Iraq Gunmen Batter American Supply Lines

NNN0LHI

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Mon Apr-12-04 10:42 AM
Original message

Iraq Gunmen Batter American Supply Lines

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=3&u=/ap/20040412/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Gunmen battered American supply lines Monday, torching armored vehicles and looting a supply truck on its way from the Baghdad airport. The military said about 70 Americans and 700 insurgents had been killed this month, the bloodiest since the fall of Baghdad a year ago.

Two U.S. troops and seven employees of American contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root were missing, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said Monday. Seven Chinese civilians were kidnapped, while militants freed nine captive truck drivers.

More U.S. forces maneuvered into place around Fallujah, and the military has warned it will launch an all-out assault on the besieged city if talks there between pro-U.S. Iraqi politicians and city officials fall through.

The military has been trying to regain control of supply routes after several convoys were ambushed at least 10 truck drivers kidnapped. Nine were released, but an American — Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss. — remained a captive.

On Monday, a convoy of flatbed trucks carrying M113 armored personnel carriers was attacked and burned on a road in Latifiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Witnesses said three people were killed.

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daleo

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Mon Apr-12-04 05:31 PM
Response to Original message

1. This seems like a bad sign

Edited on Mon Apr-12-04 05:32 PM by daleo

"On Monday, a convoy of flatbed trucks carrying M113 armored personnel carriers was attacked and burned on a road in Latifiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Witnesses said three people were killed."

I am no military expert, but it seems to me that losing a convoy filled with armored personnel carriers indicates very severe problems with logistics and security of supply lines. I mean, you would think these things would have a pretty strong guard around them. They are lucky the Iraqis burned them, rather than took them for their own use.

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htuttle

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Mon Apr-12-04 05:37 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. They lost a howitzer the other day

No idea how, or who's it was, but read a story that British forces had fallen under artillery fire at one of their bases. It was mentioned (in the article) that the artillery had been captured by resistance forces.

Yes, they appear to have pretty severe problems. For one, judging by what I've read this week, the US seems to have lost all close air support ability, except for very selected operations.

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ex_jew

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Mon Apr-12-04 06:17 PM
Response to Reply #2

3. But why no air support - do the mujihadeen have anti-aircraft batteries ?

This is really hard to understand !

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daleo

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Mon Apr-12-04 06:22 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. Another thread mentions that anti aircraft guns were being smuggled in

To Fallujah (they found some guns hidden in relief convoy, was the claim). So, maybe they do have some capacity in this regard, although you would think it would be no match for the U.S. military.

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htuttle

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Mon Apr-12-04 06:24 PM
Response to Reply #3

5. All I can think is that they've lost a lot of helicopters

Not necessarily all shot down, but I remember that after the first weeks of the war in Afghanistan, they had to rotate out all of the helicopters in the field because all of them had sustained damage.

There have been a number of reported SAM attacks, but they had an AC-130 flying around Fallujah last week, so they couldn't have been too worried about that (?).

For helicopters, however, they wouldn't even need a SAM. Several have been taken down by RPGs, and even concentrated small arms fire can damage them enough to shoot them down (or require immediate maintenance downtime).

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bemildred

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Mon Apr-12-04 06:54 PM
Response to Original message

6. A couple notes

The Apache in Baghdad was reported downed by a SAM7.
But that is said to be "isolated".

I am wondering about the fuel situation, the helicopters eat
huge quantities of fuel.

An islamic source claimed 8 or 9 choppers downed in Fallujah.
Have seen no pictures yet.

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sal

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Mon Apr-12-04 08:50 PM
Response to Original message

7. We need our Pravda Itel guy back.

He wasn't far wrong sometimes and gave one more alternative to official press lies. I can't remember the site name.

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Teaser

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Mon Apr-12-04 08:56 PM
Response to Reply #7

8. Iraqwar.ru?

http://www.iraqwar.ru/?userlang=en

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