Another photo essay from Michael Totten:
“Don’t get any closer,” Corporal Waddle said. “We need to stay out of the blast radius in case it blows.”
One Marine, whose name I didn’t catch, accompanied the Iraqi man to the location of the explosive. “It’s an 82mm mortar round,” he said when he returned. “It’s not an IED. Most likely a round that didn’t go off when it was fired.”
Every time I thought something vaguely exciting might happen, it didn’t happen. There is no war in Western Iraq any more. This is a mop-up.
The Iraq Body Count shows a strong drop in reported civilian deaths since early Fall of last year. I understand that there’s usually some rise in recent week counts as more deaths are verified, but even so there appears to be a continuing decline in deaths in more recent months.