Iraqi Insurgency Is as Lethal as Ever Since Hussein's Capture

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040204/ts_latimes/iraqiinsurgencyisaslethalaseversincehusseinscapture&cid=2026&ncid=1480

<snip>
The most recent spate of bloodshed includes bombings last weekend in the northern cities of Irbil and Mosul as well as last month's suicide attack outside the main U.S. compound in Baghdad, blasts that claimed well over 100 lives.


Iraqi security forces, civilians and others deemed collaborators are now the major targets, and although attacks on U.S. troops have diminished in number, they remain lethal: 45 soldiers were killed in January, according to unofficial tallies, compared with 40 in December.


As U.S. forces prepared to head home in a massive rotation that would leave troops vulnerable to attack, front-line commanders interviewed in recent weeks expressed confidence that a measure of order had been restored after Hussein's capture. But they cautioned that the attacks might continue and possibly intensify as the U.S. occupation enters its second year this spring with fresh units of soldiers and Marines.


"I won't defeat all the enemy in my time. That's very clear," Lt. Col. Brian Drinkwine said in this hostile city west of Baghdad, where U.S. troops typically would draw fire within an hour if they remained stationary. "I don't have the threat of a tank battalion rising out of the dust and coming after me. But I've got mortars, I've got rockets, and I've got small elements that are trying to chip away at our will."

[loudnclear]

1. I think it's more lethal.

Just ask the soldiers there.

[saigon68]

2. "BRING EM ON" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

and "Bring IT On" the resistance did---

This from our hometown newspaer yesterday

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_14484571.shtml

Ponkratz ‘fine’ after bomb attack (Headline)


Jeff Ponkratz Green Bay native, Little Chute comrade released from Baghdad hospital

Maj. Jeff Ponkratz of the Ashwaubenon-based 432nd wrote in an e-mail to the Green Bay Press-Gazette on Sunday that he and Spc. Stephanie Hermes of Little Chute were being released that day from a Baghdad hospital. On Thursday, Ponkratz was commanding a four-vehicle convoy when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle around 9:30 a.m. local time. Hermes was manning a .50-caliber machine gun mounted in the rear of the vehicle.

The blast caused the driver to lose control of the Humvee, which eventually ended up at the bottom of a ravine. Hermes was thrown from the vehicle during the incident.