Iraq TV coverage insurgent news report of Falcon Base fire.

Was a Tactical Nuke detonated in Iraq?


The blast in question is viewed around 3:56 during the then live broadcast from Iraq TV. Other sources from the scene reported a large cloud of debris soaring into the air after the explosion.

The Falcon Base is burning out of control and can be seen in the distant skyline from Baghdad, as it appeared the evening of Oct 10, 2006 on Iraq TV. Both U. S. military sources and Iraqis insurgents report that nearly a billion dollars worth of ammunition and supplies were stored at this base.

Would this and the coming elections be the reason for President Bush's three days of meetings with Pentagon generals? At this point Pentagon officials have stated no casualties were reported from the base which contradicts statements from witnesses outside bases and several news sources from that area (see below).

Below a report from a Islamic web site followed by news reports from other sources cited from the web:


Devastating Attack Destroys US Falcon Base
Oct 12, 2006
Muhammad Abu Nasr
Free Arab Voice

The US Falcon base, now described as “burned out wasteland with no buildings” was the scene of American helicopters dumping water on the site Wednesday to extinguish the last flames after resistance fighters managed to carry out a devastating attack that completely destroyed the American base.

In a dispatch posted at 4:15pm Makkah time Wednesday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that a source in the puppet “Iraqi Defense Ministry” had revealed that US forces and their Iraqi puppet allies would begin clearing and cleaning away the US Forward Base Falcon (as-Saqr Base) in Sukkaniya in the southern Baghdad suburb of ad-Durah on Wednesday.

The “Defense Ministry” source told Mafkarat al-Islam that the base would never return to the way it had been prior to the attack and that it was now a “burned out wasteland with no buildings.”

The source said that at the present time US helicopters were pouring water intensely on the remains of the arsenal to make sure that the last flames of the fire were finally extinguished. Earlier on Wednesday, US forces announced that the fires were still burning in the arsenal which the Americans admitted was the biggest in Iraq and which they acknowledged had been destroyed. The US military claimed that the devastating explosions that lasted for hours and lit up the skies over Baghdad caused no casualties.

Iraqi Resistance forces attacked the largest US weapons arsenal depot in the American General Headquarters in the south of Baghdad late Tuesday evening. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the arsenal, located in the as-Saqr Base in the south of Baghdad is the main supplier of equipment to the US forces. At the time of reporting, mountains of American arms and ammunition were continuing to explode in the sky in a huge fire unprecedented in Baghdad’s history.

In response, US aircraft hysterically rocketed and bombed various parts of the city, the correspondent reported, trying to knock out the launch sites of the rockets that blasted into the American arsenal.

A source in the Iraqi puppet regime told Mafkarat al-Islam that the Resistance blasted the American arsenal, known as Camp Falcon, with Grad and Katyusha rockets. The source admitted that dozens of Americans had been killed or wounded in the blasts that were still ripping the American arsenal apart. The source said that the US forces were unable to do anything to stop the massive inferno of flame and explosions that was lighting up the Baghdad sky like fireworks.

Reuters reported the puppet regime’s “Iraqiyah” television network as showing pictures of a huge fire lighting up the night sky. Reuters reporters in central Baghdad heard more than 30 explosions, which began at about 11pm local time Tuesday night. The puppet “Iraqi Interior Ministry” said the explosions had rocked three neighborhoods close to Forward Operating Base Falcon in the southern Baghdad suburb of ad-Durah.

Losses Could Top US$1 Billion

So-called Iraqi officials expect that the losses sustained by the US military as a result of the destruction of the Falcon Arsenal that would total more than a billion US dollars.

Major General Bilal Ahmad al-‘Ithawi, an adviser to the “Iraqi Defense Minister” for transport and supply, visited ad-Durah on Wednesday morning and told Mafkarat al-Islam that the attack had inflicted enormous losses on the US military that could total more than US$1 billion.

General al-‘Ithawi said that the Falcon base was the biggest US arsenal in central Iraq and was the launching point for US military operations. The arsenal contained more than 50 tanks; numerous artillery pieces; a landing strip for Chinook helicopters, some of which were parked there when the place exploded in addition to armories containing weapons and ammunition. He said that all the buildings and furnishings of the base had been totally destroyed along with the archive records.

General al-‘Ithawi said however that the biggest fear among Iraqi puppet officials during the night was that the Americans might have stockpiled low grade nuclear arms or chemical weapons like those used in the Second Battle of al-Fallujah on the base. Had such weapons been there, the death toll of Iraqi residents of Baghdad could have been in the thousands.

