US Admits "Gas" Blast Due To Attacks

This is a follow-up to my post yesterday in which I poured some cynicism on recent signs that the U.S. military in Iraq were bucking the White House and trying to play down any events which could make their position as hostages of fortune even more dangerous.

Today, the military has admitted their experts got it wrong, after intense pressure from the Iraqi government to come clean:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Car bombs triggered gas explosions in a Shiite neighborhood two days ago, the U.S. said Tuesday, acknowledging that the attack was due to a hostile act.

At least 63 Iraqis were killed and 140 wounded in the series of explosions Sunday night in Zafraniyah. Iraqi officials said the blasts were due to car bombs and a rocket attack from a Sunni neighborhood under U.S. control.

But U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, insisted Monday that American experts had concluded that there was "no evidence" of anything other than a "significant gas explosion."

That implied that the blast may not have been due to a hostile act.

However, a U.S. statement Tuesday said the blasts were triggered when two car bombs detonated near a residential building, "causing a gas explosion" that collapsed the structure.

It said the blast was among four car bombs that took place within a 30-minute period and within two miles of one another.

The Iraqis are still insisting that rocket attacks were also involved and have an alternative motive for the original U.S. military statement - that they attacks came from the Sunni area of Dora, where there is a heavy U.S. presence. That means the Iraqi government is suggesting the U.S. military isn't doing its job, something that further increases the risk of U.S. troops in Iraq becoming involved in a Retreat to Gandemak" situation thanks to the overzealous overreach of the neocons.

Such a situation has to be on the generals' minds, even if it hasn't raised its head much in the general awareness. Contingency planning is part of what they get paid for. I wonder what the plan is? There's certainly no way the White House would ever admit there was one.