The last time there was a coordinated attack like this, there was a large number of US wounded but only one or two deaths, and it was a huge loss for the insurgents who lost about twenty-five men. There was a high casualty count but fortunately a low death toll for the US. The fact that the insurgents could even muster the attack was a problem of deep concern, and is here.

This time, since there's no word on insurgent deaths, it's possible they were smart enough to retreat when they noticed they weren't winning. These are early reports so they're not going to have much information, but in general, when the guerillas can carry away their dead and heavy weapons, it's a stalemate, not a victory. It was pretty gutsy to attack US forces after dark and there's no way they could have taken the prison with 60 men. Looks from here like this was a harassment attack, or maybe they had more balls than brains and figured it out later. [link|http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1336981.htm|This report lends credibility to it being planned harrassment]: "The attacks were intermittent. They would fire RPGs and then stop, then they would attack again."

It also looks like they hit the prison and hurt a bunch of prisoners. Oops.

West Baghdad is said to be unsafe to travel in. It wouldn't surprise me if many of the insurgents were locals.