budanski
04-15-2004, 02:04 AM
Marines Use Low-Tech Skill to Kill 100 in Urban Battle
New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/15/international/middleeast/15URBA.html)
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: April 15, 2004
FALLUJA, Iraq, April 14 — American forces killed more than 100 insurgents on Tuesday in close combat in a small village in central Iraq, Marine commanders said Wednesday.
The battle, classic urban combat that raged for 14 hours, was one of the heaviest engagements since the invasion of Iraq last year. It showed not only the intensity of the resistance but an acute willingness among insurgents to die.
******
"A lot of these guys were souped up on jihad," said Lt. Col. B. P. McCoy, commander of the Fourth Battalion, Third Marines. "They might as well been suicide fighters."
Marines fought house to house, roof to roof, doorway to doorway. They repelled attacks of machine-gun fire, volleys of rockets and repeated charges by masked fighters, Colonel McCoy said. Two marines were shot but their injuries were not life-threatening.
The fighting erupted in Karma, six miles northeast of Falluja, during a search-and-destroy mission.
"They hit us with everything they had," Cpl. Tom Conroy said. "This is a whole other world. The hostility is no longer hard stares or dirty looks. It's gunfire."
The fighting in and around Falluja is a throwback to a kind of urban warfare that most marines know only from the movies. It is the grueling, costly conflict American generals were bracing for when they invaded Iraq last year but have not seen on this scale until now.
And it does not look as if it is letting up, even though United States forces declared a cease-fire five days ago to allow Iraqi negotiators time to reach a peace accord with insurgents. No deal has been reached, and fighting continues, often from just across the street.
Marine commanders say the enemy in Falluja is increasingly well organized. On Wednesday morning, 15 fighters mounted a coordinated assault on marines who were stretched thin across a corner of the city. Marines lying on their stomachs along dark rooftops repelled the fighters, but only after calling in helicopter gunships.
Some insurgents have been spotted wearing Iraqi police flak jackets, originally supplied by the Americans. Some also used illumination flares during Wednesday's attack, another first.
"Last night, they were all around us — in front of us, in back of us, everywhere," said Lt. Lewis Langella, who commands a squad of snipers and infantry on Falluja's outskirts. "They were throwing a whole lot of lead at us, and we were throwing a whole lot back."
For the past week, marines have been fortifying positions across this dusty city of monochromatic tan brick. Even though urban warfare is compact and fluid, there are still front lines — here, a row of rooftops occupied by marines looking down on garbage-strewn streets.
One of the most important tools for this battle comes from the garden shed: sledgehammers. On Wednesday, marines punched "mouseholes," just big enough for gun barrels, in the brick walls of the homes they occupied. They also smashed windows to scatter shards of glass across the front steps.
"It's an early warning system," Capt. Shannon Johnson explained, as he crunched noisily across the glass, "something the old guys taught us."
Nearby, a squad of young men with crewcuts swung heavy hammers under a punishing sun. They were knocking down the low walls along the rooftops so they could move on catwalks from roof to roof.
"This is classic urban warfare," said Maj. Gen. Jim Mattis, commander of the First Marine Division. "It's all the stuff World War II taught us, along with Korea, Vietnam and Somalia. People will be studying Falluja for years to come."
The weaponry — mostly low-tech, like machine guns and mortars — is also reminiscent of earlier wars. There have been a few guided-missile attacks from the air. But Falluja is so densely populated — 300,000 people in only a few square miles — that commanders have been reluctant to call in airstrikes.
"And we don't want to rubblize the city," said Colonel McCoy, whose battalion of 800 clashes daily with insurgents. "That will give the enemy more places to hide."
Every night the quiet is shattered by the constant whoosh-bang, whoosh-bang of mortars, the loud whoosh as the shell blasts out of the tube and the thunderous bang when the shell slams into the ground. Two marines were injured Wednesday during a mortar attack on their base at the outskirts of the city.
Falluja, 35 miles west of Baghdad, is predominantly Sunni Muslim, and it was closely tied to Saddam Hussein through tribal alliances. The town has been intensely anti-American since the invasion of Iraq.
Two weeks ago, insurgents here ambushed and killed four American security consultants and a mob dragged their bodies through the streets. That attack precipitated the marines' assault, which seemed to make Falluja even more anti-occupation, anti-American than ever.
"It's their Super Bowl," said Maj. T. V. Johnson, a Marine spokesman. "Falluja is the place to go if you want to kill Americans."
http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/04/15/international/urban.184.1.650.jpg
U.S. marines patrolling the roofs of Falluja, where fighting persisted yesterday despite a cease-fire called by the Americans five days ago.
http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/04/15/international/urban2.jpg
Marines have occupied several of the taller houses in Falluja as spotting posts to find snipers.
