CNN has a breaking story out about this. Here's the updated version:
A roadside bomb Thursday killed 10 Marines while they were on "foot patrol near Falluja," the Marine Corps said Friday.
The Marines were from Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).
Eleven Marines were also wounded in the incident, and four of them have not yet returned to duty.
According to other sources,
"Operation Shank" is taking place in Ramadi, CNN has it taking place in Falluja as well. Operation Shank is retaliation for the show of armed insurgent strength in the city yesterday. The article on Operation Shank suggests that the recent events in Ramadi show that insurgency is growing in strength.
In the meantime, please pray /think good thoughts for all people with family in the forces overseas, and those just living in Iraq.
update II Marine is out of Camp Lejeune. They have a tank batallion assigned to their unit, which raises the question, were the tanks there? Why were these guys on foot? More below the fold.
Other than CNN,
other news sources are saying Shank was happening just in Ramadi. I think we may end up with a bit of revisionism here.
In the meantime, who thought it was a good idea to have these boys on foot patrol in Falluja? I mean, talk about armor problems, they're not even in Humvees? What the hell are we trying to prove to the world? This is a scandal.
update It appears that the device was rigged from several artillery shells. This brings to mind that bogus statistic about the declining number of suicide bombers. Don't think that the insurgents haven't already figured out that suicide bombers, while psychologically damaging, deplete their own ranks. Artillery shell bombs, in the meantime, deplete ours.
And let's not forget that it's been over a year since we supposedly "subdued" this town.
update (I'm not trying to keep track of the number updates here). ABC news is reporting that this is one of the worst single incidents for the Marines in Iraq. Keep fighting for our boys and girls to come home, Kossacks.
last update Reuters has a list of the deadliest events in Iraq for US troops. This is the third most casualties suffered in one incident in 2005.
In the meantime, I feel compelled to say that it feels sad that we emphasize these single events so much, but when the media doesn't cover the deaths of every soldier, even when its only one, and when there is no coverage of soldier suicides, these events are all that we have left of calling attention to the loss of good American men and women every day in a war that didn't need to happen. So I don't regret asking for recommendations, and calling attention to this. I'll stop updating now, as it appears the story is getting covered well.