Mahdi Army guerillas appear to be making a concerted effort to destroy Iraqi police stations in hit and run attacks:
Police in this Euphrates river town, 10 miles south of Baghdad, called for help from American forces when they came under attack. But the Americans didn’t reach the town until about five hours after the attack, police Lt. Satpar Abdul-Reda said.
Abdul-Reda said the attackers arrived in seven cars, surrounded the station and opened fire with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. The 10 policemen inside were armed only with Kalashnikov rifles and pistols and fled the station after realizing they were outgunned, Abdul-Reda said.
The gunmen entered the building, rigged it with explosives and blew it up, the lieutenant said.
It was the fourth attack on police stations across the country in the past week. On June 5, gunmen killed seven policemen before blowing up the police station in Musayyib. The following day, gunmen believed loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr blasted a police station in the Sadr City area of Baghdad. Al-Sadr’s followers overran a police station Thursday in Najaf and ransacked the building.
This is why it is ridiculous to say that a guerilla army is “defeated,” as Brigadier General Mark Hertling foolishly announced last week.