“The murderer was dressed as a woman as he walked down the alley toward the mosque full of worshippers. It was Friday, late in January, just before the Muslim holy day of Ashura.”

“The bomb strapped to the murderer’s body was studded with ball bearings so that he could kill many villagers as they gathered for prayer. The detonation would eviscerate and dismember those closest, shattering bones into fragments. The ball bearings would extend the killing beyond the percussive edge of the blast, ripping through the flesh of those who survived the shockwave.”

“There were no soldiers in his path to stop him, no police to alert. There were only the villagers and a mass murderer done up for a masquerade. In the mosque more than one hundred people were praying.”

“As the murderer walked purposefully toward his target, there was a village man in his path. But under the guise of a simple villager this was a true martyr, and he, too, had his target in sight. The martyr had seen through the disguise. But he had no gun. No bomb. No rocket. No stone. No time.”

“The martyr walked up to the murderer and lunged into a bear hug.”

“The blast ripped the martyr to pieces mixing his flesh with the flesh of the murderer. Ball bearings shot through the alley and wounded two children, but the people in the mosque were saved. And the martyr’s children , who surely had felt his arms around them many times, saw his love more than ever in his last embrace.”

from Moment of Truth in Iraq by Michael Yon. Yon is an embedded reporter who works independently. See his site on the Rebel Yid recommended list or at http://www.michaelyon-online.com/.

Michael Yon depends on private contributions and book sales to support his mission. I highly recommend his book to give you a perspective of the war that I have not seen anywhere else. He is as strong in his criticisms as in his praises. He is one of a new breed of independent reporters powered by a passion for his work, a rare union of entrepreneurship and reporting, and the coverage of the internet.

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