Insurgents stalking helicopters,using chemical bombs in Iraq: US
February 23, 2007
WASHINGTON: Insurgents are devising new tactics to sow chaos in Iraq, fielding specialised cells to shoot down helicopters and adding chlorine bombs to its arsenal, senior US military officials said on Thursday.
Insurgents have blown up trucks with tanks filled with chlorine twice this week, leaving scores of people sickened by toxic fumes in the latest twist on the daily mayhem in Iraq. A raid on a big bomb-making factory near Fallujah on Tuesday uncovered chlorine tanks and fertiliser along with a pickup truck and three cars being turned into bombs, they said.
“That’s just another way they’re trying to adapt to cause some sort of chaos here in country,” said Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, the second ranking US commander in Iraq. At the same time, Odierno said cells affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq are believed be stalking US helicopters, a vital cog in the US military machine.
Two or three of the eight helicopters that have been downed since January 20 appeared to have been ambushed, he said. “I think they’ve probably been trying to do this for a long time, but my guess is we have a cell out there that’s somewhat effective,” he said.
“We realise that effective use of helicopters is essential to operational success. And we are using all means at our disposal to protect our aircraft,” he said. Odierno said US forces captured an insurgent a week ago who confessed to being involved in one of the shoot downs.
“And we’ve done a couple operations over the last few nights, and I think we’ve also gone into another part of the cell which might have shot down another aircraft, one of the aircraft,” he said. He said two people were captured but would provide no other information.
Insurgents have used combinations of different types of heavy caliber small arms fire to foil heat-seeking countermeasures, military officials said. One helicopter, however, was hit by a surface-to-air missile, they said.
Insurgents have tried over the past couple of years to use chemicals to make car bombs more lethal, and using chlorine cylinders was “just another way to do it,” Odierno told reporters here via video link from Iraq.
Major General William Caldwell, the US military spokesman in Baghdad, called it “a real crude attempt to raise the terror level by taking and mixing ordinary chemicals with explosive devices.”
US troops battled insurgents in fierce fighting that killed at least 12 people in the volatile Sunni city of Ramadi, the military said on Thursday. Iraqi authorities said the dead included women and children.
The six-hour firefight began after the US troops were attacked by insurgents with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades about 7:30 pm on Wednesday in eastern Ramadi, a Marine spokesman 1st Lt Shawn Mercer said.
Two more brigades of Iraqi troops are to be sent to the southern city of Basra to boost security when British forces begin their phased withdrawal, the local governor announced on Thursday.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has furiously denied the first allegation to surface, branding a 20-year-old woman who alleged she was gang-raped by Baghdad police a liar and a criminal, but on Thursday another case came to light.
Four Iraqi soldiers have been charged with raping a woman, said the mayor of Tal Afar in northern Iraq, Brigadier General Najim Abdullah al-Juburi. Two Iraqi insurgent groups, one linked to al-Qaeda, have vowed to step up attacks on US and Iraqi forces to avenge the alleged rapes of women by security force members, according to Web statements purportedly posted by the organisations on Thursday.
Insurgents have blown up trucks with tanks filled with chlorine twice this week, leaving scores of people sickened by toxic fumes in the latest twist on the daily mayhem in Iraq. A raid on a big bomb-making factory near Fallujah on Tuesday uncovered chlorine tanks and fertiliser along with a pickup truck and three cars being turned into bombs, they said.
“That’s just another way they’re trying to adapt to cause some sort of chaos here in country,” said Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, the second ranking US commander in Iraq. At the same time, Odierno said cells affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq are believed be stalking US helicopters, a vital cog in the US military machine.
Two or three of the eight helicopters that have been downed since January 20 appeared to have been ambushed, he said. “I think they’ve probably been trying to do this for a long time, but my guess is we have a cell out there that’s somewhat effective,” he said.
“We realise that effective use of helicopters is essential to operational success. And we are using all means at our disposal to protect our aircraft,” he said. Odierno said US forces captured an insurgent a week ago who confessed to being involved in one of the shoot downs.
“And we’ve done a couple operations over the last few nights, and I think we’ve also gone into another part of the cell which might have shot down another aircraft, one of the aircraft,” he said. He said two people were captured but would provide no other information.
Insurgents have used combinations of different types of heavy caliber small arms fire to foil heat-seeking countermeasures, military officials said. One helicopter, however, was hit by a surface-to-air missile, they said.
Insurgents have tried over the past couple of years to use chemicals to make car bombs more lethal, and using chlorine cylinders was “just another way to do it,” Odierno told reporters here via video link from Iraq.
Major General William Caldwell, the US military spokesman in Baghdad, called it “a real crude attempt to raise the terror level by taking and mixing ordinary chemicals with explosive devices.”
US troops battled insurgents in fierce fighting that killed at least 12 people in the volatile Sunni city of Ramadi, the military said on Thursday. Iraqi authorities said the dead included women and children.
The six-hour firefight began after the US troops were attacked by insurgents with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades about 7:30 pm on Wednesday in eastern Ramadi, a Marine spokesman 1st Lt Shawn Mercer said.
Two more brigades of Iraqi troops are to be sent to the southern city of Basra to boost security when British forces begin their phased withdrawal, the local governor announced on Thursday.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has furiously denied the first allegation to surface, branding a 20-year-old woman who alleged she was gang-raped by Baghdad police a liar and a criminal, but on Thursday another case came to light.
Four Iraqi soldiers have been charged with raping a woman, said the mayor of Tal Afar in northern Iraq, Brigadier General Najim Abdullah al-Juburi. Two Iraqi insurgent groups, one linked to al-Qaeda, have vowed to step up attacks on US and Iraqi forces to avenge the alleged rapes of women by security force members, according to Web statements purportedly posted by the organisations on Thursday.
