn the oil wells light counterattack with millitia and irregulars and sit and wait in a fortified baghdad until the hell of summer set in....now, shit i can't see what the hell he's trying to do.

RadiO · Post by **RadiO** » 2003-03-26 02:30pm

British Saddam-supporter surrenders to Desert Rats:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2889703.stm

Fighting the Coalition was apparently a real drag, so he wants to go back to his family in Manchester.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-03-26 02:37pm

RadiO wrote:British Saddam-supporter surrenders to Desert Rats:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2889703.stm

Fighting the Coalition was apparently a real drag, so he wants to go back to his family in Manchester.

Unfortunately for that particular individual, I don't think he'll be able to go home to his family in Manchester for some time. However, surrendering likely assured he won't soon be transformed into a corpse.

RadiO · Post by **RadiO** » 2003-03-26 02:46pm

jegs2 wrote: Unfortunately for that particular individual, I don't think he'll be able to go home to his family in Manchester for some time. However, surrendering likely assured he won't soon be transformed into a corpse.

Yeah... Wonder where this guy stands legally? "In the shit", I suppose.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-03-26 02:47pm

According to CNN the Pentagon said that there were no US casualties in the battle last night that killed "hundreds" of Iraqis. Its on the CNN ticker, so I hads nothing to link to.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-03-26 02:54pm

Stas Bush wrote:About one hour ago a missile struck a marketplace in the very centre of Baghdad. Presumably 15 killed and 200 wounded, all civilian. The missile caused much destruction to all nearby houses.

Seems low if it was a Tomahawk or CALCM, I'd expect a 1000 or 2000 pound warhead to kill many more. Might have been a falling SAM with a bad fuse. t one point it was being reported that the US Military had said it was a pair of Tomahawks, but those reports have ceased.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-03-26 03:00pm

Stravo wrote:According to CNN the Pentagon said that there were no US casualties in the battle last night that killed "hundreds" of Iraqis. Its on the CNN ticker, so I hads nothing to link to.

there are many diferent reports of this battle i have heard Iraqi casualty numbers range from 150 to 750 and US casualties range from zero to "heavy". does anyone have any concrete info?

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-03-26 03:03pm

Col. Crackpot wrote:
Stravo wrote:According to CNN the Pentagon said that there were no US casualties in the battle last night that killed "hundreds" of Iraqis. Its on the CNN ticker, so I hads nothing to link to.
there are many diferent reports of this battle i have heard Iraqi casualty numbers range from 150 to 750 and US casualties range from zero to "heavy". does anyone have any concrete info?

Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) is always difficult, especially on a hot battlefield, where we can't take our time checking out dead folks and destroyed equipment. We probably won't hear anything concrete until that entire area has been secured.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-03-26 03:29pm

Vympel wrote:Aussie F/A-18 Hornet pilot refuses bombing order because he couldn't positively identify the target (are Aussie Hornets equipped with PGMs now?)

http://www.reason.com/hod/tc032403.shtml

I belive they have Paveway II's.