Bush's Divine Vengeance On Falluja Continues

How "precise" can you be with a 500 pound bomb dropped from the air onto a heavily populated city?

"The marines 'called in air support that dropped a 500 pound (250 kilograms) bomb, (and) at that point the fighting ceased,' he said.

'It was a fairly short engagement.' "

Early reports tell us that only five Iraqis were killed. This bomb was just one of many in a bombing campaign that has been waged for weeks. Another hit today "destroyed a restaurant killing four and wounding six."

Given that US troops are still afraid to enter Falluja on foot - hence the massive aerial bombing campaign - it's very hard to call these US Military casualty figures reliable ("We don't do body counts" anyway, remember?). Wait for more reports from Falluja's hospitals and morgues.

US planes also bombed a town with the ironically appropriate name of Hit overnight, damaging a mosque. As Juan Cole observes, with an almost British sense of understatement, "setting shrines and mosques on fire generally makes a bad impression among a Muslim public."