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View Full Version : Covert troops fight shadow war off-camera



budanski
04-07-2003, 03:00 PM
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=676&e=2&cid=676&u=/usatoday/20030407/ts_usatoday/5041042


An Iraqi lawyer tipped off U.S. Marines that Lynch was being held at the hospital in Nasiriyah. The paramilitaries tracked down the foreign contractor who built the facility and passed on the global positioning satellite coordinates and layout of the hospital to the Delta Force.

As Delta commandos and other U.S. forces moved in, Marines, who control most of Nasiriyah, created a diversionary attack that occupied most of the Iraqi troops in the city. Army Rangers set up a perimeter around the hospital to prevent any other Iraqi troops from attempting to join the fight. Then, Delta Force and Navy SEAL Team 6 commandos carried out the raid as an Air Force gunship and communication plane circled overhead.

Deltas were involved then?

hood
04-07-2003, 03:37 PM
Great article. The quote above sounds exactly like what SHOULD have happened in Somalia, where the full support from various branches would have been there to back them up when things got hairy.

JohnJohn
04-07-2003, 03:48 PM
seems a little sensationalist, especially since it is coming from Yahoo.

Why would you take elements of both ST6 and Delta to carry out a simple hostage rescue? Too many resources there in that version for it to be true ;)

hood
04-07-2003, 04:29 PM
Other than Delta, every other one there was confirmed by CentCom, so it's not sensational at all. Besides, yahoo was just reprinting it, it's USA today. (not that it changes much. rofl )

Chops
04-07-2003, 05:11 PM
Would not surprise me if it proved to be a joint DEVGRU/CAG op. Remember these guys are going to be real busy on ops spread out around the country (and maybe with at least a small element still in AFG and maybe on-going ops 'elsewhere') so it may have proved necessary to put together an ad hoc team. There were half a dozen or so DEVGRU guys on Gothic Serpent remember.

I thought it sounded plausible but we'll probably only know for sure at least a few months if not years down the track...

Rgds

Chops