Blast in Waziriya destroying four US military vehicles

[csqnsas]

Italian TV just showed footage of this. The 4 Hummers were totalled but it lookes like the Marines made a clean getaway as it looked like all the Crew served weapons were taken . No Iraq looters showing off with them anyway.

[Trident-za]

I don't know how clean the getaway was.... there is this article at Yahoo which says 2 killed, but doesn't specify who they were.....

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040426/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_baghdad_blast&cid=1514&ncid=1478


Two people were killed and four wounded in a powerful blast that blew up four US military Humvees and caused a house to collapse in Baghdad, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

Shortly after the explosion, US troops could be seen removing two bodies in body bags.

[Trident-za]

US troops who were at a chemical storehouse that exploded in Baghdad on Monday appear to have included members of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) hunting for weapons of mass destruction.

Residents have shown a ******* reporter at the scene identity cards belonging to members of the ISG.

The residents say they found the cards after US soldiers evacuated their casualties.

The reason for the blast is not immediately clear but witnesses say it happened when about 12 US soldiers tried to break into the building.

The structure was destroyed in the explosion and at least one unidentified body and four wounded Iraqis have been evacuated.



http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1095169.htm


I'm hoping the initial reports of limited casaulties (if any) is correct. But.... This just seems weird to me.... 12 guys inside a building, with 4 humvees outside the building. Building blows up (and is destroyed), 4 humvees destroyed and yet... what happened to the 12 guys??

[Uncle Sam]

They were raiding this building, and...kaboom. I think it involved an SF team.

yahoo (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=1&u=/ap/20040426/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq)

An explosion leveled part of a building as U.S. troops searched it for suspected "chemical munitions"


He said the owner of the site was "suspected of supplying chemical agents" to Iraqi insurgents, but did not elaborate.

The Baghdad explosion occurred as U.S. troops broke into the building in the northern Waziriya district. The front half of the one-story building was leveled, setting ablaze four Humvees parked outside.

Two soldiers were killed and five were wounded, Kimmitt said. He did not comment on the cause of the blast.

A U.S. soldier was seen being taken away on a stretcher, her (Intersting -USP-)chest and face severely burned. Witnesses reported other U.S. casualties taken away in ambulances. Several Iraqis were pulled out of the wreckage, including a woman who wept as she was carried over a man's shoulder.

[usa320]

Dont US forces usually stay away from doors and make their own door in the side of the building to protect themselves from ****y traps?

[Trident-za]

Well, so far nobody is commenting on the cause of the blast.... who said it was a ****y trap? One of the reports I read said something about a spark... the kind of thing you'd expect if they were making their own entry point.... and some gases exploding because of it. I don't know.... just (second) guessing.