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| Iraq |
| More details on our captured soldiers |
| 2007-05-17 |
| H/T Gateway Pundit - It's the NYT, but some info I haven't read or heard. Apparently, there were other soldiers in the area. And my reading of that QRF and the 45 minutes, was that in 45 minutes, they were there and HAD the area secured. Here's the important parts of the article. Col. Michael Kershaw, the commander of the Second Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division — the unit that was attacked and that is leading the search — declined to describe the recovered equipment or quantify the number of detainees who had admitted to involvement in the ambush on Saturday. The attack, in an area south of Baghdad active with Sunni insurgent groups, left four American soldiers and one Iraqi soldier dead. He said roughly 4,000 American and 2,000 Iraqi troops had pursued a series of tips that had led to the equipment and the detainees, along with many dead ends. At one point, commanders said, American soldiers drained a canal after a tip that bodies were being dumped there. If the missing soldiers were still in the area, Colonel Kershaw said, they would be found. “We’re not going to stop what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re not going to stop searching.” He spoke to reporters here after spending much of the day searching alongside his soldiers. He said he had come from an area south and west of Mahmudiya, a nearby farming town where the attack occurred. He and other officers said the full swath of the brigade’s 330-square-mile sector south of Baghdad was being scoured for clues. Outposts in the area equipped for 70 soldiers have been packed with 250, military officials said. Here at Forward Operating Base Yusufiya, the frenzied activity of a major military operation was apparent. An additional battalion riding in 19-ton Stryker vehicles arrived from Baghdad on Wednesday. Dogs used for finding bodies or bombs moved between blast walls as the line for dinner on base ran out the door. Several helicopters an hour came and went with supplies and soldiers. Colonel Kershaw said the helicopters had become the search’s most vital asset, allowing for the movement of supplies and the opportunity to cover the mostly rural terrain quickly and thoroughly. “They give us a lot of mobility,” he said. They also keep soldiers off the roads, he said, where roadside bombs are common. Lt. Col. Michael Infanti, the battalion commander for the unit attacked — Company D, Fourth Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, Second Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division — said the road near the Euphrates River where the ambush occurred had houses on either side. On Wednesday, he said he visited the site of the attack for the fourth time and took measurements from the location where the two Humvees were attacked. He said 12 to 15 soldiers in Humvees were stationed about 450 to 550 yards to the north of the site, and a dozen or so more were about 875 yards to the south. Both groups of soldiers drove to help their comrades after hearing the explosion, and pilotless aircraft discovered the burning vehicles, he said. It was unclear how the Humvees had been attacked, though commanders suspected that grenades or rocket-propelled grenades had been involved. The group to the north discovered crushed wire and two bombs on their way to the burning vehicles. The group from the south also found a bomb. Colonel Infanti said the soldiers had gotten out of their Humvees and moved on foot to where the attack occurred as rounds of ammunition popped from the burning vehicles. By the time the first group from the south arrived, the three soldiers were gone. Commanders described the attack as “complex.” Concertina wire around the two Humvees had been breached, and shell casings around the vehicles suggested that the soldiers had put up a fight. That forensic evidence, Colonel Infanti said, was all they could pick up at the scene. On Tuesday, the Pentagon released the names of four soldiers whom it listed as “duty status whereabouts unknown”: Sgt. Anthony J. Schober, 23, of Reno, Nev.; Specialist Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.; Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif.; and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich. Of the four, one was known to be dead but was badly burned in the attack, and it was not known which man it was. |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #8 This makes my heart sick. If the men were alive they would be on TV by now. The insurgents have had a history of killing and holding the bodies, dumping them after the press dies down. We should blow up one Iranian military post for each man killed. We know Iran trained the terrorists and probably helped execute it. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2007-05-17 23:53 |
| #7 fuck the bullshit, it's time too il all these muthherfuckers |
| Posted by: sinse 2007-05-17 21:29 |
| #6 The world is watching. The USA must never use torture or actions outside the GC as this will only lead to a deterioration of the standards our enemies use in the detention of our soldiers. Listen to me. Our boys will be treated in exactly the same way we treat our prisoners. If we torture they will only tell us what we they thing we want to hear. It about us. Don't you get it. BTW, I'd like your vote in the upcoming primary. I'll run this war the way it should be run. |
| Posted by: John McCain 2007-05-17 20:39 |
| #5 No fooling. Go Medieval on their goat-buggering a$$es. Do what they did in Vietnam: take a chopper and hover it at 1000 feet. Figure out who knows the least and start asking questions, and kicking them out 1 by one. I really don;t care what the arab street or the nytlatcbsabcpeolosimurtha consortium thinks; those 3 are US soldiers and there is no limit to what we should do to find them. period. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2007-05-17 18:24 |
| #4 ... tire tracks on the ground... Forensics of the tire tracks might lead to the type of vehicle. If the tires had any distinguishing features such as cuts or damage, unique wear patterns, etc. this might lead to a specific vehicle. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-05-17 18:16 |
| #3 declined to describe the recovered equipment or quantify the number of detainees who had admitted to involvement in the ambush on Saturday. Anyone willing to bet that "equipment" doesn't have Iranian trademarks on it? [crickets] I'm still hoping they can get our troops back alive and in one piece. If not, one word: Medieval. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-17 17:28 |
| #2 pliars and blowtorches - find them any way necessary |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-05-17 16:19 |
| #1 and more details Baghdad, Iraq — The military said Wednesday that it had detained people believed to be “directly linked” to a weekend assault in which attackers ambushed two Humvees and killed four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator. Three others went missing in the attack and were presumed captured. The commander of the region where the attack occurred, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, offered details of the ambush Wednesday, portraying the attackers as coordinated, swift and brutally effective. Lynch said two Humvees were attacked after they had set up position, guarded by rolls of razor wire, near a crater caused by previous bombs. The blast site, on a road about 12 miles west of Mahmoudiya, had become a favorite spot for insurgents to plant new bombs. There were additional soldiers at a patrol base about 1,500 feet to the north, Lynch said. Evidence indicated that the attackers used hand grenades and other hand-held explosives, and converged from several directions, he said. Drag marks leading to tire tracks on the ground showed that the missing men were pulled from the area of the Humvees to vehicles about 45 feet away. Among the questions the military was looking to answer was whether two Humvees were sufficient to guarantee the troops' protection and whether the patrol had taken necessary precautions. Lt. Col. Randy A. Martin, a military spokesman, did not disclose the number of detainees suspected of having links to the attack, saying they were among 679 people being held for questioning. At a news conference on the base Wednesday, Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a division spokesman, said searchers were operating under the presumption that the missing were alive, “and are either under the control of extremists or, possibly, may be attempting to evade. Either way, our premise is that we assume they are alive unless proven otherwise.” |
| Posted by: Sherry 2007-05-17 15:55 |