It hasn’t been posted yet, but one of CNN’s embeds just reported from inside the city of Nasiriya, which he said was occupied by the coalition. I’m posting a summary of the report here, because it seems like it’s typical of what’s going on in the contested cities right now. The embed said that the mission, which was supposed to take 6 hours and has lasted six days, has been slowly winding down over the last three days. He made it sound as though the coalition had taken control of the town, and that the guerilla problem was relatively under control. This is in stark contrast to the reports from the BBC.
He said militias on both sides are fighting in the streets. This is also interesting, because I haven’t heard any reports of a pro-coalition militia there.
These pro-Hussein militias have hidden their weapons inthe fields surrounding the cities, and the reporter described a big effort to remove the weapons caches.
This part is a scary. Knowing that the coalition will not attack civilians, the pro-Hussein militia members shoot at the coalition units, and then immediately drop their weapons and disappear into the crowds.
Finally, he described the friendly fire incident covered earlier today, and cited 20 injuries and no casualties. He described thefirefight between three different coalition units, all of whichthought the others were Iraqi military. The embed said he wasshot in the head, saved only by his helmet. The embed made it sound like friendly fire was a chronic problem during the five day fight for the city.
a technology job is no excuse 