Winks Blog

11 + Killed, Another Bridge Blown Up

Good morning,

On Sunday, a martyr struck a vital bridge outside the Iraqi capita. It appeared that a northbound driver stopped and detonated his vehicle beside a support pillar, said Lt. Col. Garry Bush, an Army munitions officer who was in a U.S. civilian convoy that arrived two minutes after the blast. The convoy also carried an Associated Press reporter and photographer.

A U.S. Army checkpoint and a tent structure, apparently a rest area, fell into the rubble.
Security guards with private security firm Armor Group International, all ex-military, and others in a passing convoy rushed to the ruins. They found a scene of confusion and worked with a U.S. Army quick reaction force for some 45 minutes to retrieve trapped men, scrambling over the fallen concrete.

At one point, a Bradley armored vehicle with a tow chain pulled a slab off a pinned victim to free him.

Then a shout went up, "Morphine! Morphine!" and a black T-shirt-clad Briton administered painkiller to the freed man.

"Another poor fellow looked crushed beneath a concrete slab," said Donald Campbell, a 40-year-old from Inverness, Scotland.

Iraqi police said the overpass was a vital link across the highway for villagers in the area because the other spans have been taken over by U.S. forces. A police officer in nearby Iskandariyah, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said a curfew had been imposed on vehicles and pedestrians after the attack and earlier bombings of a mosque and a Sunni political party's headquarters that caused some damage but no casualties.
Drivers coming from both directions were told to turn back while the U.S. forces worked on Monday, causing traffic jams for much of the morning until the word spread to avoid the route.
Manhal Adil, a 42-year-old driver of a minibus that taxis passengers between Baghdad and Samawah, a Euphrates River city about 230 miles southeast of Baghdad, said he had to take a dangerous detour.

"Now, we are forced to take the old road, which is dangerous and full of police checkpoints that consume our time," he said.

At least 11 Iraqis were killed in attacks elsewhere on Monday, according to police officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution.

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 8:47 AM