Insurgents fired a rocket propelled grenade at a military vehicle in the restive town of Fallujah, injuring an "embedded" reporter with NBC News. The grenade hit an Avenger air defense vehicle — a Humvee equipped with a missile launcher — injuring the reporter who was traveling in the vehicle but leaving the soldiers unscathed. The reporter was evacuated to a combat support hospital and was listed in stable condition.
| The more reason to scour Fallujah with Brillo... |
"Shortly after the attack, while soldiers were securing the area and treating the civilian reporter, a white pickup truck with its headlights off was spotted traveling along the highway toward the Avenger," the statement said. The pickup truck slammed into an armored personnel carrier that was on the scene of the ambush to help evacuate any casualties. Two of the pickup truck's civilian occupants died immediately. The other died later from his wounds. The soldiers — all with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division — were unhurt.
| That's the usual result of that kind of encounter, isn't it? |
Compton said he could not say whether the people in the pickup truck were attackers or accident victims. But a photographer at a hospital in Fallujah spoke to a man, Zoheir Ali, who said his son-in-law was among the three killed in the pickup truck. He said his son-in-law, Qahtan Hashem, was driving two neighbors — a son and his sick father — to the hospital and was rushing to beat an 11 p.m. curfew. Ali said he believed Hashem did not notice the vehicles on the road.
| That could be because Hashem didn't have his headlights on. It could also have something to do with his turban slipping down over his eyes, or maybe Pop poking him in the eye with the barrel of his AK. |
|