Military: Four held in sneak attack on U.S. in Iraq

[maddezmom]

Four people suspected in last weekend's deadly attack on American soldiers in the central Iraqi city of Karbala have been detained, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

A tip from a Karbala resident led U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces to take the suspects into custody Monday, the military said in a statement.

Five U.S. soldiers died in Saturday's raid in Karbala.
~snip~

About 30 gunmen -- wearing uniforms and driving vehicles similar to those the U.S. military uses -- flashed fake badges and passed easily through three checkpoints before reaching the Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Center, al-Mishawi said.

He said it is standard procedure for American soldiers to insist on passing checkpoints without submitting to a security screening.

Once in the compound, the assailants opened fire, shooting only U.S. soldiers, al-Mishawi said. (Full story)

Asked why Iraqi police didn't stop the gunmen from fleeing, al-Mishawi said: "They assumed it was American-on-American violence and wanted to stay out of it."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/23/Iraq.main/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[wakeme2008]

1. Sad to say but 5 where killed because the troops feel that they

or people dressed like them do not have to stop for silly checkpoints. :grr:

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Makes sense, in a twisted way -

you're a sitting duck, waiting at a checkpoint. A significant number of car bombs and suicide bombers target checkpoints. You're vulnerable to snipers, just sitting there while someone checks IDs.

Only a matter of time before someone uses that against us.

[htuttle]

2. "assumed it was American-on-American violence and wanted to stay out of it"

Um...what the FOCK is going on over there? Does this sort of thing happen often?!?

[Igel]

4. Communities police themselves.

It's the reason why so many Muslim countries have "religious courts" for so many different issues--it was the Ottoman way, and frequent enough under various Islamic systems. It's communalism writ middling large, but what we see in Iraq is communalism writ huge. (With 'communalism' being a cover term for tribalism; communalism doesn't necessarily involve blood relations.)