Antiwar.com Blog

In case you were wondering why the hospital at Fallujah is a “legitimate military target”, this is how the US military justifies it:

The US military said insurgents had been in control of Fallujah General Hospital – located on the west bank of the Euphrates – and were “forcing the doctors there to release propaganda and false information”.

It underlined in a statement that when hospitals “are used for military purposes they lose … protected status”.

So, you see, the doctors of Fallujah hospital are now liberated and no longer have to release “propaganda and false information” like civilian casualty numbers. Undoubtedly, the Liberated Doctors of Fallujah will now release statements of gratitude and we’ll hear harrowing tales of their captivity while in the clutches of the Resistance.

On this topic, see Rahul Mahajan and Under the Same Sun for commentary and photos.

UPDATE:The US forces have taken possession of the hospital, leaving the incursion into the hospital to be carried out by Iraqi soldiers. The hospital, the largest in the city, is located on the western side of the banks of the Euphrates rivers, which separates it from the centre, leaving just small clinics to deal with any local wounded or dead if full-scale fighting erupts. According to Salih al-Isawi, the hospital director, the building had been surrounded and “they are telling us over loud speakers that if we leave the building we will be shot at”, reporting that an ambulance that tried to exit the facility was fired upon.

link via Raed Jarrar

Drudge has linked to a story in the Washington Times, picking up a rather interesting UPI report:

“Newly declassified documents revealed the United States planned as recently as 1998 to drop nuclear bombs on North Korea if the country attacked South Korea.
As part of “scenario 5027,” 24 F15-E bombers flew simulation missions at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina to drop mock nuclear bombs on a firing range between January and June 1998…”

Indeed! Swell thing it is for the people of NK that Jong-Il decided not to invade. Instead, he decided to develop nukes himself. Some random, probably useless thoughts:
Hasn’t the US nuked enough people in that region? Why does the plan use the annoying word “scenario”? Why would those F-15E “Strike Eagles” need bombing runs? What with the awesome destructive power of the modern nuke, you’re going to destroy the entire civilian population anyway, no matter where the damn things land. Who cares if you miss the mark by a few dozen feet? I’m no scientist, but wouldn’t the fallout from those bombs damage South Korea significantly as well? (Including the 30,000 US troops along the border with the North)

The UPI report goes on to say:

“The declassified documents also said the U.S. had kept nuclear weaponry in South Korea until at least 1998, despite officially claiming it had withdrawn all nuclear warheads in 1991.”

Yet another reason the “crazy” Kim Jong-Il would want nukes of his own. So, in a very significant way I guess, the US, in its tireless efforts to “protect” the South, is actually responsible for creating a good deal of the danger that exists in the region. How about that!
you know, come to think of it, as long as you’re trying to protect those poor bastards, given the situation as it stands now, there are only two choices.

1. Disarm and remove all trace of American presence in the region. Renounce any responsibility for protecting South Korea.

2. Nuke those Northern bastards right now. Don’t pass go, don’t collect $200, right frickin’ now. And, for God’s sake, make damn sure none of them are left alive, because that can become a problem down the road (when they repopulate the region and decide they have a problem with you wiping out their ancestors and all). This option would have the added bonus effect of giving the rest of the world a demonstration that the US is still willing, in this day and age, to use these weapons against anyone, at any time, for any reason, or come to think of it, for no reason at all.

Isn’t it odd that although the resistance in Fallujah has allegedly vowed to use chemical weapons against the Americans that we hear none of the hullabaloo over chemical weapons suits or gas masks or anything that we heard before the invasion? Are the assaulting troops in chem gear or not? If not, why not?

Duelfer’s report actually says that chemical weapons under UN seal were looted, so it is within the realm of possibility that the resistance has some.

US troops take over Fallujah’s main hospital along with the bridge over the Euphrates.

Rodger Payne has an interesting post up about the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osiraq in 1981:

The 1981 Israeli aerial striike on Iraqi nuclear facilities at Osiraq is frequently cited as a successful use of preventive military force, and may be used to justify similar attacks in the future. However, closer examination of the Osiraq attack reveals that it did not substantially delay the Iraqi nuclear program, and may have even hastened it. Attempts to replicate the “success” at Osiraq are likely to do even worse, as proliferating states are now routinely dispersing and concealing their nuclear, biological, and chemical programs to decrease their vulnerability to air strikes. Given the poor track record of preventive attacks in controlling the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, American interests will be best served in the future by embracing other tools of counterproliferation.

Read the rest.

