Posted on 10/29/2003 3:06:38 AM PST by konijn
Two GIs Killed When Tank Attacked in Iraq
Wednesday October 29, 2003 10:46 AM
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Two American soldiers were killed when their Abrams battle tank was damaged by resistance fighters, and seven Ukrainian troops were wounded in the first ambush of a multinational unit in the Polish sector south of Baghdad, coalition officials said Wednesday.
The tank was disabled when it was struck by a land mine or a roadside bomb Tuesday night during a patrol near Balad, 45 miles north of Baghdad, said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, a spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division. A third crewman was evacuated to a U.S. hospital in Germany, she said.
It was believed to be the first M1 Abrams main battle tank destroyed since the end of major combat May 1. During the active combat phase, several of the 68-ton vehicles - the mainstay of the U.S. Army's armored forces - were disabled in combat.
The latest attacks, including a nighttime mortar barrage in Baghdad, followed a day of violence in which insurgents targeted American forces and Iraqis who work with the occupation authorities. U.S. officials also announced that Baghdad's Deputy Mayor Faris Abdul Razzaq al-Assam was killed Sunday in a drive-by shooting.
The proliferation of attacks on Iraqis allied with the occupation bodes ill for attempts by the U.S.-led authorities to persuade more Iraqis to join in administering the country and play a greater role in providing security. Resistance forces have targeted several prominent figures, including Aquila al-Hashimi, a member of the Governing Council, who was fatally shot Sept. 20.
A spokesman for the multinational division at Camp Babylon said the attack on the Ukrainians occurred when two of their armored personnel carriers rolled over land mines near Suwayrah about 40 miles southeast of Baghdad.
After the vehicles were disabled, unidentified gunmen opened fire on the disembarked soldiers, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
About 1,650 Ukrainians are serving in the Polish-led stabilization force patrolling central and southern Iraq.
In Baghdad, half a dozen mortar rounds exploded late Tuesday in an upscale Jadriya neighborhood across the Tigris River from the U.S.-led coalition headquarters but caused no damage or casualties, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
One landed in a field close to a palace once occupied by one of Saddam Hussein's daughters, now a headquarters for the U.S. civil-military affairs command. Another struck Baghdad University's College of Physical Education, damaging the wall of an enclosed volleyball court. There were no casualties in the shelling.
In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, insurgents fired late Tuesday on the south gate at the main U.S. military base there. At least one American soldier from the 4th Infantry Division was wounded, witnesses said. A patrol was sent out to search for the assailants, who fled after firing on the troops from a nearby rooftop.
And a U.S. military convoy was attacked Tuesday night by small arms fire in the northern city of Mosul, the military said. There were no casualties.
Rockets were fired Tuesday night at a U.S. military compound in the oil center of Kirkuk, according to Saleh Sabah, a member of the Iraqi National Accord which has offices near the compound.
Sabah said the U.S. troops returned fire with mortars and blocked all roads leading to their garrison.
In Fallujah, a flashpoint Sunni Muslim city 40 miles west of Baghdad, a car exploded Tuesday afternoon on a major street, killing at least four people. The explosion occurred about 330 feet from a police station and 100 feet from a school, but the target was unclear.
Done any tanking? Get on this list.
Next thing you know, the Leftist Media will be calling them freedom fighters!
Yep, looks like a sabot round to me too, although the portions that hit the gunner's flak jacket and the stuff that went through the safety guard appear to be spalling.
I'd like to see what was left of the projectile. Have you heard of any analysis on what was left of it?
I'd like to see what was left of the projectile. Have you heard of any analysis on what was left of it?
I too think it looks more lokely to be a KE munition than a HEAT warhead like that of an *AT-4 Spigot* [9K111-2 Fagot-M] or anything similar, short of possibly a 9M123-2 Hrizantema Krizantema, which flies at supersonic speed and is said to be able to defeat a full meter of composite armor from 6KM. Scary.
The Fagot -M has a range of out to 2.5 KM and is said to be able to penetrate almost 500mm- half a meter, a bit less than 20 inches of steel armor. I don't know how that'd translate so far as the DU armor of the upgraded Abrams, but there've been either very few reported M1A2 kills by presently fielded SovBloc ATGMs, so I'd bet on either something else entirely or a much-improved next generation missile sharing the same launcher mechanism.
Note, though, that there's no sighn of a heat round's scorch marks or dribbled slag at the point of impact. I suspect a hard penetrator moving at 4500 FPS+, though possibly a self-forged slug shaped and driven bu a shaped charge blast in flight, as several of the *smart* AT artillery munitions function from above.
I've got a couple of e-mails out to pals at the Ft Knox college of tanker knowledge, and pointed them to this thread. Maybe we'll get some feedback, maybe not. But we might pick up a couple more treadhead FReepers, and I'd settle for that.
The attack occurred at about 10:15 a.m. (4:15 a.m. EDT) Wednesday, five hours after the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel for building a controversial fence around the West Bank, and as Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip continued a six-day-old operation to destroy cross-border tunnels. Eight Palestinians have been killed and more than 230 homes have been destroyed or severely damaged in that operation.
The bomb detonated as the convoy was about 11/2 miles inside the Gaza Strip from the Erez crossing at the Israeli border. They were driving along the pockmarked, partially blacktopped road that runs the length of the Gaza Strip and is frequently used by foreigners -- diplomats, aid workers, journalists and others -- as well as by local Palestinians.
According to witnesses and U.S. Embassy officials, a Palestinian security team led the convoy in one car, the American security guards occupied the second vehicle, at least two U.S. diplomats were in the third, and another Palestinian police car brought up the rear. * * *
U.S. officials said the vehicle had armor plating on its roof and sides, but said they did not know whether the vehicle was equipped with armor on its underside to protect against land mines. Israeli officials estimated that the bomb, which was buried in the hardpan roadbed, might have weighed more than 100 pounds.
A smaller bomb planted on another road in the northern Gaza Strip exploded under an Israeli military all-terrain vehicle Wednesday morning, injuring three soldiers, according to an Israeli military spokesman. The spokesman said the two incidents were not believed to be related.
Homemade bombs concocted from petroleum products, sugar, cosmetics, shampoo and varying amounts of TNT are commonly used by militants in the Gaza Strip. The explosives are frequently planted in potholes or beneath roadbeds on routes used by Israeli military vehicles and have been used to blow up 50-ton tanks as well as lighter vehicles.
Some of the explosives are detonated on impact when a vehicle rolls over them; others are more sophisticated and are set off by remote control. A gray cable hanging into the crater left by Wednesday's attack on the U.S. vehicle suggested that the bomb might have been ignited by remote control from a nearby concrete hut. This is pure speculation, but I think these two sets of tactics are pretty similar. The U.S. suspects right now that foreign elements are behind many of the attacks in Iraq, and that they are having a significant influence on domestic Iraqi guerillas. Even if they're not actually conducting the attacks, I think it's very likely these foreigners are providing training and expertise to the Iraqis in the art of urban combat and insurgency. To some extent, these foreign guerillas may also be passing along their doctrine from places like the Gaza Strip and West Bank, where guerillas and terrorists have learned how to defeat sophisticated Israeli security schemes and achieve deadly results. This is a very dangerous development.
The key is to get the transition to a sustainable point and get the uniformed troops the hell out of sight ASAP.
Yep. Don't get sidetracked. Get to the point where we need to be and then reduce our footprint. It's really about all you can do.
Said wisely from 10,000 miles away at a keyboard.....LOL.
Unfortunately not, it was completely destroyed...turret blown off and landing nearby.
You've seen the pictures here
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