Battle raged late on Wednesday as President Bush said his forces would do all they could to make it possible to hold next month's election in Mosul and other violent cities. But many residents of Mosul say they are too afraid to vote.
The soldier died of wounds, the military said on Thursday.
He had been on a patrol that was hit by a suicide car bomb close to a U.S. outpost. Gunmen tried to overrun the area, sending in another suicide truck bomber and firing mortars and rockets in an apparent bid to wipe out an entire U.S. unit.
About 15 U.S. troops were wounded before jets screamed in low over the rooftops to bomb the attackers and force them to break off, leaving about 25 insurgents dead, U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings said.
[...]
The U.S. military has conceded it is not in control of some parts of Mosul and plans to send thousands more troops to Iraq's third city for the election. Many residents of the largely Sunni Arab city of two million still say they are too afraid to vote.
Bush said bin Laden's message showed the importance of an election he said would counter al Qaeda's "dark vision." "The task at hand is to provide as much security as possible for the election officials as well as for the people inside cities like Mosul to encourage them to express their will," Bush said.
[...]
U.S. generals conceded this month that they face a "sophisticated" and increasingly effective enemy.
But, we're still winning, eh?
As for Bubblehead's driveling, it looks to me like the people inside Mosul are expressing their will. Just like the people inside Falluja. And those additional thousands of American troops to be sent in kind of begs the question of just who it is that will be securing Iraq for elections. It's going to be sadly comical when we prop up a couple of masked Iraqi policemen (maybe - under those masks, who knows?) with a battery of U.S. troops behind them.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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