Sky News reports series of explosions heard near US Airbase-Baghdad

[indictrichardperle]

MSNBC-breaking

No link yet

[Maple]

1. This one?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/weekly/newsnat-12aug2003-5.htm

On edit...or this one?

http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=185598

2 different places, explosions in both

[THUNDER HANDS]

2. hopefully

it was the sound of soldiers smashing their tv sets which were permanently tuned to Fox News.

[Panda1]

3. More..

..not much yet....
http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/weekly/newsnat-12aug2003-5.htm
Posted :Tue, 12 Aug 2003 4:57 AEST

Explosions rock US base in flashpoint Iraqi town
Six huge explosions have rocked a US military base in Ramadi, 100 kilometres west of Baghdad, as mysterious assailants fired on the compound, an eyewitness has told AFP.

Faras Mustafa, 34, said he saw smoke rising from the base after the blasts.
>>>

[Cush]

4. don't worry

THe news networks are ignoring it, all arnlod, all the time.

(just checked)

[SoCalDem]

5. Yep.. SKY (FoxUK) reports it.. of course the US must have NO reporters

there.. The "inbeds" all came home as soon as the statue charade,and they are busily writing their "War Memoirs"...

Just plain NUTS.. I guess we will eventually find out what happened, after Ahhhnold goes down for his nap :eyes:

[indictrichardperle]

6. thanks for the links

the persian site says the British embassy in Baghdad is near the explosions, where Iraqs new "supreme court" was to be sworn in, the abc link says a base 100 miles from Baghdad was the scene of large explosions.

I could swear msnbc quotes the sky story as reporting the site of explosions as "US airbase in Baghdad". Hmmmmmmm

[Maple]

8. Well the second one

is 9 hours old it said...and the first one, only minutes old...involves a base.

So I'm guessing it's the second one they meant, even if they confused the locale? :shrug:

[tom_paine]

13. Do you'll think they'll get a better "Supreme" "Court" than us?

Naaah. The Busheviks don't want democracy there any more than they want it here at home in the Empire.

[Zero Gravitas]

7. UK Papers

It'll be in the UK papers tomorrow. Any one want to take bets as to how long it will be before they block access to foreign media outlets?

[indictrichardperle]

9. Carl Rochelle reports

pentagon saying large explosion happened in Baghdad 90 minutes ago, not sure where or what yet. "It was fierce enough it could be felt and heard".

Now the explosions linked above, if they are reported to have happened this morning, then this is a third explosion site or someone is lying.

[Maple]

11. Wow

if it could be felt and heard...must be something big

And it does sound as if this is another one

Beginning of a major counteroffensive?

[LosinIt]

33. Who is Carl Rochelle? What news source?

It is now 6:10 AM Tuesday morning and still nothing in the mainstream US press. Keep this kicked up.

[NNN0LHI]

10. As soon as CENTCOM tells them what to report, they will report it

And not a minute sooner.

Don

[Beetwasher]

12. ?????

Nothing more on this?????

[DUreader]

14. I've just done some googling and other news searches and NOTHING!

The worst part is that I am becoming inured to the whole

process of media blackouts

[grasswire]

15. nothing on freerepublic either

bizarro

Can anyone get BBC?

[DUreader]

16. bbc comes on at 11pm for me

I may be asleep

[webtrainer]

17. Australian papers covering it . . . google news link

http://news.google.com/news?q=iraq+explosions&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&edition=us&scoring=d

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

18. another newslink ; nothing new though

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6930422%255E1702,00.html

[renegade000]

19. ummm why aren't any other news sources posting this?

not like six huge explosions at an american base are exactly commonplace.

:wtf:

[markses]

20. From what I understand

the base at Ramadi is regularly shelled; the Balad base is also under intermittent but steady mortar fire (sometimes they hit, too, as when 16 medical personnel were wounded at the Balad on 3 July).

There do seem to be two stories here, though. In the first place, yet another mortar attack on the Ramadi base. Here, if nobody was injured, it wouldn't be reported. Raining in Seattle, and all.

The second piece of news is what appears to be a car bomb or multiple car bomb attack near the British embassy during the supposed "Iraqi Supreme Court" installation. That would, of course, be quite serious (which is not to say that the constant shelling of the Ramadi base ISN'T serious), since it would demonstrate a complete inability of "coalition authorities" to keep even a facade of security over Baghdad.

So, we may be seeing a simple failure to report common occurences, or we could be seeing a news blackout while the Coalition spinmeisters try to make lemonade out of a major security breakdown.

We'll have to see.

[indictrichardperle]

21. why was MSNBC

headling all their news at 3 PM with "series of explosions in Iraq"(not mortars, and im pretty sure they said Baghdad, i agree mortars were against the base 100 miles from baghdad, probably last night)...it was urgent enough for Carl Rochelle to report on this from the Pentagon, and the pentagon said it was fierce explosion that could be felt in Baghdad but denied knowing where or what was struck....yea right, it was 90 minutes ago, and they just dont know what it was.

