Well now Pity the Bush Administration did not think about the before the war
More sophisticated bombs mark Iraq attacks: US general
Last Update: Thursday, August 4, 2005. 9:01am (AEST)
Iraq's insurgents are using more powerful, armour penetrating bombs in attacks like those this week that killed 21 US marines in western Iraq, a top general says.
Fourteen marines and an interpreter in an armoured amphibious assault vehicle on Wednesday in the town of Haditha, but it is unclear what kind of device was used.
Brigadier General Carter Ham of the US Joint Staff said insurgents have adapted to increased armour protection on US military vehicles by changing techniques and building more lethal bombs.
He says the changing insurgent techniques have proven a challenge for US forces.
"We are seeing larger amounts of explosives," General Ham said.
"We are seeing different techniques that are being used in an effort to counter the efforts of coalition and Iraqi security forces to protect folks while they are moving - different types of penetrator, different techniques of triggering the events.
"I mean, again, this is a very brutal, lethal and adaptive enemy," he said.
The marines killed in Wednesday's attack were in an amphibious assault vehicle, which carries less armour protection than a tank, he said.
General Ham says they were in the same area where six marine snipers were ambushed and killed on Monday.
He denied rumours the marines were betrayed by ostensibly friendly Iraqi forces, or that some were beheaded and mutilated, and he said there were no indication that any marines were still unaccounted for.
Ansar al-Sunna, an insurgent group linked to Al Qaeda, claimed earlier in an Internet statement that its forces killed eight marines and captured a ninth on Monday in Haditha.
Troops to stay
In the wake of the latest US marine deaths, President George W Bush says the best way to honour the dead is to complete the mission and he rejected any early US withdrawal.
"We're at war. We're facing an enemy that is ruthless. If we put out a (pull-out) timetable the enemy would adjust their tactics ... The timetable depends on our ability to train the Iraqis, to get the Iraqis ready to fight and then our troops will come home with the honour they have earned," Mr Bush said in a speech.
But the rising violence calls into question Vice President Dick Cheney's remark in May that the insurgency was in its "last throes".
Public survey
Eighty-two per cent of people polled by US Foreign Affairs and Public Agenda for a survey released on Wednesday, but conducted before the latest spike in violence, worried a lot, or somewhat that the Iraq war was reaping too many casualties.
"The picture we have is really quite similar to that of a lot of polls that share a growing concern about the situation in Iraq," Public Agenda chairman Daniel Yankelovich said.
"The concern is growing. There is no question."
Mindful of sagging public approval, senior US officials are talking openly about a drawdown of US troops in Iraq and pressed Iraqi leaders to move quickly to draft a constitution.
Australia has about 900 military personnel deployed in Iraq.
-AFP/Reuters
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1429796.htm
Last Update: Thursday, August 4, 2005. 9:01am (AEST)
Iraq's insurgents are using more powerful, armour penetrating bombs in attacks like those this week that killed 21 US marines in western Iraq, a top general says.
Fourteen marines and an interpreter in an armoured amphibious assault vehicle on Wednesday in the town of Haditha, but it is unclear what kind of device was used.
Brigadier General Carter Ham of the US Joint Staff said insurgents have adapted to increased armour protection on US military vehicles by changing techniques and building more lethal bombs.
He says the changing insurgent techniques have proven a challenge for US forces.
"We are seeing larger amounts of explosives," General Ham said.
"We are seeing different techniques that are being used in an effort to counter the efforts of coalition and Iraqi security forces to protect folks while they are moving - different types of penetrator, different techniques of triggering the events.
"I mean, again, this is a very brutal, lethal and adaptive enemy," he said.
The marines killed in Wednesday's attack were in an amphibious assault vehicle, which carries less armour protection than a tank, he said.
General Ham says they were in the same area where six marine snipers were ambushed and killed on Monday.
He denied rumours the marines were betrayed by ostensibly friendly Iraqi forces, or that some were beheaded and mutilated, and he said there were no indication that any marines were still unaccounted for.
Ansar al-Sunna, an insurgent group linked to Al Qaeda, claimed earlier in an Internet statement that its forces killed eight marines and captured a ninth on Monday in Haditha.
Troops to stay
In the wake of the latest US marine deaths, President George W Bush says the best way to honour the dead is to complete the mission and he rejected any early US withdrawal.
"We're at war. We're facing an enemy that is ruthless. If we put out a (pull-out) timetable the enemy would adjust their tactics ... The timetable depends on our ability to train the Iraqis, to get the Iraqis ready to fight and then our troops will come home with the honour they have earned," Mr Bush said in a speech.
But the rising violence calls into question Vice President Dick Cheney's remark in May that the insurgency was in its "last throes".
Public survey
Eighty-two per cent of people polled by US Foreign Affairs and Public Agenda for a survey released on Wednesday, but conducted before the latest spike in violence, worried a lot, or somewhat that the Iraq war was reaping too many casualties.
"The picture we have is really quite similar to that of a lot of polls that share a growing concern about the situation in Iraq," Public Agenda chairman Daniel Yankelovich said.
"The concern is growing. There is no question."
Mindful of sagging public approval, senior US officials are talking openly about a drawdown of US troops in Iraq and pressed Iraqi leaders to move quickly to draft a constitution.
Australia has about 900 military personnel deployed in Iraq.
-AFP/Reuters
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1429796.htm
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 8:18 PM
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