Thursday, April 15, 2004
A Debt Repaid
Jordan snags a bunch of terrorists before they strike, according to CNN.
Jordanian security last week intercepted three trucks, believed to be traveling from the northern border with Syria, that were packed with explosives intended for government buildings, the U.S. Embassy and a number of hotels.
Authorities arrested a number of people over a period of nearly 10 days. Jordanian security agencies had been on high alert following the arrest of two alleged terrorists on April 1.
In a letter to Gen. Saad Khair, the head of Jordan's intelligence department, King Abdullah said the scheme was unprecedented in terms of the quantity of explosives, the means of the attack and the targets.
Link.
In other news, U.S. troops in discovered and attacked an IED factory in Habbaniyah yesterday, killing 16 insurgents. Habbaniyah is about 50 miles West of Baghdad, roughly halfway between Fallujah and my old stomping grounds at Ramadi. It's a small town, but it's always been very dicey. Many soldiers have lost their lives along the stretch of Highway 10 between Habbaniyah and Ramadi--mostly to IEDs. They used to come in to our aid station at Combat Outpost, on the east end of town, where we had our battalion surgeon. Sometimes we could get them out in time, sometimes, unfortunately, we couldn't.
So the destruction of the IED factory and the deaths of these insurgents is a beautiful and happy thing. That same group of people is probably responsible for several deaths in the 1-34th and the 1-16th, in the 1st Infantry Division.
Oh, and 957th Multi-Role Bridge Company out of the North Dakota Army National Guard? That was your blood payback, too, for Kenneth Hendrickson and Keith Smette. Chances are good that these guys were the ones responsible for their deaths--by roadside bombs--last January.
My sense is it was a pretty important little operation--it was very unusual for insurgents to fight in their own homes and lairs. Usually when US troops came-a-knocking, the insurgents would come along quietly. Which was good for everyone. Their wives and children were often in the same houses.
In this case, though, it looks like they were cornered and chose to go down swinging. Hey, I can respect the stupid, pathetic losers for that. It saves on the coalition forces detainee processing sheet paperwork.
It's also unusual to find 16 insurgents in the same place at the same time. The report I'm reading mentions no U.S. casualties in the operation.
It also tells me that we still have good friends of our own in Habbaniyah willing to give us useful, actionable information.
This is good news all around.
Splash, out
Jason
Jordanian security last week intercepted three trucks, believed to be traveling from the northern border with Syria, that were packed with explosives intended for government buildings, the U.S. Embassy and a number of hotels.
Authorities arrested a number of people over a period of nearly 10 days. Jordanian security agencies had been on high alert following the arrest of two alleged terrorists on April 1.
In a letter to Gen. Saad Khair, the head of Jordan's intelligence department, King Abdullah said the scheme was unprecedented in terms of the quantity of explosives, the means of the attack and the targets.
Link.
In other news, U.S. troops in discovered and attacked an IED factory in Habbaniyah yesterday, killing 16 insurgents. Habbaniyah is about 50 miles West of Baghdad, roughly halfway between Fallujah and my old stomping grounds at Ramadi. It's a small town, but it's always been very dicey. Many soldiers have lost their lives along the stretch of Highway 10 between Habbaniyah and Ramadi--mostly to IEDs. They used to come in to our aid station at Combat Outpost, on the east end of town, where we had our battalion surgeon. Sometimes we could get them out in time, sometimes, unfortunately, we couldn't.
So the destruction of the IED factory and the deaths of these insurgents is a beautiful and happy thing. That same group of people is probably responsible for several deaths in the 1-34th and the 1-16th, in the 1st Infantry Division.
Oh, and 957th Multi-Role Bridge Company out of the North Dakota Army National Guard? That was your blood payback, too, for Kenneth Hendrickson and Keith Smette. Chances are good that these guys were the ones responsible for their deaths--by roadside bombs--last January.
My sense is it was a pretty important little operation--it was very unusual for insurgents to fight in their own homes and lairs. Usually when US troops came-a-knocking, the insurgents would come along quietly. Which was good for everyone. Their wives and children were often in the same houses.
In this case, though, it looks like they were cornered and chose to go down swinging. Hey, I can respect the stupid, pathetic losers for that. It saves on the coalition forces detainee processing sheet paperwork.
It's also unusual to find 16 insurgents in the same place at the same time. The report I'm reading mentions no U.S. casualties in the operation.
It also tells me that we still have good friends of our own in Habbaniyah willing to give us useful, actionable information.
This is good news all around.
Splash, out
Jason
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