US Troops Seen Hauling Away At Least 30 Burned Out Tanks, Armored Vehicles

In a dispatch posted at 11:15pm Makkah time Wednesday night, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that as of 5:30pm Wednesday afternoon Baghdad time, at least 30 US Abrams tanks and Bradley armored vehicles were known to have been destroyed in the devastating Resistance attack on the Falcon Arsenal in southern Baghdad.

Eyewitnesses from the ar-Rashid section of southern Baghdad were quoted as saying that the US had used 13 huge military transport trucks to haul completely charred American armored vehicles out of the remains of the American Falcon base. The US forces hid the burnt wreckage of the vehicles behind the vegetable wholesale market known as the ‘Ulwat ar-Rashid Commercial Market.

Witnesses also reported that about 15 minutes before sunset Wednesday, the procession of vehicles under US helicopter air cover and escorted by Humvees took the wrecked vehicles, estimated to number at least 22, to the back wall of the ‘Ulwah. The Americans then set up a guard post to control access to the wrecked vehicles.

The Americans also set up a checkpoint 2km away where they confiscated cell phones with built-in cameras because travelers on their way to the village of as-Sa‘idat would be able clearly to see the wrecked armored vehicles.

Meanwhile, residents of the al-Khadra’ neighborhood and a number of Iraqi traffic wardens told Mafkarat al-Islam that they had seen giant American trucks carrying charred US tanks. The witnesses said that the vehicles had no apparent damage to their external shells, as usually is the case when they are burned in the explosion of a roadside bomb or shoulder-fired rockets.

Witnesses said that the number of burned tanks being hauled through their area was between eight and 12.

As of the time of reporting men of the American 4th Engineering Division were still working together with a cleanup unit of Iraqi puppet army to haul away wrecked US vehicles and other wreckage of the American base with the help of American helicopters and cranes.

US forces have completely blocked the road that runs by the ruined base. Residents of the al-Mahdiyah al-Ula section of the city whose houses are opposite the base reported that there were US vehicles that had been totally destroyed and were still inside the base waiting for the teams of cleanup troops to get to them. The witnesses also told Mafkarat al-Islam that high-ranking American officials had visited the site during the first hours of Wednesday under very heavy guard.

Iraqi Army Orders Troops To Baghdad To Fill Gap Left By Decimated US Forces

The so-called Iraqi “Defense Ministry” has issued orders to two regiments of the Iraqi army currently based in the city of al-Kut, 150km southeast of Baghdad in Wasit Province, to move out within 24 hours and take up positions in southern Baghdad. The transfer of the forces was intended to fill the gap left by the heavy losses of US troops in the southern Baghdad area as a result of Tuesday night’s devastating attack on the Falcon arsenal.

Nine Huge American Transport Planes Unload Casualties From Devastating Strike

In a bulletin posted at 2am Makkah time before dawn Wednesday morning, Mafkarat al-Islam reported its correspondent as saying that the US military hospital at the massive American-occupied air base in al-Habbaniyah had begun to receive dead and wounded personnel from the devastating Resistance rocket assault on the US Falcon arsenal in the southern Baghdad suburb of ad-Durah. Just before midnight Tuesday, the Iraqi Resistance fired barrages of Katyusha and Grad rockets into the arsenal, the largest such facility in occupied Iraq, causing the ordnance to begin to explode. Western news reports stated that the blasts continued for hours lighting up the nighttime sky over Baghdad.

The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported at that hour that three huge US transport aircraft emblazoned with the Red Cross had flown into the base, and casualties were being unloaded and sent into the hospital at the al-Habbaniyah base, located some 70km west of Baghdad.

Later, in a dispatch posted at 2:45am Makkah time Wednesday morning, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that two more huge transport planes had arrived in the US-occupied al-Habbaniyah airbase, 70km west of Baghdad carrying casualties from the devastating Resistance assault on America’s Falcon Base in the US-occupied as-Saqr (Falcon) Forward Base in Sukkaniya located in the southern Baghdad suburb of ad-Durah. Eyewitnesses in the village of al-Bu Mar‘i, about 2km from the US-occupied air base were quoted as saying that as of that time, a total of five enormous transport planes had flown into the base emblazoned with the red cross. The transports came in under fighter escort, the fighter planes remained aloft circling al-Habbaniyah as the transports set down.

The witnesses said that the US occupation forces illuminated the base, something they do not normally do, as swarms of American helicopters prowled the skies around the area, trying to prevent Resistance rocket attacks.

