Security incidents in Iraq, Dec 25 (US tank in flames in Baghdad)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAM522905.htm

Dec 25 (Reuters) - Following are security incidents in Iraq reported on Saturday, Dec. 25, as of 1230 GMT.

U.S. and Iraqi forces are battling a Sunni Arab insurgency against the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad.

<snip>

BAGHDAD - A U.S. Abrams tank was blasted by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, eyewitnesses said. Reuters reporters saw the tank in flames. The U.S. military said it was aware of an incident with a tank but had no details on any casualties.

<snip>

MOSUL - The body of Qusay Salahaddin, president of the Students Union of Mosul University, was found shot dead two days after he was abducted by gunmen, the Students Union said. On Dec. 21 he led a demonstration on the campus complaining of alleged fraud in last week's parliamentary election.

...more at link...

we seem to lose a lot of them. Ah well, more profits for the defense industry...



An Iraqi soldier passes a burning U.S. army Abrams tank which caught fire after a convoy was targeted by a roadside bomb in the center of Baghad, Iraq, Sunday Dec. 25, 2005, according to Iraqi police. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Many many burned to hell...

I just found that number as a replacement cost. Is that right? Man talk about pissing your money away...

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m1.htm

The Army will not discuss details of how tanks have been damaged by insurgents, lest that give tips to the enemy. "We have been very cautious about giving out information," says Jan Finegan, spokeswoman for Army Materiel Command.

A favorite tactic: detonating a roadside bomb in hopes of blowing the tread off the tank. The insurgents follow with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and gunfire aimed at the less-armored areas, especially the vulnerable rear engine compartment.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-03-29-abrams-tank-a_x.htm

or photographers. It is pure luck to get photographs of these incidents, otherwise they don't exist. :(

Can anyone imagine tanks on fire in Washington, D.C.?

That is the only comparative I can come up with. Baghdad is the capitol of Iraq and that is where the "Green Zone" is. Doesn't this imply that there is absolutely no security in Iraq? The US military has been unable to "secure" the road to the airport, unable to keep the peace in the capitol and is losing a minimum of 2 soldiers per day (with countless soldiers wounded and maimed daily).

I am just exhausted and overwhelmed by the stupidity of this mal-administration.

and it is making a few people rich. :(

capital and tanks are burning and the US officials and personnel (all except the poor troops) have to hide behing barricades in the Green Zone. Truth be told, I bet its just chaos and catastrophe outside the barbed wire and concrete barricades.

All indications are that we are making and have made progress. Baghdad is safe, as is Mosul. There's only a few places that need cleaning up. Victory is near. I know because I heard President Bush say so a hunnerd times.

:sarcasm:

had to invade Iraq & provoked a hornet's nest of evil & pain. It seems worse than Vietnam because it was so deliberate. I will pray for peace this Christmas day.

Anger flared round Mosul's university campus, one of Iraq's most distinguished, after the bullet-riddled body of the head of the student union was found on Sunday. The body, found with the victim's hands bound behind his back, also bore marks of strangling, a hospital source said. Gunmen had grabbed Qusay Salahaddin from his home on Thursday, two days after he had led a demonstration against the election results, and bundled him into the trunk of a car before driving off, said Mohammed Jassim, a friend of the victim.

From there, Salahaddin used his mobile phone to call for help, Jassim said, accusing Kurdish peshmerga militia: "Save me, the peshmerga have kidnapped me," Jassim quoted Salahaddin, a Sunni Arab, as saying before the line went dead. Among some 2,000 fellow students gathered at a mosque where the body was taken, accusations quickly flew against another favoured target of Sunni Arab complaint, militia forces loyal to one of the main Islamist parties in the Shi'ite Alliance bloc. No group claimed responsibility for the killing.

ELECTION ANGER

Mosul -- one of two cities named by U.S. President George W. Bush before the election as a model of progress in Iraq -- has been at the forefront of complaints of voter fraud this year. Provisional national results of the December 15 election show the Shi'ite Alliance bloc should come close to retaining its slim majority in the new legislature, despite a big turnout by Sunni Arabs who boycotted a poll in January. That has sparked protests in recent days in Baghdad and elsewhere by Sunni and secular parties, despite assurances from U.N. and other officials that irregularities under investigation affect only an insignificant proportion of the ballot.

About 1,000 marched on Sunday in Baquba northeast of Baghdad and, in the subdued former rebel stronghold of Falluja to the west, some 2,000 people joined a demonstration that also expressed anger at a government fuel price hike last week. City council leader Kamal al-Nazal complained of fraud in an election the once dominant Sunni minority had taken part in for the first time with high hopes, only to see them disappointed: "We went to a wedding," he said. "And it turned into a funeral."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/25122005/325/bombs-protests-iraq-election-mood-sours.html

that the number of dead wouldn't be larger than yesterday, but, there it was three more, and I don't see how anyone came out alive if that tank.

The blood and treasure expended on george's* folly aren't worth it, I just don't know how much longer it'll be before everyone wakes up to this.

I prefer the Reuters headline:

Bombs, protests in Iraq as election mood sours

Lull in violence ends as Sunnis, secular parties dispute poll results

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bombs struck Iraqi police and army patrols and destroyed an American tank in Baghdad on Sunday as fresh street protests over election results kept up tension that has soured the mood after a peaceful ballot 10 days ago.

In the violent northern city of Mosul, the killing of a Sunni Arab student leader abducted after heading a demonstration against the election results prompted accusations by mourners at his funeral against militias loyal to the victorious Shiite Islamists and their Kurdish allies in the interim government.

<snip>

Anger flared round Mosul’s university campus, one of Iraq’s most distinguished, after the bullet-riddled body of the head of the student union was found on Sunday.

The body, found with the victim’s hands bound behind his back, also bore marks of strangling, a hospital source said.

Gunmen had grabbed Qusay Salahaddin from his home on Thursday, two days after he had led a demonstration against the election results, and bundled him into the trunk of a car before driving off, said Mohammed Jassim, a friend of the victim.

From there, Salahaddin used his mobile phone to call for help, Jassim said, accusing Kurdish peshmerga militia: “Save me, the peshmerga have kidnapped me,” Jassim quoted Salahaddin, a Sunni Arab, as saying before the line went dead.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10602151/

the Student Union leader's kidnapping reminds me of Salvadorean tactics. Odd how there has been an upswing in these abductions after Negroponte's short stint in Baghdad?.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17663906%255E1702,00.html

THE bound and bullet-riddled body of an Iraqi student leader has been found, a few days after he led a campus march alleging fraud in last week's election, a students' group said.

The body of Qusay Salahaddin was found close to a hospital in the northern city of Mosul with his hands bound behind his back and marks of strangling on it, a hospital source said.

Gunmen took Mr Salahaddin, president of Mosul University's students' union, from his house last week and bundled him into the trunk of a car before driving off, said Mohammed Jassim, a friend of the victim. He said Mr Salahaddin used his mobile phone to make last-ditch pleas for help.

"Save me, the Peshmerga have kidnapped me," Mr Jassim quoted Mr Salahaddin, a Sunni Arab, as saying before the line went dead, apparently referring to Kurdish militia groups operating in northern Iraq.