CNN is reporting live and showing video of enormous explosions in an ammo dump (BIG ammo: like, bombs or artillery shells). This has been going on for some two hours The camera is four miles away, and the commentator can feel the concussions. This looks like the bombing of Baghdad back in 2003. The headline says that this began as a fire, but it is not clear what started the fire, be it an accident or conceivably insurgents firing some incindiary rounds. Huge explosions with burning debris flying hundreds of yards. The army says that they think everyone was evacuated. Of course this is in the middle of the night, a rather terrifying event, I would think. This is in forward operating base Falcon, apparently "directly south" of the Green Zone, though I don't know how far.
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Ironically, soldiers from Falcon were the source of
these quotes in July about being blown up:As President Bush plans to deploy more troops in Baghdad, U.S. soldiers who have been patrolling the capital for months describe a deadly and infuriating mission in which the enemy is elusive and success hard to find. Each day, convoys of Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles leave Forward Operating Base Falcon in southern Baghdad with the goal of stopping violence between warring Iraqi religious sects, training the Iraqi army and police to take over the duty, and reporting back on the availability of basic services for Iraqi civilians.
But some soldiers in the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division -- interviewed over four days on base and on patrols -- say they have grown increasingly disillusioned about their ability to quell the violence and their reason for fighting. The battalion of more than 750 people arrived in Baghdad from Kuwait in March, and since then, six soldiers have been killed and 21 wounded.
"It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you," said Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former backup fullback for Baylor University. "You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."