Truck bomb kills 78 near mosque; mortars fired at Green Zone

[Ghost in the Machine]

BAGHDAD (AP) — A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque Tuesday in central Baghdad, killing 78 people and wounding more than 200, even as about 10,000 U.S. soldiers northeast of the capital used heavily armored Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles to battle their way into an al-Qaeda sanctuary.
The troops, under cover of attack helicopters, killed at least 22 insurgents in the offensive, the U.S. military said.

Also Tuesday, militants fired a volley of mortars into the U.S.-guarded Green Zone at sundown, with five of them striking near the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and one crashing adjacent to the American post exchange store.

No casualties were immediately reported.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-06-19-iraq-tuesday_N.htm?csp=34

[endarkenment]

1. "killed at least 22 insurgents"

Ah great we are back in the Body Count Game! 10,000 storm the AL KADER SANCTUARY (I can picture the blazing neon billboard at the gates) with the usual blow the crap out of everything that moves tactics, and count enough body parts to get to 22! Yippee we're all gonna die! Where the fuck is country joe now that we need him again?

[Virginia Dare]

2. They obviously were wearing bright red shirts...

that said "insurgent" on them...:-(

[TwilightGardener]

3. So the word "insurgents", which used to signify native Iraqis who wanted us out

or participated in sectarian violence, has now become the word for Al Qaeda, who are considered "foreign fighters" with no real stake in Iraq as a nation, who are also called "terrorists". I need a new dictionary.

[Ghost in the Machine]

4. It's hard to keep up, isn't it? .... n/t