Now, if you’re the thugs, and you’ve got the Americans bottled up, why only drop five mortar rounds on them? Could be because they didn’t have more ammo, but I wouldn’t think so. Could be because they were afraid they might get hit from the air. Then did the whole attack stop, or just the mortars?
If you’ve got the Americans bottled up, and they have no counter battery (their own mortars), why not just sit back and drop mortars on them and save your thugs?