by Seamus OBlimey » Sun Oct 15, 2006 3:31 am
Probably exaggerated but...<br><br>---------------------------<br>Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 11 October 2006 <br><br>Muhammad Abu Nasr <br><br>Al-Habbaniyah, Wednesday, 11 October 2006 <br><br>Nine huge American transport planes unload casualties from devastating Resistance strike on US Falcon Base in Baghdad just before midnight Tuesday, indicating heavy American losses. <br><br>In a bulletin posted at 2am Makkah time before dawn Wednesday morning, Mafkarat al-Islam reported its correspondent in al-Habbaniyah as saying that the US military hospital at the massive American-occupied air base there had begun to receive dead and wounded personnel from the devastating Resistance rocket assault on the US Falcon arsenal in the southern Baghdad suburb of ad-Durah. Just before midnight Tuesday, the Iraqi Resistance fired barrages of Katyusha and Grad rockets into the arsenal, the largest such facility in occupied Iraq, causing the ordnance to begin to explode. <br><br>Western news reports stated that the blasts continued for hours lighting up the nighttime sky over Baghdad. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported at that hour that three huge US transport aircraft emblazoned with the red cross had flown into the base, and casualties were being unloaded and sent into the hospital at the al-Habbaniyah base, located some 70km west of Baghdad. <br><br>Later, in a dispatch posted at 2:45am Makkah time Wednesday morning, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that two more huge transport planes had arrived in the US-occupied al-Habbaniyah airbase, 70km west of Baghdad carrying casualties from the devastating Resistance assault on America’s Falcon Base in the US-occupied as-Saqr (Falcon) Forward Base in Sukkaniya located in the southern Baghdad suburb of ad-Durah. <br><br>The al-Habbaniyah correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported eyewitnesses in the village of al-Bu Mar‘i, about 2km from the US-occupied air base, as saying that as of that time, a total of five enormous transport planes had flown into the base emblazoned with the red cross. The transports came in under fighter escort, the fighter planes remained aloft circling al-Habbaniyah as the transports set down. <br><br>The witnesses said that the US occupation forces illuminated the base – something they do not normally do – as swarms of American helicopters prowled the skies around the area, trying to prevent Resistance rocket attacks. Then in a dispatch posted at 5:15pm Makkah time Wednesday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that at 7am Wednesday morning the last of a total of nine huge transport planes had landed at the US-occupied al-Habbaniyah airbase, site of America’s largest military hospital in the country, during the night. <br><br>The al-Habbaniyah correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the transport planes continued to land and take off all night and into Wednesday morning ferrying back and forth under fighter escort from Baghdad loaded with dead and wounded Americans. The correspondent reported eyewitnesses as saying that the aircraft did indeed fly into al-Habbaniyah from Baghdad. The huge transport planes arrived over al-Habbaniyah with fighter escort and then would break away from the warplanes land at the airfield and then take off again after about 20 minutes. <br><br>A source in the Iraqi puppet army told Mafkarat al-Islam that the US forces transported more than 90 Iraqi puppet troops to hospital for treatment after the blasts began to shake the southern part of the city. This number was confirmed by Dr. ‘Umar ‘Abdallah ar-Rawi of ar-Ramadi Hospital who told Mafkarat al-Islam that “90 wounded Iraqi troops were brought to us late in the night.” He indicated that the Americans requested his hospital to clear a wing for them and they did so. <br><br>Residents of al-Habbaniyah agreed that nine massive transport planes arrived at various times during the night and into the morning bringing casualties to the US military hospital at the base. The first three planes arrived at 1am local time, witnesses said. The fourth plane landed at about 1:30am, then a fifth about 10 minutes later. Then at 3:30am two more large transports arrived at al-Habbaniyah airbase, and the last two transports were seen coming in at 7am local time Wednesday morning. <br><br>Although the nighttime curfew is usually lifted at around 6am each morning, the correspondent reported that US forces only opened the roads and lifted the automobile curfew in al-Habbaniyah at 8am Wednesday morning. In its announcements regarding the attack, US officials denied that the attack on the arsenal caused any casualties at all. Mafkarat al-Islam observed, however, that the landing of nine massive transport planes carrying US casualties was an important indicator that the number of Americans killed or wounded in the Resistance assault on Falcon arsenal was very substantial. <br><br>The new American military hospital in al-Habbaniyah, reportedly the largest in occupied Iraq, was opened on 12 May this year in response to rising US casualties. <br><br><br><br>Baghdad, Wednesday, 11 October 2006 <br><br>Remains of US Falcon arsenal described as “burned out wasteland with no buildings.” US helicopters dump water on site during the day Wednesday to extinguish last flames. Puppet officials estimate US losses could exceed US$1 billion. <br><br>In a dispatch posted at 4:15pm Makkah time Wednesday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that a source in the puppet “Iraqi Defense Ministry” had revealed that US forces and their Iraqi puppet allies would begin clearing and cleaning away the US Forward Base Falcon (as-Saqr Base) in Sukkaniya in the southern Baghdad suburb of ad-Durah on Wednesday. The puppet “Defense Ministry” source