Another Suicide Attack on Baghdad's Killer Highway

[leftchick]

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3827962

~snip~

Two vehicles were badly damaged today in the latest suicide attack on Baghdad’s dangerous airport highway.

The explosion occurred on the same spot where a suicide bomber rammed into a US military convoy yesterday, wounding several soldiers and destroying two Humvees.

Witnesses said one of the 4X4 vehicle’s hit by today’s blast was lying overturned in the middle of the road.

Insurgents frequently target the highway linking the Baghdad to the city’s international airport because multinational troops use it daily.



http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=2632959

Three injured in suicide attack on Baghdad airport road

~snip~

BAGHDAD, Iraq Three people have been injured in a suicide car bombing on the increasingly dangerous Iraqi road to Baghdad's airport.

Iraqi officials say the attacker hit two S-U-V's flipping one vehicle on its side and injuring three civilians.

U-S troops sealed off the area and two helicopters evacuated the casualties.

[bemildred]

1. Same spot. nt

[leftchick]

2. Photo.....Looks like mercs hit again....

U.S. Army soldiers remove a damaged vehicle after a bomb exploded as a convoy of SUVs commonly used by civilian contractors and Iraqi officials drove past on the airport road in Baghdad, December 1, 2004. The airport road is the site of almost daily attacks against military and civilian vehicles. Photo by Ceerwan Aziz/Reuters

[Voltaire99]

3. "Killer highway" "Triangle of death"

I'm getting sick of these trite labels. The US marched into Iraq for slaughter, boosted by amateurish "evidence" that was easily swallowed by Repukes and Dems alike in their eagerness to see someone punished for 9/11.

Can we at least have the honesty not to pass our own nations' misdeeds off via this patronizing colonial verbiage? Must the press parrot every banality Empire tosses it?

[maddezmom]

4. and from another link..the military doesn't release details

U.S. military officials do not release full details of attacks on the road, possibly to avoid encouraging the insurgents.

Writer Describes Dangerous Iraq Highway

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The driver barreled down the road from Baghdad International Airport, his eyes darting from side to side for signs of trouble. A few hundred yards ahead, a convoy of U.S. contractors stopped on an overpass. Armed men jumped from the vehicles — weapons at the ready.

Three vehicles from the Iraqi National Guard had been struck by rocket-propelled grenades and the contractors stopped to help. Not so the rest of the cars. Fearing the gunmen may still be around, the driver and dozens of civilian cars and trucks crowded onto an exit road for a quick escape.


It is a scene repeated with alarming frequency along the white-knuckle 10-mile stretch of highway — known to U.S. troops as "RPG Alley" — which links the center of Baghdad with the airport on the western outskirts of the city.


~snip~

The situation on the airport road has become a metaphor for the entire Iraq mission. More than 18 months after the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), the world's most powerful military cannot guarantee the safety of Iraqis, foreigners and its own troops who use one of the country's most important routes.


more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=1&u=/ap/20041201/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_rpg_alley

[leftchick]

5. Another Article on The "Highway of Death"....

http://thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=2023

The Road to BIAP

~snip~

BIAP--that's the Baghdad International Airport. And since the invasion this six mile stretch of road has been insecure, a hair-raising and dangerous strip of territory. When my friend was making arrangements to travel to Baghdad--he's in search of small-scale reconstruction contracts that can be fulfilled using Iraqi workers--he jokingly told his partners in Iraq that when they pick him up at the airport they should bring an AK-47 he could use. Well, upon his arrival at BIAP (pronounced BYE-APP), he was met by two cars packed with armed bodyguards, and someone did toss him a gun. Then off they went, practically flying down the BIAP road--which he says bears an uncanny resemblance to the Dulles airport road, which meanders through rolling hills of suburbia--at 80 miles per hour. A ride to the airport these days, he was told, can cost up to $6000. (That's not a typo.)

He encountered no trouble. But he had in his mind an ambush that happened a few months back on the BIAP road. Two SUVs were carrying private security contractors who work for Blackwater Security Consulting. (In April, four Blackwater employees were killed in Fallujah; the bodies of two of them were burnt by mobs and hung from a bridge.) A van came flying down an access road and pulled alongside the lead SUV. The door to van opened and machine-gun fire blasted the SUV, which came to a halt. The rear SUV was forced to a stop. A pitched battle ensued, with the Blackwater employees firing back until the fuel tanks of their vehicles exploded. At least three Blackwater employees were killed. My source says he was told four were killed. (There was little media coverage of this incident.) And all the insurgents escaped. "This was in the afternoon!" my friend exclaimed. "Nothing stops them from attacking. Nothing stops them from getting away. Imagine this on the road to Dulles. There must have been at least fifteen of them, pulling off a classic L-ambush. Now what does this tell the Iraqi people? That the Americans cannot secure a small stretch of highway. It runs straight from the airport to the entrance of the Green Zone. And it's not secure. That says it all."

It does--to be polite about it--raise questions. In the aftermath of the Fallujah offensive, military commanders have told reporters that the United States has the insurgents on the run. But the "win" in Fallujah has sparked fighting elsewhere: Mosul, Ramadi, Samarra, Baghdad, and Baqubah. And this "win" has prompted talk that the US military may need an extra 3000 to 5000 troops because securing Fallujah and overseeing reconstruction there will tie up a large number of American soldiers. As The Washington Post reports, senior military officials have predicted a gap in desired troop strength over the next two to three months--which is, of course, the period leading up to and including the scheduled January 30 national assembly elections.