Lather, Rinse ....

Have you ever seen one of those videos of a bridge that has, due to earthquake or accident, lost part of the roadway? In the video you see cars moving merrily along until all the sudden they disappear over the edge .... and into the water.

Well, this reminds me of that:

As best I can piece it together, Sunni Arab guerrillas in Iraq ran a sophisticated sting on US troops in Diyala province on Memorial Day, killing 8 GIs. First, they shot down a helicopter with small arms fire. Two servicemen died in the crash. The guerrillas knew that a rescue team would come out to the site. So they planted a roadside bomb that killed the rescuers. And, they knew that yet another rescue team would come out to see what happened to the first. So they planted roadside bombs and destroyed the second team, as well. Altogether 6 rescuers were blown up in this way. The guerrillas run this routine on Iraqi police and troops in the capital all the time. As US troops increasingly take on policing duties, they become vulnerable to the same operations that have wrought such mayhem on Iraqi security forces.

I also read that insurgents are planting IED's with stronger explosive power and burying them under concrete in the roadways. After blowing through concrete the explosives are still strong enough to blow up vehicles.

It's was a very bad day in Iraq yesterday, and a couple of really bad months since the escalation.