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MRAP is destroyed by suicide bomber, Generals inside survive

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:28 am
by 308Mike
Linkarooni
A close call for 2 generals in Iraq
Senior leaders’ MRAP is destroyed by suicide bomb, but they survive

By Sean D. Naylor - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 24, 2008 13:44:14 EST

Two U.S. generals and an Iraqi general survived an Aug. 24 suicide car bomb attack that destroyed the armored vehicle in which they were riding.

The attack occurred as a convoy rolled out of Forward Operating Base Marez on the edge of Mosul, said Multi-National Division-North spokesman Maj. Dan Meyers. “They had just left the base,” he said.

The bomber aimed his car, packed with 800 pounds of explosives, at a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle carrying Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, commander of Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, and Brig. Gen. Raymond “Tony” Thomas, assistant division commander for support of Multi-National Division-North. Also riding in the vehicle were an Iraqi general, a linguist and the MRAP crew, said MNSTC-I spokesman Col. Steven Wujciak, who added that he did not know the Iraqi general’s name.

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Re: MRAP is destroyed by suicide bomber, Generals inside survive

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 1:13 am
by GroundPounder
Impressive!

But I have to ask, how did they know to hit THAT MRAP? And with that much explosives? Someone was taking that hit seriously.

Time to ask the Iraqi general or the linguist who may have talked to whom when....

Re: MRAP is destroyed by suicide bomber, Generals inside survive

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 3:35 am
by mekender
sounds like a small to medium IED... couple of arty shells wired to a cell phone or a toggle switch will do that much damage...

a car trunk can easily hold 5 or more shells.

Re: MRAP is destroyed by suicide bomber, Generals inside survive

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:03 am
by Aglifter
Do generals mark their vehicles w. their rank? I thought there was an attack against a general a few months ago...

Re: MRAP is destroyed by suicide bomber, Generals inside survive

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 10:28 am
by Cybrludite
GroundPounder wrote:Impressive!

But I have to ask, how did they know to hit THAT MRAP? And with that much explosives? Someone was taking that hit seriously.

Time to ask the Iraqi general or the linguist who may have talked to whom when....
I'd be checking the base phone logs, as well as questioning any host country workers who could have seen the convoy forming up.