Rebels Smuggle Supplies Into Iraqi City (Fallujah)

[Barrett808]

Rebels Smuggle Supplies Into Iraqi City
BY LOURDES NAVARRO, Associated Press Writer

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Sunni insurgents are smuggling weapons and fighters into Fallujah in aid convoys and ambulances, making it difficult for U.S. troops to stem the flow of weapons, Marines said Monday.

On Monday alone, U.S. troops in Fallujah uncovered anti-aircraft guns buried in a load of humanitarian aid and saw an ambulance pull up to two shot insurgents and take away their weapons — leaving the casualties lying there.

"One guy was found hidden in a sack of grain in the back of a truck," apparently intent on joining fighters in the city, Army Military Police Capt. Kurt Barclay, 38, from Ridgeway, Pa., said at a checkpoint on a desert road leading into Fallujah.

Humvees blocked the road as troops checked through a line of cars, buses and trucks loaded with sacks and boxes of food, medicine, blood plasma and blankets.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040412/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_smuggling_weapons&cid=540&ncid=1480

[daleo]

1. This will be the excuse to tighten the blockade

It looks like this could turn into an old fashioned siege. Time to bring in the catapults and siege ladders.

[Barrett808]

2. Doesn't it violate the Geneva Convention to lay siege to a civilian town?

Thought I read that recently.

[daleo]

5. Collective punishment, denial of basic services (water, etc)

Yes, I believe these are all prohibited by the Geneva Convention. But Bushco will do a word dance around this, and go ahead anyway. International law has never been a concern of his, or there never would have been an invasion in the first place.

Once Iraq has its sovereignty back, I think they should change the name of the soccer stadium in Fallujah to the "George W Bush Commemorative Mass Graveyard". He likes having things named after himself, anyway.

[Mithras61]

3. "Rebels"?

and here all this time I thought these people were "terrorists" and random members of al Qaida who had infiltrated Iraq through the Syria border which the Syrianswereclearlynotpatrollingaggresivelyenoughsincetheyletsaddamhusseinsneakhisweaponsofmassdestructionthrough the syrianborderandnowwefindoutthatthesearereallyiraqifreedomfighters...


Sorry, I think I OD'd on network news earlier today :evilgrin:

[54anickel]

4. Guess this justifies the shooting of ambulance drivers last week

that I read about in another posting. Of course that article said nothing about grabbing weapons or smuggling supplies in. :shrug:

[bemildred]

6. Other reports I have read suggest the "blockade" is far from airtight. nt