Now its 3 and a half hours later and MSNBC is no longer mentioning the Baghdad explosions in their news updates.....WHY ?

Looks like a black-out to me.

[RainDog]

30. last week there were warnings

of terrorist attacks on British interests, seems I remember.

maybe this was it.

the NYTimes reported on Sunday that terrorists are coming back into Iraq, as well.

Any attempts to stablize the country will be met with guerilla AND terrorist attacks, it seems.

the poor Iraqi people are, again, caught in the middle of the power players...and our soldiers are now, too.

This invasion was a horrible mistake, but one which many tried to warn Americans about before the fact.

But Cheney and his neo-cons would have their invasion, and the American people just wanted to kill anyone in the middle east, it seems, because of 9-11.

No doubt things are going to get worse before they get better, too.

[slater71]

22. Not one word on this tonight on ABC News

Nothing. Not a word on this. If this did happen, they aren`t saying anything. F---ing media.

[DUreader]

23. It is obvious that 6 Huge Explosions knocked out all Media Links

Mystery Solved

Everybody move along

[StandWatie]

24. yeah, airline carriers are going to be lining up to move in there

everything is going great :eyes:

[jiacinto]

25. Acutally

KLM is about to start flights in October.

[StandWatie]

26. ....

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced it was canceling the flights to Iraq in September that it had put in its reservations system because the Coalition Provisional Authority told the airline that the security situation was unstable, the International Herald Tribune reported.

More than 20 airlines from around the world are vying to start operations to Baghdad and Basra. KLM was the most ambitious accepting reservations to Baghdad before any carrier had been given permission to fly there.


http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=25709

I would not bank on it and as long as that US base sits in Baghdad airport I don't think anything is going to fly out of there.

[tinnypriv]

27. Sky News link

MORTARS SHAKE US BASE:

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12715968,00.html

A series of six huge explosions has rocked a US military base in Iraq amid continuing post-war tension in the country.

Witnesses claim assailants fired upon the compound in Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad, in the nightime attack.

The onslaught is the latest in a line of raids by guerrillas in the town which is a known home to Saddam Hussein sympathisers.

One eyewitness said smoke could be seen pouring from the base after the explosions, although there was no immediate word from US officials.

[indictrichardperle]

28. lets see

if that was the msnbc/carl rochelle "explosion", then it was 60 miles from Baghdad, so if the miltary/pentagon report of "it was fierce enough to feel and hear" but we dont know what it was" couldnt have been coming from the base, you sure as hell know its a mortar attack inside a base. The "blasts" wouldnt be felt 60 miles away.

Looks like seperate attacks going on, and the one 4 hours ago is not something they want to comment on.

[Capt_Nemo]

29. No updates on this for over 2 hours... hmmmm....

On edit:
can we say "black-out"?

[NNN0LHI]

31. US bases attacked after US forces strike at suspected guerrillas

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030812/ts_afp/iraq_worldwrap&cid=1503&ncid=1480

TIKRIT, Iraq (AFP) - Huge explosions rocked a US military base west of Baghdad, several hours after US troops raided two sleepy villages where they suspected pro-Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) guerrillas were hiding. snip

No casualty toll was released after six powerful explosions shook a US military base in Ramadi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad, late Monday as mysterious assailants fired on the compound.

An eyewitness, Faras Mustafa, 34, told AFP that he saw smoke rising from the base after the blasts.

There was no immediate comment from the US army, but earlier Monday Colonel Guy Shields, the coalition's top military spokesman, said Ramadi base had come under repeated mortar attack the previous few nights.

more

[hedgetrimmer]

32. Six explosions rock US base in flashpoint Iraqi town

link: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,4789_W_945861,00.html

~snip~

Six huge explosions rocked a US military base in Ramadi, 100 kilometres west of Baghdad, Monday night as assailants fired on the compound. An eyewitness said he saw smoke rising from the base after the blasts. There was no immediate comment from the US army, but on Monday an army spokesman said the base had come under repeated mortar attack the previous few nights. Ramadi is considered a stronghold for sympathisers of Saddam Hussein's regime. On Saturday, US soldiers shot and killed 2 Iraqi policemen. One they mistook for an attacker, the other was killed as he tried to surrender. The incident comews 2 weeks after Amnesty International condemned the US military for its repeated use of excessive force in Iraq.

mods... thats the whole piece....

saddam sympathisers? or anti-imperialists...

terrorist: a member of a rebelling army that is termed "terrorist" to confuse the issue or facts...

[LosinIt]

34. Kick

Note that this story first broke at 3:00 eastern on MONDAY.