Get ready for more of this in the future. These guerillas were training themselves and probing the defensive moves of the US troops, in preparation for hitting the new “Fort Apaches” being set up in Baghdad as part of Bush’s “surge” plan. The insurgents are now literally on the offensive.
“A coordinated attack” is how the U.S. military statement described the raid on the outpost in Tarmiyah, about 30 miles north of Baghdad. It added that a suicide car bombing began the fight, but military authorities declined to give further details.
Witnesses and local authorities offered a fuller picture. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media and feared reprisals.
According to their accounts, at least one car  and possibly others  rigged with explosives was driven on a kamikaze mission at dawn into the concrete outer barriers around the Army base, a former Iraqi police station taken over by American troops late last year.
The blasts ignited stored fuel, they said. Soon, parts of the base were ablaze and under gunfire, but the size of the insurgent force was unclear. It also was not known whether the militants suffered casualties.
U.S. helicopters evacuated wounded soldiers from the compound  located in the center of the town of more than 20,000 residents  while the fight raged, according to the local accounts. By nightfall, U.S. troops had cordoned off streets around the post.
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