Mosque Trap

Weeks ago, before Fallujah, I made a humorous post about a "MosqueTrap." It looks like it is proving true - and it's about time. The picture here is, as best I can tell, of the mosque in both these stories. What was once the scene for a market of sorts has now been mentioned in battlefield news reports. To quote, "the gloves are off." The "then" story in this then and now tale foreshadows recent events. I gather that new pictures of this enemy fort will not be quite as appealing. h/t to In The Bullpen for the one story.

then

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The bazaar that erupts every Friday, as it has for hundreds of years near the Khulafa Mosque in this city's center, is a flea market like nothing most Americans have seen.

Adults and children crowd in to gawk at and grapple with the primary commodity: animals for food, pets or fighting. The market is a rollicking menagerie of parakeets and nightingales, snakes and scorpions, sinewy fighting cocks with flared neck feathers and mixed-breed canines snapping and lunging against chain leashes.

now

In one of the most dramatic clashes of the day, snipers fired on U.S. and Iraqi troops from the minarets of the Khulafah Al Rashid mosque, the military said. Marines said the insurgents waved a white flag at one stage but then opened fire, BBC's embedded correspondent Paul Wood reported. The troops called in four precision airstrikes that destroyed the minarets but left the mosque standing.

Pool footage showed U.S. forces battling insurgents in a neighborhood surrounding the mosque. Troops were pinned down by gunfire on a rooftop, forced to hit the deck and lay on their stomachs.

"We're taking fire from the mosque," one of the Americans said. Forces returned fire, blasting the mosque — a large domed building flanked by two minarets — and sending up clouds of debris.

"When they're using a mosque to do command and control for insurgents and kill my fellow Marines and soldiers and airmen that are out here — no holds barred, the gloves are off," said Marine Staff Sgt. Sam Mortimer.

Comments

[Terry Gain]

Dan,

You gave us great cutting edge commentary during the election. Now, teaming up with Chester, you are giving us great coverage of the battle for Fallujah. Your maps are terrific in helping us to understand the battlefield.

I hope your step-nephew is well. My prayers are with him.

With the number of insurgents and foreign fighters who appear to have left Fallujah prior to the attack and Iraqis fighting alongside Amricans how long will it be before Kerry says: " The President outsourced the job of capturing Zarqawi to the Iraqis and he got away."

[Ron]

"no holds barred, the gloves are off," said Marine Staff Sgt. Sam Mortimer.

Well it's about damned time! God Bless the Marines.

[Daisy]

Marines don't even have gloves. It's the politicans who have gloves.