"Because by the end of that Sunday, 29 American service men and women would be dead, the worst US losses of the Iraq war."
**** This was worse than Somalia and it seems the story was buried. I guess only Clinton can only get blamed for shit like this, right?
"Many of the Iraqis were dressed in civilian clothes.”Found it hard to work out who the enemy was," said Corporal Josh McCall. "They'd fire at us, then put down their weapon and take off walking like a civilian."
**** Why would a guy fire a weapon at a well armed us soldier, then drop it and act like a civilian. Hello? "Here I am, I shoot at you, I drop gun, I run away - here hit me in the back!" ummm... Ok.
"When I returned to the city, medical staff in the main hospital - where Jessica Lynch was treated - estimated that over 1,000 Iraqis had died during the fighting. Many were military personnel, but they believe the majority were civilians. Thousands more had been maimed and injured."
**** Smells like Mogadishu at best. My Lai at worst. Fucking fire at anything that moves. The reporter saw it, believe him or don't - your choice.
---------------
The other side of the Lynch story
By Andrew North
BBC correspondent
It's the main highway through eastern Nasiriya, but otherwise an unremarkable, two-mile stretch of road. Grey, low-built houses on either side, there are no particular landmarks, or sights as you drive along it.
Only if you look closely at the buildings and see the clusters of bullets holes do you get a clue to what took place here on Sunday 23 March 2003.
It was along this road that the US army convoy carrying Jessica Lynch was ambushed. But a lot more happened that day, in a story that rarely gets told.
Because by the end of that Sunday, 29 American service men and women would be dead, the worst US losses of the Iraq war.
Nasiriya was the scene of bloody close-quarter fighting
I remember first reports of the ambush coming in. Frantic radio traffic. American soldiers caught in heavy Iraqi fire. Several killed, others missing.
Soon after, more reports of casualties, from the US marine battalion sent to help the soldiers. "We got three KIAs confirmed," I heard amid the bursts of static. The numbers kept rising.
I was an embedded reporter with the marines, at their command post just outside Nasiriya at the time. They were part of a unit known as Task Force Tarawa, sent to the city with orders to take bridges.
SNIP
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3260473.stm