Thursday, July 12, 2007

Rodents of Unusual Size terrorize Basra

Story: ""I was sleeping at night when this strange animal hit me on my head. I have not seen such an animal before. My husband hurried to shoot it but it was as swift as a deer," said Suad Hassan, a 30-year-old housewife.

"It is the size of a dog but his head is like a monkey. It runs so quickly."

Cell phone video of the badgers circulating in Basra shows a stocky skunk-like animal with long front claws.

The honey badger, or ratel, is known as a brave predator capable of killing a cobra. It weighs up to 14 kilos (30 pounds), not usually known as man-eater.

Sattar Jabbar, a 50-year-old local farmer from Abu Sakhar north of Basra, believes the badger can tackle even large prey.

"I saw it three days ago at night attacking animals. It even ate a cow. It tore the cow up piece by piece. I tried to shoot it with my gun but it ran away into the orchards. I missed it," he said.

In Iraq there can be only one explanation for an animal so vicious.

"I believe this animal appeared following a raid to the region by the British forces," said Ali Mohsen, a farmer in his 40s from Karmat Ali, near the air base used by the multinational force"

I really don't have any comment, but this story just caught my fancy.
Rather this is representative of the acctuall people in the region and their regard for the Allied forces, or selective reporting, I don't know. Still, its kinda weird they think the UK Forces did this.

(KD, Here's another instance of AKJ)

5 comments:

Solameanie said...

It's actually an indigenous animal. The Brits had nothing to do with it. The reports that they did are merely provocations by some mischief makers.

If it had been up to me, I would have trucked in a few hundred wild boars. Muslims don't like pigs very much.

Just kidding. Sort of. ;)

RobertDWood said...

Thats a way to win friends and influence people.

kingdavid said...

I always love it when they print these type of stories, there's always the line: "they're not generally maneaters."

I wonder how many instances of shark attacks and human deaths are going to be needed before the shark loving community finally admits that sharks do injure and kill people because of their basic nature. Same with squirrels.

Love the tie-in to the ROUS, Rodents of Unusual Size. That's one of MM's favorite movies

RobertDWood said...

Yup, The Princess Bride is one of the top 10 movies ever.

Anonymous said...

Watched Princess Bride after having just taken my World Civ I final. LOL through much of the movie.
Gz, talk about desparate, aye!