Iraqi Forces Surround Hostages Takers

[ECH1969]

Iraqi security forces say they have surrounded areas in Baghdad where they believe hostages are being held, after a mass kidnapping inside a government ministry building.

Hours earlier armed men raided Iraq's Ministry of Higher Education abducting up to 100 men, but a government spokesman says at least 20 have been released.

A witness, Houssam Hussein, works in the building, but had stepped out when the gunmen arrived.

"There were about 30 cars and the men were in police commander uniforms and armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns," he said. "They even took a 60-year-old man and put him in the trunk of the car."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1788744.htm

[Kagemusha]

1. So what are they gonna do about it.

No seriously. What ARE they gonna do about it? This is unlikely to end well.

[ECH1969]

2. Waco II?

[Kagemusha]

3. I forget the name but, how 'bout the school siege in Chechnya?

The one that went really, horribly wrong.

[Tracer]

4. Beslan. Not in Chechnya, but in Russia.

n/t

[Kagemusha]

7. Ah, yeah, that. By Chechnyans but in Russia proper...

And even for Russian standards, that "rescue" was a botched op. Though the opponent was dire.

I just have to wonder what good the Iraqi Army can do. Besides, surrounding any part of an urban area isn't the same as surrounding a school in a town with open space around it. Surrounding a place you'd have to fight your way into isn't necessarily much good...

[NOLADEM]

5. Hmmm....Hostage takers that are likely on a suicide mission...This oughta end well

[coalition_unwilling]

6. "We have met the enemy and he is us" -- n/t

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. They haven't surrounded a compound...but areas...

That's like saying I have a bank-robber cornered because I know he's in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn.