Is This an Effective Counter-Insurgency Operation?
From the NYT:
The ugly daily fight for ground in the poor Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City unfolded Saturday at a small mosque next door to a hospital, damaging the hospital and all its ambulances, and near a group of children who were injured by the violence as they gathered tin cans to sell for salvage.
The first hit came after a night of clashes in the neighborhood, when the Americans fired at least three “precision-guided munitions” in the area of the Sadr General Hospital at 10 a.m. The target was a small building next door to the hospital that neighbors said was used as a rest house and place of prayer for hospital employees, pilgrims and neighborhood residents.
The sign at the iron gate at the entrance to the building said “Imam Hussein’s Resthouse.”
The Americans described the building in a statement as “a criminal element command and control center.”
“Intelligence reports indicate the command and control center was used by criminal elements to plan and coordinate attacks against Iraqi security and coalition forces and innocent Iraqi citizens,” the statement said.
Next door, in an area used as a parking lot for the hospital’s ambulances, a second missile hit, damaging a water line and creating a small pond, destroying three ambulances and shattering the windows in about 10 others. A third missile hit a generator nearby that supplied the neighborhood.