By The Dawn's Eary Light

Grrrrrr. Yea, she's not happy about something.

I stood on the rooftop this morning, watching and listening to the battle in and around the city of Baghdad. Standing there in the bright sunlight I heard mortars being launched from Sadr City and impacting inside the Green Zone with a telltale "tha-whump". Several rounds went in but I witnessed little in the way of smoke plumes, which is usually an indicator that they didn't hit anything, and least nothing that would burn.

Moments later two Apaches arrived and orbited Sadr City obviously looking for the launch site. They stayed above the city by a good 2000 feet, circling and searching for the tubes, occasionally dropping flares, and then sauntering away with other things to do.

Gunfire rang out for most of the morning as the Iraqi Army traded blows with the Madhi Army. From the news wires things where not looking bright for the U.S-trained Iraqi Army. At one point I watched a MEDEVAC come in just outside of Sadr City ostensibly picking someone up. The twin Blackhawks lifted off in an explosion of dust and sprinted to the Combat Support Hospital within the Green Zone.

CNN had some unique footage up this morning, showing young insurgents dancing atop a burnt-out car. What I thought that I saw, and no one picked up, was that one of the insurgents was still wearing the top to his Iraqi Police uniform. Yea, that's about par for the course for the police.

All in all, the fight continues to rage around the country, spreading from one or two isolated cities to most of the major areas. The degree of uprising has surprised the Iraqi Army, and the U.S. military has stepped in in more than a few instances. More tomorrow I suppose.