Green Zone Blasts Show Insurgent Tenacity

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041015/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_insurgents&cid=540&ncid=1480

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Deadly blasts Thursday inside the very heart of the American mission sends a message that no place is safe from resourceful militants who disguise themselves as police officers, use donkey carts to fire rockets and hide roadside bombs in garbage.


Last week, insurgents rocketed a hotel housing foreign reporters and contractors in downtown Baghdad, using a timer to fire three rockets from a launcher sitting on the back of an abandoned pickup.


They've flooded Iraq (news - web sites)'s burgeoning DVD market with footage of roadside bombs going off and engulfing U.S. military vehicles in flames. Even footage of the final moments of suicide bombers before they set off on their mission are for sale in the Iraqi capital.


Increasingly publicity savvy, insurgents have exploited the growing use of the Internet by posting their literature, claims of responsibility and the gruesome but fear-inspiring footage of beheadings of foreign hostages.

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[Kenneth ken]

1. boy, things are going just spiffy in Iraq.

are the troops waist-deep in the big muddy yet?

- and the fool keeps saying push on.

[jpgray]

2. No no, this means we are winning.

Clearly by penetrating our lone supposed 'safe' zone, they are at their last erg of strength and are acting in total desperation.

:crazy:

[lanparty]

3. Bush is wrong again !!!!

They said that 15 out of ... WHATEVER ... provinces in Iraq were safe. It turns out even the HEAVIEST guarded area in Iraq, THE GREEN ZONE, is NOT SAFE!!!

They'll say it's safe. But they should really rely on the testimony of the 3 contracters who were kidnapped from the green zone and subsequently be-headed. If they COULD talk. They would probably say that the Green Zone is NOT SAFE!!!!

[bemildred]

4. "tenacity"? "insurgents tenacity"?

Is this like "remnants"?

From the Sept. 15 Financial Times:

US military officers in Baghdad have warned they cannot guarantee the security of the perimeter around the Green Zone, the headquarters of the Iraqi government and home to the US and British embassies, according to security company employees.

At a briefing earlier this month, a high-ranking US officer in charge of the zone's perimeter said he had insufficient soldiers to prevent intruders penetrating the compound's defences.

The US major said it was possible weapons or explosives had already been stashed in the zone, and warned people to move in pairs for their own safety. The Green Zone, in Baghdad's centre, is one of the most fortified US installations in Iraq. Until now, militants have not been able to penetrate it.

[teryang]

5. tenacity equals institutional permanence

a nascent governmental entity making its presence felt.