Breaking News: 58 US Soldiers Wounded in Bomb Blast
According to the WP, a suicide bomber got just barely within striking distance of a US Army base near Mosul, but detonated his bombs before he was ready because he took US fire as he drove madly toward the gate. He still managed to wound 58 US soldiers, apparently lightly, but took no lives. Three Iraqis were also wounded. Most just were cut with flying glass from shattered windows, but 8 were evacuated for medical treatment.
What is scary to me is that if they keep trying, the Baathists will eventually find a way to kill lots of American troops. A car bomb was foredoomed to failure, since winding security roads had been set up outside the gate of the base, and the US military is ready for that sort of attack. But it is their country; they have lots of munitions; and the US military is a big target. What would have been the impact of 58 deaths today? Either escalation, Westmoreland style, or withdrawal, Lebanon style. Both carry their own risks . . .
A few hours later, a US reconnaissance helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in central Iraq, but managed to land safely and with no one killed (reports don’t say if anyone was injured).
A bomb also went off outside a Sunni mosque in Baghdad, killing three Iraqis. Local Sunnis blamed Shiites, who denied the charges. (The likely culprit is Baathists, who want to set the Sunnis and Shiites to fighting with one another so as to make the country ungovernable for the US.)