Gunmen Rout Iraqi Security Forces-Fallujah, Killing 20, Freeing Prisoners

[papau]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA0F6BLNQD.html

Gunmen Rout Iraqi Security Forces in Fallujah, Killing at Least 20 and Freeing Prisoners

By Mariam Fam Associated Press Writer
Published: Feb 14, 2004

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - Gunmen launched a bold daylight assault on an Iraqi police station and security compound (Iraqi Civil Defense Corps) west of Baghdad on Saturday, freeing prisoners and sparking a gunbattle that killed 20 people and wounded 30, police and hospital officials said.

The same security compound was attacked two days earlier by gunmen just as the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, Gen. John Abizaid, was visiting the site in Fallujah. Abizaid escaped that attack unharmed.

Up to 50 attackers faced little resistance as they swarmed into the police station, going from room to room and throwing hand grenades, according to a police officer who was in the station when it happened. Few police were present at the time, he said.

The attackers freed about 100 prisoners, the officer said on condition of anonymity. It was not known if the prisoners included suspected members of the anti-U.S. insurgency. <snip>

<snip>Also Saturday, demonstrations broke out in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah and the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib, where hundreds of angry Iraqis protested U.S. military raids and searches of their homes.

Carrying placards that read "Today Demonstrations, Tomorrow Explosions," protesters gathered near a giant American-run prison and demanded the release of thousands of Iraqi prisoners.

[expatriot]

1. I don't need your civil war...

...it feeds the rich while it buries the poor.

[Jacobin]

2. but but but saddam had rape rooms......

and and and he was evil and and and the "world is safer without him" and and and we're there to liberate the iraqis, and and and its just a few disgruntled criminals who hate freedom attacking our forces and and and the iraqis love us and want us there.....

[papau]

3. W/ Saddam political talk got you killed, with Bush democracy political

talk gets you killed.

And the change is what?

Oh ya - the change 1200 dead (537 immediately w/ another 700 flown and dying away from the Iraq area)with "3000 wounded", 24 thousand US flown out for medical reasons, plus 10,000 Iraq civilan dead, 20,000 Iraq military dead - all because we could not wait for UN intrusive inspections to both prove no WMD and then that fact to weaken and remove Saddam. - It just did not fit into the Bush election cycle plan.

[ScrewyRabbit]

4. Holy crap, they get bolder every day

This is significant. It's no longer traps like roadside bombs or ranged attacks with RPGs and mortars, but mano y mano raids with guns and grenades. No doubt because we've embarked on a strategy of pulling our forces back into their bases.

We're very much in trouble. Or I should say, the Iraqis, too.

[Bozita]

5. Reuters reporting 22 dead -- link

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=1&u=/nm/20040214/ts_nm/iraq_dc

Guerrilla Raid in Restive Iraq Town Leaves 22 Dead

1 hour, 30 minutes ago

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Scores of gunmen firing mortars and grenades stormed Iraqi security posts in Falluja on Saturday, killing 14 police in an audacious strike on forces crucial to U.S. plans to hand power to Iraqis.

more...

[yellowcanine]

6. Iraqi Tet offensive starting?

Remember it was the Tet offensive in early 1968 that helped to discourage Johnson to the point that he withdrew from the presidential race. Before that the American military was maintaining the fiction that we were winning the war. Ironically the Tet offensive was a major battlefield defeat for the Viet Cong but it turned out to be a great public relations victory.