Mosul on Lockdown

Ansar al Sunna
Large portions of the northern city of Mosul in on lockdown following an attack that killed 18 americans and four others.

story.news.yahoo.com
U.S. forces sealed off entire districts of the Iraqi city of Mosul on Wednesday, blocking bridges and raiding homes in a hunt for suspects[...]
Mosul's governor issued an overnight order on television banning use of the five bridges over the River Tigris and said anyone breaking the order would be shot. Residents said Iraq's third city was a virtual ghost town, with no one in the streets[...]
"Investigators at the base have found remnants of a torso and a suicide vest that was probably a backpack," ABC said, lending weight to a claim by Iraq's Ansar al-Sunna guerrillas.

An interesting development. This ties in with having the fallujans under guard after the military operations there.

I think this Ansar group is a kurdish terror group, which is intersting because I was reading the other day that they've been pushed to the side by the sunni terror groups.

Apparently a 9 pm to 5am curfew has been in effect for a while and will be extended

Related News Links:
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another 19 points to the iraqi rebles

i would have thought the US would have been prepared for rocket attacks on their bases

Originally posted by bodrul
another 19 points to the iraqi rebles

i would have thought the US would have been prepared for rocket attacks on their bases

The attack was done by a suicide bomber.

Originally posted by jsobecky

Originally posted by bodrul
another 19 points to the iraqi rebles

i would have thought the US would have been prepared for rocket attacks on their bases

The attack was done by a suicide bomber.

i thought it was rockets fired into the base
( roof of the base wasnt protected or something like that )

When I saw the picture of the mess with the hole in the middle it already struck me as odd, one expect mortarrounds to vertically penetrate the roof and rockets usually come from an oblique angle, because it was a tent, flexible parts of the tent roof where hanging down, at first sight suggesting something entering the mess from above but apprarently it was an inside job....

wich begs the question, how did this suicide bomber gained access to the premises ??

Was he sneaked in, or was he working as a cook or deliveryman on the base, I mean Kurds usually gain the trust of the americans more easily because many of them are truely gratefull for getting rid of Saddam....



[edit on 23-12-2004 by Countermeasures]

UPDATE:

www.cnn.com...

apparently the attack was done by someone 'in an iraqi national army uniform who had knowledge of the bases layout'. IOW, probably a member of the iraqi army that was actually an agent for the insurgents.

Logistic it is allmost an impossible job to stop every determined suicide bomber, even with the latest x-ray bodyscanners, nanosniffers and RFID tags and above all more background checking, those will provide better control who enters your green zones, but you cannot make whole iraq a green zone. Well, you could adopt some israeli tactics and build a huge wall around the sunni triangle, but just think of the costs, maybe if Halliburton would be the main contractor it might find the necessary fundings though.....

And it's not like they are running out of suicide bombers soon....

Therefore I think that even the grand architect Rumsfeld is looking for ways to get the hell out of iraq, hopefully the installed iraqi government after the elections will be able to keep functioning, there would be the usual montly deathtoll by insurgants, but it wouldn't be amercian deaths and the oil would keep flowing, if the oil stops flowing than even Rumsfeld must admit mission failed.



[edit on 23-12-2004 by Countermeasures]

I would have thought the US would have been prepared for rocket attacks on their bases

They're in the process of building more hardened bases but that wouldn't protect them against an infiltration.