Rocket Attack on Military Base in Iraq
I heard about this on the radio while I was out earlier today doing some last minute Christmas shopping. Islamic militants struck a mess hall on a military base in northern Iraq near Mosul.
Rockets struck a mess tent at a military base in Mosul where hundreds of U.S. soldiers had just sat down to lunch Tuesday, and military officials said at least 20 people were killed and more than 60 were wounded. A radical Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed responsibility.
The dead included U.S. military personnel, U.S. contractors, foreign national contractors and Iraqi army, said Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, commander of Task Force Olympia in Mosul.
The number of casualties is unclear, but within moments of the attack soldiers where tending to the wounded.
The force of the explosions knocked soldiers off their feet and out of their seats as a fireball enveloped the top of the tent and shrapnel sprayed into the area, Redmon said.
Amid the screaming and thick smoke in the tent, soldiers turned their tables upside down, placed the wounded on them and gently carried them into the parking lot, [Jeremy] Redmon [Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch reporter] said.
Scores of troops crammed into concrete bomb shelters, while others wandered around in a daze and collapsed, he said.
