U.K. soldier killed in Basra attack

[dArKeR]

One British soldier was killed and a second was injured when their convoy was caught between two crowds and fired on with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades in the town of Ali as-Sharqi in southern Iraq, the British military reported Thursday.

 LT. CMDR. Richard Walters said the shooting occurred at 9:45 p.m. Wednesday as the soldiers were returning from a raid in Ali al-Gharbi. He said the soldiers met a crowd of about 30 people who formed a roadblock. Soldiers moved around the crowd, only to be stopped by a second crowd blocking the road near Fort Jennings.
       Walters said the the soldiers got down from their vehicles, fired two warning shots trying to disperse the groups when the Iraqi’s opened fire with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, killing one soldier and wounding the second in the hand.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CA00

The Media are whores for not insisting to immediately know what kind of wounded? The kind that you would wish you were dead or the kind where you lost your legs, arms and eyes?

http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/

[rjbcar27]

1. The wounded soldier has a hand injury and is stable.

FYI.

[Spentastic]

2. This is very bad

This must spell the end of "engaging" local people. Armed crowds are not going to be easy to deal with.

Tony Blair will spend the day lying his arse off. Our soldiers will spend all day trying to save theirs.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Shades of Mogadishu

the soldiers met a crowd of about 30 people who formed a roadblock. Soldiers moved around the crowd, only to be stopped by a second crowd blocking the road near Fort Jennings.

Walters said the the soldiers got down from their vehicles, fired two warning shots trying to disperse the groups when the Iraqi’s opened fire with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, killing one soldier and wounding the second in the hand.

Roadblocks? Convoy surrounded? This sounds so much to the way the Somalis fought our troops in Mogadishu. More significant is that this is the second incident within a week in which British troops have been attacked in the Shia-dominated Southern Iraq.

Compare this bit of news with Tom Friedman's appearance yesterday on the network shows in which he was saying that things were just going fine in Iraq, maybe not as well as we wanted to, but not as bad as it was portrayed by the media. Friedman failed to mention that he was escorted by US troops during his Iraq visit and that he only met with people approved by the US.

[LivingInTheBubble]

4. details.

Interesting to note that fairly quickly you can see the name and details of the uk guys who get killed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3187215.stm

Whereas the US seems to want to try to keep details of US soldiers as low key as possible.

Is it just me that thinks that?

[Sticky]

5. If Bush gets his way

the headlines will begin to read, "UN Peacekeeper killed in Iraq", not American killed in Iraq. It's obvious why he wants UN involvment. It Gets the America Vs Iraq headlines off CNN.

Soon we'll hearing nothing about American tragedies......