It looks like the Iraqi "Insurgents" Just took out an entire US facility

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

in Camp Falcon. A rather large and expensive one. Luckily, (If we are being told the truth) there were no casualties.

From what we can see on the newscasts, the explosions are still going on after three hours and it's a large skyline of fire.

The first reports were of mortor fire causing the explosion/fire and now they've gone to saying "they don't know the cause of the "fire.""

Another point of interest is that GlobalSecurity.Org ( http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/rasheed.htm ) changed their text on Camp Falcon within minutes of the report's hitting the news to read "On October 10, 2006, a fire at an Ammunition Supply Point (ASP) containing tank and artillery rounds, in addition to smaller caliber ammunition, at FOB Falcon set off a series of large explosions. About 100 troops from the 4th Infantry Division were reported to be stationed at the base at the time."

[radfringe]

1. sign of desperation that they are in

their last throes... and it's all clinton's fault
:sarcasm:

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

3. It's being "handled" by the same people who brought us the Saga of Jessica

Lynch.

god knows what the final story will be. They discovered Bin Laden was hiding in the dump so they blew it up?

[Leopolds Ghost]

15. The Bush Administration you mean?

There are those that say they are in their last throes...

[Hubert Flottz]

2. Send Hasturd over there to mop up!

He'll sweep the war under the rug and move on, ASAP!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. I guess these bases...

weren't quite as permanent as they thought they'd be.

[Igel]

9. The base is still there, no doubt.

It's unlikely they put the ammo in the troops' quarters.

And remember what the opposite of "permanent base" is. "Temporary." That is, tents and trailers.

[pampango]

5. At least they are attacking military targets, not civilians.

While our military is there they are fair game, unfortunately. Perhaps, this will win the "insurgents" more points with the Iraqi populace than bombing civilians has accomplished.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

6. Ooooh... CNN's showing balls and wanting the military to "be more

forthcoming" with reason for the "fire" and sounding incredulous at the no casualties line.

[TahitiNut]

7. It's an ammo dump. They get hit. It happens.

I remember when the VC got 'lucky' and hit an ammo dump near Bien Hoa. The earth moved. Munitions were cooking off for hours. Any large military operation establishes several munitions depots where the supply of munitions is kept in dug-in, sandbagged storage containers. While these bunkered containers are kept some distance from one another over a fairly large area (acres), the sheer amount and exploisve power of those munitions leads to the occasional loss of a whole facility when either hit by indirect fire or sabotaged with satchel charges. That's why there are several of them. There's no other option than to keep personnel away and let it finish. Tomorrow, they'll go in with water and do their best to cool it down. After that, the dangerous work of salvage and disposal begins.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

10. But... These people are supposed to love us! We are making their lives so

much better?

When they don't die, anyway.

[Alamom]

12. Can this really happen without casualties or do they know

immediately there were no military or civilians in the area or areas?


Thanks for the explanation.




edit to add thanks.

[TahitiNut]

14. It can and does happen with few or no casualties.

A munitions depot is access-controlled and set aside from any habitation. The units in the area requistion their supplies and pick up what they need by truck, taking it back to their unit's (company-level) own ammo container. We had a single shipping container that was very heavily embanked with sandbags adjacent to our arms room. We kept only as much as we might need for our company over a normal period of a few days or what might be needed if we were attacked - like what happened on February 23, 1969.

In the upper left of the photo below, you can just barely see the corner of the shipping container we used to store ammo. At the top right, you can see some of the filled sandbags not yet stacked around the container as blast protection. (The carpentry was in-process.) This photo was taken one late afternoon in early February of 1969. These guys are the guys in my unit with whom I served, preparing to spend the night guarding the perimeter of the heliport - one of the duties we drew. (I was part of this group that evening. Somewhere, I have heliport photos from that evening.) They're assembling outside the arms room (to the right) after having drawn weapons and ammunition, before being trucked over to the heliport. The heliport was a favorite target for the VC - occasionally they'd hit a Chinook.

[Monk06]

8. Well that Bagdad curfew seems to be working like a charm.

[Ian David]

11. Those aren't explosions. Those are Freedom Fires!

Don't you remember?

"Major combat operations in Iraq are over. Mission Accomplised. Now, watch this drive."

[conscious evolution]

13. Don't worry...Haliburton will

get right on the job of rebuilding.