BAGHDAD — Days after the United States officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq’s ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad yesterday. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.
Related: Occupation Iraq: New Day Dawning
Seems like the same day again and again to me.
It was the first exchange of fire involving US troops in Baghdad since the Aug. 31 deadline for formally ending the combat mission, and it showed that American troops remaining in the country are still being drawn into the fighting.
And it showed you your government and MSM are still liars.
The attack also made plain the kind of lapses in security that have left many Iraqi citizens wary of the US drawdown and distrustful of the abilities of homegrown forces now taking up ultimate responsibility for protecting the country.
See: Occupation Iraq: Scanning Victory
Occupation Iraq: Iraqi Indictment of AmeriKa's Occupation
And we called it victory!
Yesterday’s hourlong assault was the second in as many weeks on the facility, the headquarters for the Iraqi Army’s 11th Division, pointing to the failure of Iraqi forces to plug even obvious holes in their security.
Two of the four attackers managed to fight their way inside the compound and were killed only after running out of ammunition and detonating explosives belts they were wearing.
The American troops who joined the fight on request and provided cover fire for Iraqi soldiers were based at the compound to train Iraqi forces, said a US military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Eric Bloom. Iraqi forces also requested help from US helicopters, drones, and explosives specialists, he said. No American troops were hurt, Bloom said.
We are never leaving, folks.
Under an agreement between the two countries, Iraq can still call on American forces to assist in combat and US troops can defend themselves if attacked.
That does not sound like a "noncombat" phase, does it?
In this assault, six militants wearing explosives vests and matching track suits, armed with machine guns and hand grenades, pulled up at a checkpoint with an explosives-laden car, said a senior Iraqi military intelligence official who was inside the building at the time.
The six assailants left the car and started shooting, killing a soldier at the checkpoint, he said. Guards at an observation tower returned fire, killing four militants, while the other two attackers entered a building in the military compound.
Iraqi soldiers shot and killed a seventh attacker who was driving the vehicle, causing the car bomb to explode, the official said. The blast left behind a gaping crater in the ground.
The fighting came to an end after the two assailants who breached the compound ran out of bullets and detonated their explosives vests, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Two weeks earlier, a suicide bomber linked to Al Qaeda waded into a crowd of hundreds of army recruits outside the same building and detonated a blast that killed 61 people. That was the deadliest act of violence in Baghdad in months.
So which "Al-CIA-Duh" would that be, huh?
The made-up "Al-CIA-Duh?"
Related:
Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh and the OSI
Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh's Greatest Hits
Prop 101: The "Terrorism" Business
New York Times Admits War on Terror is U.S. Creation
Oh, AmeriKa's MSM KNOWS ALL ABOUT and yet STILL PUSHES the CHARADE, huh?Baghdad has been on high alert since President Obama declared the official end to US combat operations on Wednesday.
That's an indictment of the whole thing.
The Iraqis have set up more checkpoints, intensifying searches of people and vehicles and handing out more weapons to troops guarding the capital....
And yet the attackers still get through.
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