Iraq summary 4/7/2004

[PfcHammer]

Wednesday, April 7

1. U.S. Marines fired a rocket and dropped a 500-pound, laser-guided bomb on a mosque compound. Witnesses said as many as 40 people were killed. The coalition was in control of about 25% of the city.

2. U.S. forces continued to hunt down members of radical Shiite cleric Moktada al Sadr's al-Mahdi Army in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. The U.S. military's deputy head of operations vowed to "destroy" the militia.

3. Marines continued fighting Sunni insurgents along a one-mile front in Ramadi. Syrian mercenaries were believed to be involved in the battle.

4. Ukrainian forces were forced to evacuate Kut after clashes with al Sadr's al-Mahdi Army. At least 12 Iraqis were reported killed and 20 wounded.

5. Militiamen loyal to al Sadr clashed with Polish troops in Karbala, and an aide to the cleric reportedly was killed.

6. Residents of the northern town of Hawijah, near Kirkuk, clashed with U.S. troops. Eight Iraqis were killed, and 10 Iraqis and four Americans were wounded.

7. A U.S. OH-58 Kiowa helicopter made an emergency landing in Baqouba after it was hit by small arms fire. No one was hurt.

[rumguy]

1. It's amazing how the fighting is spreading

that's what is worrisome

[Jacobin]

2. Thanks Klever!!

Good summary of another bad day. Been on the road all day and from the radio, all would seem well in the world.

Couldn't wait to get home, get on DU and find out what the media doesn't want us to know.

BTW a belated welcome to you.

[DivinBreuvage]

3. I miss Venik's "Intelligence Reports" on iraqwar.ru

They overestimated casualties and the writers' scorn for the US military was pretty apparent, but it turns out they provided a far more accurate and realistic picture of the situation than the mushroom pipe nonsense we get from American Pravda. I do recall there was some heated debate over their quality at the time because some felt it was impossible either that the Iraqis could inflict such damage on the US military, or that the US military could appear to be so incompetently led.

[rumguy]

4. what happened to it?

and what does .ru indicate - is that middle east?

[DivinBreuvage]

5. The writers were "shut down"

Venik, who translated the articles from Russian and put them on his web site, claimed they were written by people who worked for Russian Army Intelligence. A lot of people were understandably sceptical of that claim, but in the event it turned out that the writers did appear to have some genuine involvement in or access to Russian intelligence, though at a low or amateurish level. Russian authorities clamped down on them and the articles stopped coming.

.ru is for Russia, BTW.

[whatelseisnew]

6. PBS had a map on TV with 10 flashpoints listed

I believe there are probably many more, small towns and/or

'isolated incidents' in bigger towns/cities