told Mafkarat al-Islam that the base would never return to the way it had been prior to the attack and that it was now a “burned out wasteland with no buildings.” <br><br>The source said that at the present time US helicopters were pouring water intensely on the remains of the arsenal to make sure that the last flames of the fire were finally extinguished. Earlier on Wednesday, US forces announced that the fires were still burning in the arsenal which the Americans admitted was the biggest in Iraq and which they acknowledged had been destroyed. The US military claimed that the devastating explosions that lasted for hours and lit up the skies over Baghdad caused no casualties. <br><br><br>Losses could top US$1 billion. <br><br>In a dispatch posted at 4pm Makkah time Wednesday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that Iraqi puppet officials expected that the losses sustained by the US military as a result of the destruction of the Falcon Arsenal would total more than a billion US dollars. The Baghdad correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that Major General Bilal Ahmad al-‘Ithawi, an adviser to the puppet “Iraqi Defense Minister” for transport and supply, visited ad-Durah on Wednesday morning and said that the attack had inflicted enormous losses on the US military that could total more than US$1 billion. <br><br>General al-‘Ithawi said that the Falcon base was the biggest US arsenal in central Iraq and was the launching point for US military operations. The arsenal contained more than 50 tanks; numerous artillery pieces; a landing strip for Chinook helicopters, some of which were parked there when the place exploded; in addition to armories containing weapons and ammunition. He said that all the buildings and furnishings of the base had been totally destroyed, and the archive records of the US troops was completely wiped out. <br><br>General al-‘Ithawi said however that the biggest fear among Iraqi puppet officials during the night was that the Americans might have stockpiled low grade nuclear arms or chemical weapons such as were used in the Second Battle of al-Fallujah in the base. Had such weapons been there, the death toll of Iraqi residents of Baghdad could have been in the thousands. <br><br>US troops seen hauling away at least 30 burned out tanks and armored vehicles from ruined Falcon arsenal. <br><br>In a dispatch posted at 11:15pm Makkah time Wednesday night, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that as of 5:30pm Wednesday afternoon Baghdad time, at least 30 US Abrams tanks and Bradley armored vehicles were known to have been destroyed in the devastating Resistance attack on the Falcon Arsenal in southern Baghdad. The Baghdad correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported eyewitnesses who lie in the ar-Rashid section of southern Baghdad as saying that the US had used 13 huge military transport trucks to haul completely charred American armored vehicles out of the remains of the American Falcon base. <br><br>The US forces hid the burnt wreckage of the vehicles behind the vegetable wholesale market known as the ‘Ulwat ar-Rashid Commercial Market. Witnesses reported that about 15 minutes before sunset Wednesday, the procession of vehicles under US helicopter air cover and escorted by Humvees took the wrecked vehicles, estimated to number at least 22 to the back wall of the ‘Ulwah. The Americans then set up a guard post to control access to the wrecked vehicles. <br><br>The Americans also set up a checkpoint 2km away where they confiscated cell phones with built-in cameras because travelers on their way to the village of as-Sa‘idat would be able clearly to see the wrecked armored vehicles. <br><br>Meanwhile, residents of the al-Khadra’ neighborhood and a number of Iraqi traffic wardens told Mafkarat al-Islam that they had seen giant American trucks carrying charred US tanks. The witnesses said that the vehicles had no apparent damage to their external shells, as usually is the case when they are burned in the explosion of a roadside bomb or shoulder-fired rockets. Witnesses said that the number of burned tanks being hauled through their area was between eight and 12. <br><br>As of the time of reporting men of the American 4th Engineering Division were still working together with a cleanup unit of Iraqi puppet army to haul away wrecked US vehicles and other wreckage of the American base with the help of American helicopters and cranes. US forces have completely blocked the road that runs by the ruined base. Residents of the al-Mahdiyah al-Ula section of the city whose houses are opposite the base reported that there were US vehicles that had been totally destroyed and were still inside the base waiting for the teams of cleanup troops to get to them. <br><br>The witnesses also told Mafkarat al-Islam that high-ranking American officials had visited the site during the first hours of Wednesday under very heavy guard. <br><br>Iraqi puppet army orders two regiments to move into southern Baghdad to fill gap left by decimated US forces. <br><br>In a dispatch posted at 10:20pm Makkah time Wednesday night, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the Iraqi puppet “Defense Ministry” had issued orders to two regiments of the Iraqi puppet army currently based in the city of al-Kut, 150km southeast of Baghdad in Wasit Province, to move out within 24 hours and take up positions in southern Baghdad. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the transfer of the forces was intended to fill the gap left by the heavy losses of US troops in the southern Baghdad area as a result of Tuesday night’s devastating attack on the Falcon arsenal.<br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/105374">iraqwar.ru</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>---------------------------------- <p></p><i></i>