US Forces Evacuate ‘Ayn Al-Asad Base In Hit, Iraq

[XXPANTHAXX]

Jihadunspun, Feb 15, 2005

During the first hours of dawn Monday US forces began evacuating the
‘Ayn al-Asad airbase in Hit, western Iraq, Mafkarat al-Islam reported.
The correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam witnessed the withdrawal of more
than 300 US tanks, armored vehicles, earth moving machines, and other
pieces of construction equipment such as cranes and bulldozers under
heavy cover of US fighter aircraft, which flew over the area at an
unprecedentedly low altitude. The correspondent added that Apache,
Cobra, and Black Hawk helicopters hovered over the column that clogged
the international highway.

The correspondent wrote that the US forces were making for Baghdad on
the east-bound side of the highway, while Iraqi “national� security
forces such as the so-called “national guard� and “national� policemen
from outside the area were coming into the area on the west-bound lanes.

This massive movement, the correspondent wrote, explains why US forces
had closed main roads leading to the highway since yesterday (Sunday),
preventing the passage of any traffic onto the highway.

Local people in Hit and the Resistance forces link the withdrawal of the

US troops from the base to a declaration by the American forces at a
Baghdad press conference that the ‘Ayn al-Asad base had militarily
fallen after Resistance rockets were able to strike targets deep within
the base. The correspondent wrote that the Americans acknowledged that
44 US troops were reportedly killed in one week as a result of
Resistance rocket attacks on that base.