More wounded and here come the Kurds.
From the
Guardian:
Planeloads of injured soldiers have been flown to the US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, and doctors were bracing for a further influx as the Falluja battle culminates.
Two aircraft carrying 102 injured soldiers arrived yesterday. Another 125 injured arrived earlier in the week and more were expected today.
Only seriously injured soldiers are evacuated from Iraq to Landstuhl, the biggest American military hospital outside the US.
"This is one of our peak periods," a hospital spokeswoman, Marie Shaw, told Reuters. "We are very busy. It is more than we have seen in the last couple of months because we used to admit about 30 patients a day."
Most of the patients had bullet wounds, although some had more serious injuries. "We've had more cases of bullet wounds than usual, though some have also suffered blast wounds from rocket-propelled grenades," said Lieutenant Colonel Richard Jordan, a physician at the hospital's deployed warrior centre.
Several soldiers needed intensive care, with brain or spinal injuries or limb amputations, including at least eight of yesterday's arrivals.
While we're busy in Falluja, the insurgents are busy stirring up the Kurds. (Guess what? We don't have anywhere enough troops to deal with an Iraqi civil war involving the Kurds.)U.S. Troops were drawn into a new offensive in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul yesterday to tackle a tide of insurgency unchecked by the military assault on Falluja.
In Baghdad at least 17 Iraqis were killed in a suicide car bombing as gunmen set up checkpoints on roads in the west of the capital and fought battles with US troops.
Rebels also took to the streets of the northern town of Baiji, home to Iraq's main refinery, clashing with security forces.
The violence suggests the four-day operation in Falluja [and the month long heads up on our invasion plan] may have cleared out the most important insurgent stronghold in Iraq, but has done little to curb the burgeoning militant movement.
"The [insurgent] activities have now spread to the borders with the Kurdish self-rule area, and are threatening Kurdish and other minorities in the region," said the official.
The Kurdish governor of Kirkuk, a disputed city to the north-east, survived an assassination attempt yesterday when a car bomb exploded as his convoy passed.
Abdulrahman Mustafa was not hurt, but six members of his personal security detail and eight civilians were hurt, according to Arif Qurbany, the director of a local TV station.
The deployment of Kurdish fighters in Kirkuk would be sensitive (Classic British understatement.}
Last night Kurdish leaders in Arbil and Sulaymaniya, inside the Kurdish self-rule region, said they were preparing Kurdish troops in the national guard to restore order in Mosul and Kirkuk in coordination with the US military. [Who are too busy elsewhere and won't be coordinating with anyone.]
"We cannot stand by and let minorities be attacked, as they were under Saddam," said a military commander in Sulaymaniya. But the deployment of Kurdish fighters in Kirkuk would be sensitive. [Think things are bad now? Just wait.]
Posted by bushmeister0
at 11:44 PM EST
Updated: Thursday, 11 November 2004 11:48 PM EST