Then in a dispatch posted at 5:15pm Makkah time Wednesday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that at 7am Wednesday morning the last of a total of nine huge transport planes had landed at the US-occupied al-Habbaniyah airbase, site of America’s largest military hospital in the country, during the night.

The al-Habbaniyah correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the transport planes continued to land and take off all night and into Wednesday morning ferrying back and forth under fighter escort from Baghdad loaded with dead and wounded Americans.The correspondent reported eyewitnesses as saying that the aircraft did indeed fly into al-Habbaniyah from Baghdad. The huge transport planes arrived over al-Habbaniyah with fighter escort and then would break away from the warplanes land at the airfield and then take off again after about 20 minutes.

A source in the Iraqi puppet army told Mafkarat al-Islam that the US forces transported more than 90 Iraqi puppet troops to hospital for treatment after the blasts began to shake the southern part of the city. This number was confirmed by Dr. ‘Umar ‘Abdallah ar-Rawi of ar-Ramadi Hospital who told Mafkarat al-Islam that “90 wounded Iraqi troops were brought to us late in the night.” He indicated that the Americans requested his hospital to clear a wing for them and they did so.

Residents of al-Habbaniyah agreed that nine massive transport planes arrived at various times during the night and into the morning bringing casualties to the US military hospital at the base. The first three planes arrived at 1am local time, witnesses said. The fourth plane landed at about 1:30am, then a fifth about 10 minutes later. Then at 3:30am two more large transports arrived at al-Habbaniyah airbase, and the last two transports were seen coming in at 7am local time Wednesday morning.

Although the nighttime curfew is usually lifted at around 6am each morning, the correspondent reported that US forces only opened the roads and lifted the automobile curfew in al-Habbaniyah at 8am Wednesday morning.

In its announcements regarding the attack, US officials denied that the attack on the arsenal caused any casualties at all. Mafkarat al-Islam observed, however, that the landing of nine massive transport planes carrying US casualties was an important indicator that the number of Americans killed or wounded in the Resistance assault on Falcon arsenal was very substantial.

The new American military hospital in al-Habbaniyah, reportedly the largest in occupied Iraq, was opened on 12 May this year in response to rising US casualties.

We remind our viewers that the opinions and points of view expressed in this article are those of the author and shall not be deemed to mean that they are necessarily those of JUS, the publisher, editor, writers, contributors or staff. In addition, JUS assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of third party content.


From TBRNews.org by Brian Warring:

The explosions, all of them termed “immense” by BBC reporters, continued throughout the night.

In response, US aircraft indiscriminately rocketed and bombed various parts of the city, BBC and AFP correspondents eported, trying to knock out the launch sites of the rockets
The BBC's Andrew North, in Baghdad, said the explosions started at about 2300 (2100 BST) and were becoming "ever more frequent" as the huge fires spread throughout the base, punctuated by tremendous explosions as more fuel and ammunition dumps ignited.
“Intelligence indicates that civilians aligned with a militia organization were responsible for last night’s mortar attack,” said Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Withington, spokesman for the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.

An after action report, issued by the Department of Defense, stated that: “On October 10, 2006, at approximately 10:40 p.m., a 82mm mortar round, fired by militia forces from a residential area in Abu T-Shir, caused a fire at an Ammunition Supply Point (ASP) at FOB Falcon. The ASP, containing tank and artillery rounds, in addition to smaller caliber ammunition, set off a series of large explosions. About 100 troops from the 4th Infantry Division were reported to be stationed at the base at the time, but no injuries were reported.” (Emphasis added.) "The damage to the area will not degrade the operational capability of MND-B (Multinational Division Baghdad),"

When the flames had been brought under control on the morning of the 11th of October, primarily because the entire camp had been gutted, nine large American military transports with prominent Red Cross markings were observed by members of the foreign media taking off, laded with the dead and the wounded.

Over 300 American troops, including U.S. Army and Marines, CIA agents and U.S. translators were casualties and there also were 165 seriously injured requiring major medical attention and 39 suffering lesser injuries 122 members of the Iraqi armed forces were killed and 90 seriously injured members of same, were also evacuated to the U.S. military hospital at al-Habbaniyah located some 70km west of Baghdad.



Narrative of a reporter from within the Green Zone.

From Camp Falcon Ammo dump explosion/ Old American Century, White Rose Society message board. A very interesting message forum board that monitors international world news reports and discusses filtered news coverage.

Courtesy of Novosti Press Agency
The Green Zone Follies
Baghdad, 12 Oct 06:

“On Tuesday, I was in my quarters, writing a letter to a friend that I knew will be censored so I was being very unspecific about conditions here.About 2300 there was a huge explosion to the south of the Green Zone, followed at intervals by other, very heavy, explosions that numbered about thirty or forty and lasted all night.

