Reply #85: No. The following would be an extremely grave situation

[jmcgowanjm]

IRR 021905

Ba‘qubah – Diyala Province.

Entire US column reported wiped out in ambush near
Iranian border.

A US military column was completely wiped out in fierce
fighting with Resistance forces according to the
Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent in the town of al-
Mundhiriyah, near the Iranian border, east of
Ba‘qubah.

The correspondent, who was at the scene of the battle,
wrote that a US column made up of eight vehicles came
under Iraqi Resistance attack in the Jalabiyah area, known
as the at-Tilal or hilly area, at 10pm Friday night.  The
Resistance fighters holed up in strongholds in the
hills unleashed a sweeping attack on the US column,
using missiles, pipe rockets, bazookas, and land mines
that they had planted in the path of the American forces
before their arrival.

Four US tanks, three Humvees, and one armored vehicle
were destroyed in the fighting that lasted two hours,
the correspondent reported.  He said that US dead were
in excess of 60 men.  An adjutant commander of the Iraqi
border guards confirmed that the entire US column was
wiped out.