This Weekend

This morning the whole warehouse shook and the explosion resonated like the echo of a sonic boom. Then we heard the heavy-caliber gun-fire, sporadic reports that also seemed to be close. Quite exciting. I wondered if a car-bomb made it to the gate. Upon inquiry, it appears the local Iraqi Police Headquarters outside may have been attacked. And at night, after the quietest three weeks ever, we finally got another mortar attack. Just one, so far.
In the news there was briefly the story of the capture of 4 of Al-Zarqawi’s lieutenants, but the story was spiked very quickly and I couldn’t find it again on the internet. The President of Iraq also had “no comment as of yet” on the rumors that Al-Zarqawi himself was captured. Seems Zarqawi was detained by the Iraqi National Guard near Fallujah but released because they didn’t recognize him. But the whole down-playing of such news is very interesting. Indeed, it should be a very interesting weekend.
After the big Boom this morning, the base has been closed off until after the election. That is, the nationals that come into work are not-allowed until next week. Since they do a lot of the trash, sewage work, and cleaning along with construction building, it may be a stinky week. We also had a bad batch of fuel last week and quite a few vehicles wouldn’t start, including our unit’s bus. Being mechanics, we were back up and going the next day, but it certainly is a different world over here.
It certainly will be an interesting weekend…

P.S. Since I wrote this email, different news articles finally appeared claiming anywhere from 3-6 of Zarqawi’s men have been arrested. I think as the insurgents become desperate to disrupt the election, they will take more and more chances, which will result in many of them being caught. So in a way, this is good. Also, an IED went off and just about totally demolished this HumVee. You may notice it was one of the up-armored. It burned after they got out so it looks even worse now, but it is true: All four soldiers escaped, some with busted eardrums, but that was the worst of it. I always like to hear about it when they walk away.