Blogoland

Were 85 insurgents killed during a shootout outside Baghdad last week? A shootout that Agence France-Presse and The Washington Post cast doubt on? Sure, they were, says an Iraqi general.

A top Iraqi official offered additional details on Wednesday on a raid on March 22 that killed dozens of insurgents at a training camp northwest of Baghdad. The official, Maj. Gen. Adnan Thabit, who directs all the police commandos in Iraq, said 85 insurgents had been killed in the raid, the number that was originally reported by Iraqi officials but was subsequently questioned. He said the figure had been confirmed by commandos and intelligence agents on the scene. Few bodies were found, he said, because escaping insurgents removed them in boats, and some insurgents drowned in the lake.

Yes, escaping insurgents, desperate for their lives, took the burden and time of loading corpses onto a boat before beating a hasty retreat. I believe that.