Gulf War II (y)

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Gulf War II (y)

 Sunday 23 March 2003
 

A British Royal Marine from 42 Commando squadron fires a Milan wire-guided missile at an Iraqi position on the Fao peninsula. (AFP POOL/John Mills)

This is a great photograph. People, technology, and fire.

A statue of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is seen at his damaged palace during a U.S. led air strike in Baghdad today. Fresh air raids shook Baghdad on Sunday as a U.S. armored column pushed more than halfway to the Iraqi capital, part of a ferocious onslaught aimed at ousting Saddam. (Faleh Kheiber/Reuters)

I like this statue; the blend of modern personality and ancient headgear. Or is that a mosque dome for a hat? I'm guessing there's more symbology than I'm getting here...

Polish and U.S. special forces hold a captured Iraqi man on a boat in the port of Umm-Qasr in southern Iraq today. Sunday was the 'toughest day of resistance' so far encountered by U.S.-led forces in four days of war against Iraq, U.S. Army General John Abizaid said on Sunday. (Desmond Boylan/Reuters)

This is the first thing I've heard of Polish special forces. I'll have to ask Dziadziu about it.

UPDATE: I found the following story in the Reuters stream...

Poland Admits Iraq Combat Role After News Photos

By Douglas Busvine

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland admitted on Monday that its élite GROM commando unit had taken part in the U.S.-led attack on Iraq (news - web sites) after the soldiers posed for a Reuters news photographer.

The Defense Ministry had denied that GROM (Thunder) special forces were involved in combat, but on Monday it confirmed their participation after dailies splashed photographs of the soldiers in the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, where U.S.-led troops are battling pockets of Iraqi resistance.

Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski refused, however, to divulge details of the troops' role in supporting the main U.S.-British force fighting to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"We are determined not to comment on secret operations," Szmajdzinski told reporters, saying only that GROM troops were operating "in the coastal region" of Iraq and in Gulf waters.

"You don't comment about the theater of operations because that would give away information about our capability...this is secret," he added.

GROM is an SAS-style commando unit which has seen recent action in Afghanistan (news - web sites). It is one of the few highly trained units in Poland's armed forces, which are mostly underfunded and still rely on outdated Soviet-era equipment.

Poland, a NATO member whose government has supported the tough U.S. line against Baghdad, sent 200 troops to the Gulf in what they originally said was a supporting, non-combat, role.

The Reuters photographs showed masked GROM soldiers taking prisoners, scrawling graffiti on a portrait of Saddam and posing with U.S. Navy (news - web sites) Seals holding up a U.S. flag.

"These photos shouldn't have happened," said Szmajdzinski. "The next time it will definitely be with the Polish flag."

 Saturday 22 March 2003
 

Iraqi troops fought U.S. forces early today near the central Shi'ite city of Najaf as American bombs again shook Baghdad, briefly knocking out parts of the power grid. (Reuters Graphic)

My CIA map of Iraq shows the name of the town as An Najaf; I'm a stickler for proper names. Salam Pax hasn't updated his blog in a bit. Lack of electricity, 'net disconnected by the authorities, or personal misadventure amidst the bombing? I don't know, but I hope for his health and well-being.

A oil well burns in southern Iraq today in this image from video. (AP Photo/POOL via APTN)

 Friday 21 March 2003
 

The web banner of the Al Bawaba news service.

Skids of 2,000-pound precision-guided ordnance wait in the ships hangar bay to be transferred to the flight deck aboard USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Gulf today.(AP Photo/Jason Frost, Handout)

An F/A-18C Hornet assigned to the 'Hunters' of Strike Fight Squadron Two Zero One (VFA-201) launches from the flight deck aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), in this image released March 21, 2003. Roosevelt and Carrier Air Wing Eight (CVW-8) are deployed conducting combat missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. (REUTERS/Aaron Burden/U.S. Navy)

The first of two F-117 stealth fighters lands in the early morning hours at a forward-deployed air base in the middle-east, after completing a mission yesterday. The F-117s from the 8th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron out of Holloman A.F.B., New Mexico, are currently deployed in the middle-east supporting all ongoing operations. (REUTERS/U.S. Air Force/Derrick C. Goode)

An explosion rocks Baghdad during air strikes today. Large explosions shook Baghdad during a night of blistering air strikes, as U.S. and British ground forces advancing across southern Iraq battled for hours for control of a strategic airfield. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

I've read elsewhere that this is one of the presidential palaces near the Tigris River. Which one I'm not sure. It's still standing; I wonder whether a "bunker buster" drilled in and ate out the middle or whether this was a failed targeting.

Huge plumes of smoke are seen rising above buildings during air strikes on Baghdad today in this frame grab taken from television footage. Fires raged in an Iraqi Presidential complex in Baghdad on Friday following missile strikes by allied forces. (Adu Dhabi Television/Reuters)

Quote of the day: "As last night's dramatic television coverage showed, the lights stayed on in Baghdad, but the instruments of tyranny are collapsing." - British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon

Iraqi soldier surrender to India Co., 3rd Batt., 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division following a gunfight at the headquarters of the Iraqi 51st and 32nd mechanized infantry divisions near Az Bayer, Iraq today. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch)

A U.S. Marine from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, checks an Iraqi soldier as other Iraqi soldiers lie on the ground in southern Ira today. Some 200 Iraqi soldiers surrendered to the U.S. 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit just after an hour after it crossed the border into Iraq from northern Kuwait. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

Marines of the U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Fox Company 'Raiders' take control over the main port of Umm Qasr today. U.S. and British officers predicted a swift victory on Friday after American armored columns raced deep into Iraq and British marines seized vital oil facilities in the south. (REUTERS/Desmond Boylan)

Wait a second... didn't they tell these guys that this was going to be taking place in a desert? Sand? Khaki? Well, they have the appropriate helmet coverings. And what are those shoes? Not like what I saw when I was in the service. Hmmm. Perhaps they're planning on urban warfare, which might require darker battle dress uniforms.

A Marine of the U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Fox Company 'Raiders' replaces the Iraqi flag at the entrance to Iraq's main port of Umm Qasr on March 21, 2003 with the Stars and Stripes and the flag of the Marine Corps. U.S. Marines briefly raised the Stars and Stripes flag over the new port area of Umm Qasr on Friday after facing tougher than expected resistance in and around the southern Iraq port. Some time later, Marines returned and removed the Stars and Stripes. No reason was given for the decision, but Washington has consistently stressed that invading U.S. forces want toliberate Iraq, not occupy it. (REUTERS/Desmond Boylan)

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