10 Marine deaths last week said to be at Patrol Base, not on foot patrol

[Rose Siding]

This doesn't seem to square with the video evidence. Maybe that was from a different attack -or this info could be wrong, but this scenario is frightening, too. A dual explosion that was tripped after the place was cleared must be pretty sophisticated improvisation. It also indicates the strength of the insurgents' intel about US force activities. FWIW:

Update to Dec. 1 Improvised Explosive Device attack

Fallujah, Iraq -- On Dec. 1, 10 Marines from Company F, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, were killed and another 11 Marines injured by an improvised explosive device outside Fallujah. The Marines were inside an abandoned flour factory being used as a patrol base when the IED detonated.

The platoon swept the area for explosives and established security around the factory. On that day, the company commander traveled to the patrol base to promote three Marines. A promotion ceremony involving a group of Marines was conducted inside the patrol base. When the ceremony ended, the Marines dispersed. It is suspected that one of the Marines triggered a hidden pressure plate initiation device, causing the explosion. Explosive experts believe four artillery shells were buried in two separate locations. All Marines were wearing their protective equipment.

Initial reports that the Marines were on a foot patrol at the time of the explosion were incorrect.

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/Releases/Dec/051206d.htm

Screen shots of Jazeera video here-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5511893

[chaumont58]

1. I guess this clears up a question I had

On patrol, an infantry unit always has spacing. When I heard that 10 Marines were killed by an IED on patrol, I wondered how large could the bomb have been?

[Toots]

2. Even in camp it is number one no no to bunch up

We are supposed to be best trained troops in the world...It is one thing to enter a building with bomb protection like barracks and mess halls are but another to be caught like this in the open....This should be placed on the CO's head because it should never have happened. Twenty one marines taken out with a double explosion seems highly improbable if they were trained properly.

[Rose Siding]

3. The report doesn't really make it clear that they were outside

First it says they were inside, then that they dispersed but it doesn't exactly say they'd left the flour factory.

[legin]

4. It's just another guess

When Falluja was 'cleared' an amount of u.s. troops were reported in the media as having been killed during 'the assualt on Falluja'.

There have been two or three other towns cleared since then, which seem to not have generated, in the media, the 'XX troops killed in XXXXXX' stories.

There was, i think, a recent offensive on some town and this could be the casulties for that operation via an indirect route.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. The video is apparently from a different attack

Or so says the DoD.

Who knows, really. I put no more trust in the DoD than I put in the insurgent disseminator of videos, that's for damn sure.

[Hobarticus]

6. These troops are definitely on some kind of thouroughfare...

Everything I read and heard stated that they were inside a walled compound. I'm not buying this clip, either.