I went up onto the roof and saw a great fountain of flames, billowing smoke and flaming debris shooting up into the air like Fourth of July fireworks.Personnel were running all over the building, wide-eyed with terror and wondering if our compound was going to “get it” next.

Usually, we hear distant explosions scattered throughout Baghdad on a daily basis as another convoy is blasted by the insurgent bombs but this ongoing mess was louder, and longer, than anything I have ever encountered.

It was impossible to sleep what with all the explosions and in the morning, I shaved and went to my office.

As a note here: I am lucky to have quarters with no windows facing outwards towards Baghdad. The insurgents have sniper rifles, usually U.S. .50 caliber, set up in buildings that have a distant overlook and more than once, personnel shaving in front of a bathroom window have had their brains splattered all over the tile walls as a sniper zeroes in on them. The sound of the shot follows and never, not once, have our security people ever found the sniper’s nest.

In the office I learned that ‘Forward Operating Base Falcon,’ one of our light-headed senior officer’s idea to set up fortified positions in various places, such as the capital of the Al Anbaar province as-Saqr was hit by enemy action, set on fire and suddenly exploded as tons of stored ammunition cooked off. Camp Falcon at Sukkaniya is located in the southern Baghdad suburb of ad-Durah.. ‘Forward Operating Base Falcon’ was one of the newest and most heavily armed fortified positions. There now exists a very high threat of suicide bombers in Ramadi who might attempt to ram Falcon with a vehicle packed with explosives, and so heavy concrete barriers were placed around the base designed to prevent such attacks.

This did not deter the members of the Resistance movement who lobbed the same type of mortar shells into Falcon as they have been lobbing into the so-called “super secure” headquarters areas of the Green Zone. Falcon had also become the largest US weapons arsenal depot in the American General Headquarters in the south of Baghdad and a very tempting target.

This time, we heard later, (and officially denied!) the Resistance used Grad and Katyusha rockets instead of mortars and the results were immediate, prolonged and completely devastating. The installation itself is full of smoking rubble, and fires were still burning the following day. Although it is still very early to be accurate, reviews here of Falcon’s inventory indicates that losses will certainly exceed $1 billion. That addresses the loss of property.

The loss of life is even worse

Over 300 American troops, including U.S. Army and Marines, CIA agents, U.S. translators and contractors were killed or injured outright or died immediately afterwards en route to hospital or in hospital and over 125 seriously injured, requiring major medical attention and 39 suffering lesser injuries

By accounts, charred and totally unrecognizable fragments of personnel were scattered over an eight block area. 122 members of the Iraqi armed forces were killed and 90 seriously injured members of same, were also evacuated to the U.S. military hospital at al-Habbaniyah located some 70km west of Baghdad.

U.S. medical personnel at al-Habbaniyah initially stated that the US military hospital at the massive American-occupied air base there had begun to receive dead and wounded personnel. The military hospital in al-Habbaniyah, the largest in occupied Iraq, was opened on 12 May this year in response to sharply rising (and redacted) US casualties.

Initially three large military transport aircraft with the red cross displayed under the wings and on the fuselages, had flown into the base, and casualties were being unloaded and sent into the hospital at the al-Habbaniyah base, and officially, we predictably released a flood of ‘official statements’ that claimed there were “only a few personnel wounded and no fatalities whatsoever.”

Also predictably, our people overreacted by launching a wild series of bomb and rocket attacks on random parts of Baghdad, killing an estimated 120 Iraqi civlinans and injuring an unknown number as well as setting fires that were still burning the next morning. There were strong ruimors that a container of artillery shells containing some kind of a nerve gas (for use against Iraqi militant strongholds…shades of Hussein!) turned out to be false.

What was involved were a kind of tear gas, thank God, or we would all be dead now!

By now, it should be clearly obvious that the reporting of fatal casualties in both Iraq and Afghanistan are really under stated. For example, we had a young officer in here about three days ago who was talking with several of us. He is assigned to the air field from which the dead are shipped back to Dover, Md.

According to him, last month, he supervised the loading of over one hundred and seventy military caskets but amazingly, the official DoD reportage had only a fraction of that. Of course he has no names, only numbers, and perhaps some high officer or Halliburton thief is shipping dope or underaged girls back to the states inside the boxes but this man had no reason to lie.

It will be interesting to see if the DoD website shows the deaths over the Falcon incident.

Time may tell but they won’t.”