More Gangster Mercs On A Shooting Spree By: Mark W Adams

One Iraqi policeman likened the guards to "gangsters riding away".

Compliments of IraqSlogger and ePluribus Media who recounts the story from the BBC:

Women and children

According to eyewitnesses, the masked security guards threw a smoke bomb and opened fire on a car which was driving close to the four-vehicle convoy they were protecting.

Two women in the car were killed and a third was injured.

One eyewitness, shopkeeper Ammar Fallah, said the guards had signalled for the car's woman driver to pull over as they passed.

"When she failed to do so they opened fire, killing her and the woman next to her," he told AFP news agency.

"There were two children in the back seat but they were not harmed. The women were both shot in the head."

As if it would make any difference to the depraved child stalkers and indifferent torture apologists on the right, but the ladies were members of Iraq's Christian minority, truly innocent bystanders to the hell we unleashed there.

No, Shi'ite happens I guess. They were in the way.

Carol White:

U.S. contractors, this time from Dubai gunned down two women who were in a car with their two children. Apparently the contractors were attempting to speed traffic up in order to move a troop convoy whom they were escorting. When the car did not move quickly enough to suit them they shot into it killing the women. This is not a situation in which U.S. troops or the contractors were under attack. It appears to have been a cold-blooded killing. "Do what we tell you or you history," seems to be the lesson.

MSNBC has video...

Speaking of Shi'ite happening...

Shi'a Forces Reported to Clash South of Baghdad

"Violent clashes" broke out south of Baghdad between two powerful Shi'a militias, according to an unconfirmed report by an influential Sunni Iraqi religious organization."

More...

After 4 1/2 years of unending success, the Air Force is still dropping 500- and 2000-lb. bombs in populated areas of Iraqi cities, including Baghdad.

For more on this little bit of security excess sucess, 25 Killed, 40 Wounded In US Double Air Strike In Iraq.

How about this development Turkey Ready to Launch Attack on Kurdishish Border Region Inside of Iraq.

Sounds good to me. Let's see if any more of our NATO allies want to join the party like we handled things in the former Yugoslavia. (And yes, that was snark. It look's like the Turks are really going for it.) And frankly, I don't know if Iran closing their border with Iraq is a good thing or not. The fact that Iran is shelling Kurdish bases in Iraq will delight Turkey, but doesn't bode well for any peace, anytime soon.

In fact, I fear it's going to get uglier than we ever imagined. But if you aren't freaked out enough, reports from our paranoid Isreali militant conspiratists at DEBKAfile prompts this Freeper to conclude:

U.S. Airbase In Syria? First Permanent U.S. Presence Since Beirut ‘83

Never underestimate the power of a MilBlogger to mess with your head. First of all, the area we're talking about is in Lebanon. But to hear them talk about it, you'd think it was a suburb of Damascus.

The air base, according to DEBKAfile’s military sources, will be
located at Kleiat in northern Lebanon roughly 75 air miles from
Damascus, which these days doubles as a shared Syrian-Iranian military
hub and Tehran’s eastern Mediterranean forward base. The American air
installation will also lie 22 air miles from Tartous, Syria’s main
naval base and the Russian Mediterranean fleet’s command center. And
the aircraft posted there will be minutes away from the joint
Syrian-Iranian arms and missiles industries at Homs and Hamma.

Everything in Lebanon, and half of Northern Israel is 75 miles from Damascus. Geez, guys, buy a map.

I think it's all a some forward based Patriot missile batteries some American technicians are installing, but that won't stop these guys from figuring two guys with a tape measure are really scouting locations for the next Ramstein airforce base. They're still convinced Saddam's WMD's are buried in the Bekka Valley.