Reply #34: Oh my God- they're using AC-130's!

[AZCat]

Guardian article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1187350,00.html

Scores die as clashes spread
12 marines killed after attack by dozens of rebels

Jonathan Steele in Baghdad
Wednesday April 7, 2004
<snip>
Abrams tanks and an AC-130 gunship pounded outlying neighbourhoods with shells and machine gun fire. Eight Iraqis were killed and 20 wounded in the fighting, coalition sources said. Last night US planes fired rockets into the town, destroying four houses and killing 26 Iraqis, including women and children, and wounding 30 others, said a doctor at Falluja general hospital.
<snip>

The AC-130 is a nasty, nasty weapon (http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/ac-130.htm) that annihilates pretty much everything in it's sights. It is not a 'precision' weapon, i.e. they are NOT worried about 'collateral damage'.