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U.S. Gunship Pounds Falluja on Saddam’s Birthday
ELF
Here you go, birthday boy
A U.S. airborne gunship pounded the Iraqi city of Falluja overnight in a display of overwhelming firepower against insurgents who have battled Marines on the outskirts of town for three weeks. As the U.N. envoy on Iraq was telling the United Nations of bloody consequences should talks fail in Falluja, at least one AC-130, first used in Vietnam, poured down fire in what Marines said on Wednesday had been a precision response to an attack.
"Vietnam" must be loaded as a macro in every newsroom.

Local residents said that only one person was injured and that 10 homes which were destroyed had been empty.
one person injured, and a hell of a lot of excess body parts.

A year after the fall of Saddam Hussein, who was spending his 67th birthday in a secret jail in U.S. custody, U.S. forces are trying to quell twin threats to the new order in Baghdad from Sunni Muslim guerrillas in Falluja to Shi’ite fighters in the south before they hand sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.
It was the second time in as many days that they had used such a gunship, a converted cargo plane nicknamed Spooky or Specter which spews concentrated cannon and machinegun fire over the ground.
It's Specter, Spooky was the original AC-47 gunship.

U.S. officers said an AC-130 killed nearly 60 Shi’ite militia near the second flashpoint, Najaf, on Monday. Commanders near Najaf said that assault appeared to have demoralized guerrillas in the city and was part of a strategy to persuade their wanted religious leader to give himself up.
In Falluja a year ago on Wednesday -- previously a public holiday in honor of Saddam’s birthday -- U.S. soldiers killed and wounded dozens of demonstrators. It was an early public relations setback. The town is now a byword for Iraq’s aggrieved and long dominant Sunni minority and in the wider Arab world.
Yeah, no bias in this newsroom.

The local police chief said he would renew talks with the Marines about launching joint patrols in the town. U.S. officials, clearly aware that such a move could spark new guerrilla attacks on their troops, have said they will begin joint patrols in the coming days. It is not clear when.
Oh, there'll be joint patrols, Marines and Iraqi Special (cough*kurdish*cough) Forces, most likely.

Posted by: tipper 2004-04-28
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=31701