Mortars set fire to U.S. base in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two mortar rounds hit a U.S. military post in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, setting it on fire, police and witnesses said. A large cloud of black smoke was seen rising above Baladiyat, a predominantly Shiite area of capital, at about 3 p.m.

Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed that "indirect fire rounds" had landed in the vicinity of the coalition forward operating base, but he refused to describe the results of the attack, saying that would allow "the enemy" to assess its effectiveness.

He said the strike was launched from just outside nearby Sadr City, the Shiite slum where more than 200 people were killed on Thursday in an attack by Sunni Arab insurgents using car bombs and mortars. (More)

LSB: Colonel, you don't have to acknowledge the attacks - the rising plumes of black smoke from the fires did that for you. When are we going to stop with the euphemisms and call a spade a spade? This was an attack, and the so-called 'civil unrest' is actually a civil war. Period. The U.S. presence in Iraq is only exacerbating the problem and encouraging the insurgency. We're not helping the Iraqi people (look how many are dying each day in sectarian violence) nor the cause of democracy. Let's declare victory and leave. This ill-conceived, undermanned and poorly executed occupation, brought to us by the collective arrogance of Bush-Cheney-Rice-Rumsfeld, needs to end before the next American G.I. dies.