Can anybody explain to me how..

[instantmilkshake]

the Iraqi insurgents fight? What are their tactics? I mean if you look at most pictures, they look disorganized and have no at most little military training.
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040811/capt.bag10908111304.iraq_bag109.jpg

How can these guys put up a fight?

[mack pl]

ohh well, they are highly motivated....

[futurepilot2004]

the Iraqi insurgents fight? What are their tactics? I mean if you look at most pictures, they look disorganized and have no at most little military training.
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040811/capt.bag10908111304.iraq_bag109.jpg

How can these guys put up a fight?


They use guerilla tactics that aren`t exactly rocket science. A convoy of unarmoured targets like a humvee`s are coming down a narrow street. You hit the first with an rpg, the rest are trapped or unable to move behind it, then ur fellow insurgents open fire with ak74s. Not high tech but can be very succesful if done right. As it is, the insurgents suffer 10times the casulties in these engagments.
You ask how they can put up a fight? put an ak74 in the hands of the least well trained person out there and they turn into a serious threat, also there are thousands of men in iraq willing to fight the americans and there are even more ak74s.

[aartamen]

Iraqi army had no training. What do you expect from the people who are civilian? Besides, many of those you see in those shots are not Iraqi at all. They basically run around posing, exercising their right to self-express with frirearms, acting tough and just being general dumbasses until they meet their untimely but not unexpected end. Some of them just zerg the US convoys, which is a semblance of a tactic. And if there are enough of them they can even score some kind of damage, at a huge cost.

[Fee Fi Fo Fum]

your right most of them dont have Military training..... they are brain washed with that loyal ****e muslim propaganda crap that they just pick up a gun go out side and use there instincts to fight, thats why they have so many casualties over the coalition... most of them are doing this because they have been born and braught up like rebels.....

only the smart iraq's have left all the bad behind and are helping build the new iraq....

http://www.notinourname.net/gi-special/photos/84-1.jpg

The sooner its over the better then hopefully iraq will shape up to be a half decent country....

[aartamen]

[You ask how they can put up a fight? put an ak74 in the hands of the least well trained person out there and they turn into a serious threat, also there are thousands of men in iraq willing to fight the americans and there are even more ak74s.

Yeah they turn into a serious threat to themselves and unarmed women and children. Also there are very few '74s in Iraq.

[saigonsmuggler]

Actually I haven't seen any pic of AK-74s in Iraq.

[aartamen]

I assume there are at least several somewhere. B/c as soon as I say "there are no AK-74's in iraq" someone would find a pic of one, just to prove me wrong.

Oh, I got it! The coalition troops have them! There.

[dunkin]

If you mix a few well trained (foreign or local) military leaders, a radical cleric, some money from a foreign or Saddam loyalist, dope and bribe up a bunch of teenagers, and tell them they are fighting against an enemy of Islam. Bad juju man!

Although I’ve not seen the die hard fanaticism of the Palestinian/Israeli start to take shape in Iraq, if that ever happens, your guess is as good as mine.

:|

[Foreigner]

Also don't forget foreign fighters in Iraq who did have military training. Bin Laden himself has/had a trainingcamp in Somalia. (and probably many more countries)

[dunkin]

Also don't forget foreign fighters in Iraq who did have military training. Bin Laden himself has/had a trainingcamp in Somalia. (and probably many more countries)

Let's not forget Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

I haven't heard his name in the news lately, maybe he decided that this is a bad idea f<>king with the U.S. You know the U.S. has big bombs and they can destroy a house easy.

[Milkman]

Sadr Militiamen tactics consist of:

- Standing in middle of street firing randomly
- Yelling "Allahou Akbar" whenever they see an enemy
- Standing infront of large armored vehicles and attempting to destroy them with rifles
- Clustering in large groups to stay protected or to be vaporized by Paveways

p-)

[Fee Fi Fo Fum]

Sadr Militiamen tactics consist of:

- Standing in middle of street firing randomly
- Yelling "Allahou Akbar" whenever they see an enemy
- Standing infront of large armored vehicles and attempting to destroy them with rifles
- Clustering in large groups to stay protected or to be vaporized by Paveways

p-)

adding to your list....

- Hiding in the shadows armed with rpg's
- taking peices of coalition equipment, and celebrating showing it to the camera to raise moral
- hit and run attacks.....
- using children to there advantage by arming local children with weapons

the list go's on

[Tane Angle]

Let's not forget the history of Najaf: The Iranian Revolution and the Party of God both trace their routes back to the Imam Ali Shrine and the schools of Najaf.

Different groups use different tactics, and different cells within each group use different tactics as well. Sometimes its IEDs, roadside bombs. Other times its rocket or mortar attacks. Maybe a volley of RPGs, or a guy with a grenade. Maybe snipers or riflemen. There is a lot of variation, and very often different tactics are used in conjunction with one another.

They do seem to analyze and learn from their mistakes, though, to be honest, they're not on the level of effeciency, intelligence, pragmatism and expertise that the Party of God - perhaps the smartest opponent we've faced since Vietnam, and possibly even farther back - did against us. For starters, Moqtada al-Sadr seems to love the cameras, as opposed to Hezbollah's leaders who were intelligent enough to know to move in the shadows (there is nothing cowardly about that, it's pragmatic, a survival skill) and to know that they should never allow themselves to be proven to have killed Americans.

The March-April violence showed very strong signs of solid, proven tactics. As the groups have shifted, some of those tactics have thankfully been seemingly forgotten, and have not been used since.

There is nothing cowardly about hit and run tactics either. It's smart. I'm by no means defending the insurgents or terrorists, because I've spent my share of months in Iraq trying to protect American, Western, and Iraqi civilian and military/LEO lives, but I try not to be too arrogant to respect my enemies.

Have a good one, and just some thoughts...

[Foreigner]

Also don't forget foreign fighters in Iraq who did have military training. Bin Laden himself has/had a trainingcamp in Somalia. (and probably many more countries)

Let's not forget Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

I haven't heard his name in the news lately, maybe he decided that this is a bad idea f<>king with the U.S. You know the U.S. has big bombs and they can destroy a house easy.

Just because you haven't heard his name lately on the news does not mean he fled from Iraq. He might be regrouping with other 'foreigners',

Also I assume he knew american military power, before he went to Iraq so even if he backed down I don't think he was intimidated by 'big bombs that can blow up houses'.