New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/15/international/middleeast/15URBA.html)
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: April 15, 2004
FALLUJA, Iraq, April 14 — American forces killed more than 100 insurgents on Tuesday in close combat in a small village in central Iraq, Marine commanders said Wednesday.
The battle, classic urban combat that raged for 14 hours, was one of the heaviest engagements since the invasion of Iraq last year. It showed not only the intensity of the resistance but an acute willingness among insurgents to die.
******
"A lot of these guys were souped up on jihad," said Lt. Col. B. P. McCoy, commander of the Fourth Battalion, Third Marines. "They might as well been suicide fighters."
Marines fought house to house, roof to roof, doorway to doorway. They repelled attacks of machine-gun fire, volleys of rockets and repeated charges by masked fighters, Colonel McCoy said. Two marines were shot but their injuries were not life-threatening.
The fighting erupted in Karma, six miles northeast of Falluja, during a search-and-destroy mission.
"They hit us with everything they had," Cpl. Tom Conroy said. "This is a whole other world. The hostility is no longer hard stares or dirty looks. It's gunfire."
The fighting in and around Falluja is a throwback to a kind of urban warfare that most marines know only from the movies. It is the grueling, costly conflict American generals were bracing for when they invaded Iraq last year but have not seen on this scale until now.
And it does not look as if it is letting up, even though United States forces declared a cease-fire five days ago to allow Iraqi negotiators time to reach a peace accord with insurgents. No deal has been reached, and fighting continues, often from just across the street.
Marine commanders say the enemy in Falluja is increasingly well organized. On Wednesday morning, 15 fighters mounted a coordinated assault on marines who were stretched thin across a corner of the city. Marines lying on their stomachs along dark rooftops repelled the fighters, but only after calling in helicopter gunships.
Some insurgents have been spotted wearing Iraqi police flak jackets, originally supplied by the Americans. Some also used illumination flares during Wednesday's attack, another first.
"Last night, they were all around us — in front of us, in back of us, everywhere," said Lt. Lewis Langella, who commands a squad of snipers and infantry on Falluja's outskirts. "They were throwing a whole lot of lead at us, and we were throwing a whole lot back."
For the past week, marines have been fortifying positions across this dusty city of monochromatic tan brick. Even though urban warfare is compact and fluid, there are still front lines — here, a row of rooftops occupied by marines looking down on garbage-strewn streets.
One of the most important tools for this battle comes from the garden shed: sledgehammers. On Wednesday, marines punched "mouseholes," just big enough for gun barrels, in the brick walls of the homes they occupied. They also smashed windows to scatter shards of glass across the front steps.
"It's an early warning system," Capt. Shannon Johnson explained, as he crunched noisily across the glass, "something the old guys taught us."
Nearby, a squad of young men with crewcuts swung heavy hammers under a punishing sun. They were knocking down the low walls along the rooftops so they could move on catwalks from roof to roof.
"This is classic urban warfare," said Maj. Gen. Jim Mattis, commander of the First Marine Division. "It's all the stuff World War II taught us, along with Korea, Vietnam and Somalia. People will be studying Falluja for years to come."
The weaponry — mostly low-tech, like machine guns and mortars — is also reminiscent of earlier wars. There have been a few guided-missile attacks from the air. But Falluja is so densely populated — 300,000 people in only a few square miles — that commanders have been reluctant to call in airstrikes.
"And we don't want to rubblize the city," said Colonel McCoy, whose battalion of 800 clashes daily with insurgents. "That will give the enemy more places to hide."
Every night the quiet is shattered by the constant whoosh-bang, whoosh-bang of mortars, the loud whoosh as the shell blasts out of the tube and the thunderous bang when the shell slams into the ground. Two marines were injured Wednesday during a mortar attack on their base at the outskirts of the city.
Falluja, 35 miles west of Baghdad, is predominantly Sunni Muslim, and it was closely tied to Saddam Hussein through tribal alliances. The town has been intensely anti-American since the invasion of Iraq.
Two weeks ago, insurgents here ambushed and killed four American security consultants and a mob dragged their bodies through the streets. That attack precipitated the marines' assault, which seemed to make Falluja even more anti-occupation, anti-American than ever.
"It's their Super Bowl," said Maj. T. V. Johnson, a Marine spokesman. "Falluja is the place to go if you want to kill Americans."
http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/04/15/international/urban.184.1.650.jpg
U.S. marines patrolling the roofs of Falluja, where fighting persisted yesterday despite a cease-fire called by the Americans five days ago.
http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/04/15/international/urban2.jpg
Marines have occupied several of the taller houses in Falluja as spotting posts to find snipers.