Rahul thinks the assault on Fallujah has already begun, which it has, at least the ongoing and escalating bombing campaign, but if any ground troops have actually moved in, I haven’t seen it reported. Hala Jaber, who claims to be “the only Western Newspaper reporter inside Iraq, ” reported last night on the preparations the resistance is making for the invasion.

While the US military is apparently sitting in a big circle around the town of Fallujah, mayhem rules in the rest of the area surrounding Baghdad and the city itself. Two US convoys were attacked near Baghdad, killing 4 Iraqis, one US soldier. A roadside bomb went off on the airport road. (Dahr Jamail says 3 Americans were killed in an airport road bombing) Allawi declared “martial law,” whatever that means. It isn’t like he has an army or anything, unless you really think he commands the US military in Iraq.

There are some “Iraqi police” but their ranks are getting steadily whittled down. For example, the resistance just executed twelve of them, in the neighboring towns of Haditha and Haqlaniyah.

Ramadi (Iraq): Insurgents on Sunday launched deadly attacks against police stations in western Anbar province for the second day in a row, killing at least 22 people, police and hospital officials said.

At dawn, armed militants clashed with police and then set off explosions at police stations in the neighboring towns of Haditha and Haqlaniyah, 220 kms northwest of Baghdad, said Capt. Nasser Abdullah of the K3 police station in Haqlaniyah. At least six policemen were killed at the Haqlaniyah police station, he said.

Also killed was the manager of security police for the western Anbar sector, Shahir al-Ghureifi. A third police station, the K3 station, also came under attack as rebels clashed with Iraqi forces, he said. Guards at the Haditha Dam were also attacked, he said. Dr. Bassem Zaayan at Haditha Hospital said a total of at least 22 people were killed in the attacks. Insurgents yesterday launched deadly coordinated attacks in Samarra, located 140 kms east of Haditha, leaving 29 people dead and another 40 wounded.

Insurgents stormed a police station, triggered at least two suicide car bombs and fired mortars at government installations. One of the car bombs, targeting the mayor’s office, used a stolen Iraqi police vehicle, the U.S. military said. Twenty-nine people, including 17 police and 12 Iraqi civilians, were killed throughout the city, the US military said. Arabic language television stations said more than 30 died as gangs of insurgents roamed the city, clashing with American and Iraqi forces.

Two Black Watch soldiers are seriously injured from a suicide car bomb attack. Iraq’s “finance minister” was car bombed at his house in Baghdad’s Karrada district. The minister, Adil Abdel-Mahdi, a leading member of SCIRI, was not killed, but one of his guards was. There were four car bombs in Samarra yesterday, mostly targeting police and government buildings and three police stations were attacked by the resistance, killing at least 4 policemen.

Twelve Iraqi National Guards, heading home to Najaf, were abducted and killed by resistance fighters dressed as Iraqi police near Latifiya. AP reports, “The assailants, who later identified themselves as members of a group calling itself the al-Furqan Brigade, tortured the driver, breaking his arm and sending him off with a ransom demand to their relatives for payment of $1,000 for each “headless body of their dear one,” Al-Najafi said.”

I’ll update this post as developments warrant through the day.

UPDATE: Dahr Jamail just posted this mayhem survey from Baghdad: Carnage and Martial Law

UPDATE: On Allawi declaring “martial law” or a “state of emergency”, Matthew Yglesias points out that Allawi already declared martial law several months ago in violation of the TAL. Also, we have this weird quote from Thair Hassan al-Naqeeb:

“It is going to be a curfew. It is going to be so many things, but tomorrow the prime minister will mention it,” he said.

Uh, OK…..

UPDATE: Maybe this is the “so many things”:

U.S. troops have “isolated Fallujah” and all traffic in and out of the city has been halted after the Iraqi government ordered emergency rule in most of the country, the U.S. military said.

A U.S. statement said that in accordance with the emergency decree, which the Iraqi government announced earlier Sunday, the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division 2nd Brigade Combat Team “isolated Fallujah and all traffic is being halted.”

UPDATE: The Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it shot dead Hussein Qasim Khalaf and Hassen Hadi Qassam ”for spying on the mujahideen (holy fighters)”. It posted pictures of identity papers showing the men had worked for Titan Systems Corporation and for the US Marines as translators.

UPDATE: Three provincial officials assassinated in Mahmoudiya.

A Turkish driver is killed in a roadside bomb attack on a US convoy near Mosul.

Three US vehicles are destoyed in an abush near Abu Ghraib.

UPDATE: Zarqawi’s group posts video of the suicide car bomb attack on the Black Watch on the internet.