Attack On Us Military Base Kills 2

Attack on US military Base Kills 2 wounds 17;
Running Battles leave Capital’s Streets Deserted;
Pentagon Thinks Big concerning attack on Iran

In making continency plans for war against Iran, the Pentagon is thinking big. Not just surgical strikes on the civilian nuclear energy program, but hitting virtually everything of importance in the country. The Air Force kept telling us they could bomb Vietnam into submission. They couldn’t. Then it was shock and awe in Iraq. Didn’t work. Just remember, it is always the Army that has to come in and clean up the mess.

Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that numerous running gun battles and mortar strikes were witnessed in Baghdad on Monday as US and Iraqi forces clashed with guerrilla fighters. The mounting death toll of the past few days caused the government of Nuri al-Maliki to reapportion troops, assigning some urgently to “hot areas” as opposed to areas of “routine operations.” Sweeps also resulted in numerous arrests, but a leader of the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accord Front maintained that some 30 young men arrested on Monday were innocent. As a result of the street battles, Baghdadis rushed to their homes for fear of a further deterioration in the security situation, leaving the capital looking like a ghost town.

Sunni Arab guerrillas killed 6 US GIs on Sunday and Monday in Iraq. They killed two of them Monday with a car bomb and mortar attack on a newly set up US base at Tarmiya north of Baghdad, also wounding 17.

Reuters reports a minibus bombing in Baghad, another at Zaafraniya, and the discovery of 8 bodies in Mosul. Also two bombings in Ramadi. McClatchy reports the discovery of 20 bodies in Baghdad and other violence.

The explosion of a fuel tanker near Taji north of Baghdad killed 5 persons and sent 138 persons to the hospital from inhaling the fumes. Those affected were having trouble breathing and were vomiting.