U.S. forces on Wednesday launched offensive attacks in Baghdad that blasted a meeting place or staging area for suspected pro-Saddam loyalists and destroyed a truck that fired mortar rounds at a U.S. facility. U.S. Army sources told Fox News the offensive was called Operation Iron Hammer but it was not clear if the term referred to one or both of the American attacks. In the first attack, units of the 1st Armored Division using Bradley fighting vehicles fired a series of about 15 blasts at the warehouse in southern Baghdad. The operation began around 9 p.m. local time and ended a short time later. There were no immediate reports of fatalities or injuries.
Update on Fox News is they used a AC-130 gunship to level the place. There were snipers inside firing at our troops.
"Come out with yer hands up! We're gonna level the place!"
"You'll never take us alive, infidel dogs!"
"Hokay by me." |
"The facility is a known meeting, planning, storage and rendezvous point for belligerent elements currently conducting attacks on coalition forces and infrastructure," the Pentagon said in a statement from Washington. "The destruction of this structure will deny enemy forces any use of it in the future."
Now time to sift through the remains.
The second attack, which took place around 10 p.m. local time, came after a U.S. infantry unit on the ground spotted three mortar rounds being fired at a U.S. facility. The infantry unit called in aerial support and directed the operation, Army sources said. The aerial support consisted of at least one Army AH-64 Apache helicopter, which pinpointed the truck with a mortar on a Baghdad street. The helicopter opened fire at the truck, killing two Bad Guys insurgents and maiming wounding three others, sources said.
| "Hiya, Mahmoud! Say! Is that a new colostomy bag? TrÚs chic!" |
Infantry units on the ground then captured five surviving occupants of the truck. Officials said it may have been the truck that was used to launch earlier mortar attacks in the Green Zone, the two-square-mile coalition headquarters area in central Baghdad.
Clever, mobile mortar unit, shoot and scoot. They were a little late on the scoot part this time. Good job, Army! |