Posted on 04/13/2004 11:50:52 PM PDT by lodi90
FALLUJAH, Iraq ---- Marines holed up in this hostile city make a crack about Fallujah these days: "For a cease-fire," they say, "there sure are a lot of people shooting at us." Over the weekend, Marines were told to stand down from offensive operations while political leaders from Baghdad and tribal leaders from Al Anbar province try to talk insurgents out of confronting U.S. troops and turning Fallujah into a battlefield.
But while they wait out an unofficial cease-fire this week, the fighting continues under various guises.
On Monday, two Marines were killed and at least nine were wounded when insurgents launched what seemed like a coordinated attack on three Marine rifle companies inside the city.
All at once, the rebels fired mortars and rockets from outside the cordon onto Marine positions inside and attacked at close range with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.
The attack stopped as suddenly as it began, and the insurgents melted away.
Chopper downed
Officials said that same night, insurgents shot down a helicopter a few miles southeast of the city. The crew escaped, an official said.
Also on Monday, officials said some Marines inside the city had to be resupplied by helicopter because the enemy had sneaked in behind their positions and planted roadside bombs along their supply route.
Absent the air strikes and tank attacks that grabbed the world's attention last week, the fighting in Fallujah has reverted to the dirty guerrilla war it was before the Marines surrounded the city and brought the conflict to a head last week in battles that included air strikes, artillery barrages and tanks in the street.
Now the Marines ---- three battalions from Camp Pendleton and Twentynine Palms ---- are stretched out around the city to keep insurgents penned inside. But they remain as busy fighting guerrilla forces behind their cordon as within.
"There are certainly still bad guys out there," said Lt. Col. Gregg Olson, the commander of 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment ---- one of the three Marine infantry battalions sealing off Fallujah ---- after his convoy was ambushed outside the cordon over the weekend.
Know thy enemy
While it could appear that it is the Marines, not the insurgents, who are surrounded, Olson said the Marines' exposure and commitment around the city is working to their advantage.
"Remember, while the focus is on sealing off Fallujah and keeping the enemy from coming or going, we are also conducting security operations around Fallujah and its environs and are engaging the good people of those areas," Olson said Tuesday between briefings with his staff at their headquarters at the city's edge.
"There is a lot of misinformation about what we are doing here," he said. "This cordon gives us the opportunity to reach out and tell the people, especially the rural folk, that we are not their enemy, that we are here to help." Marines fighting in the streets here say last week's combat was more intense than most of what they experienced during the invasion of Iraq last year ---- what most refer to as "the war." But few will venture to say who exactly it is they are fighting this time.
Insurgents form hybrid organization
Until recently, Bush administration officials estimated the total number of insurgents in all of Iraq to be around 5,000.
But even with battles being waged in several parts of Baghdad, Ramadi and elsewhere in Iraq, Marine intelligence officials are estimating they face between 1,000and 4,000 rebels in Fallujah alone who have coalesced "under some kind of loose command structure," according to an intelligence official.
Military leaders say they know for sure that some of the fighters are former members of the deposed Iraqi regime and military. They say they also know that foreign fighters from Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have joined local Islamic extremists or "jihadists" in the fight, and that some of the shooters are just residents of Fallujah fighting to avenge relatives killed or wounded or property destroyed by U.S. forces.
But officials also say they cannot discount rumors that trained fighters from other countries are involved and that Iraqis from across the country are coming to Fallujah to fight.
City may draw foreign gunslingers
When fighters were spotted in the city carrying high-powered rifles and scopes last week, troops said they were thought they were Chechen.
When the streets unexpectedly quieted Saturday after the cease-fire was set, troops said leaders of Palestinian organizations, including Hezbollah and Hamas, were coaching the Iraqi fighters or even calling the shots.
"We just don't know right now who they all are," said an intelligence officer from one of the battalions Tuesday, adding that ''some of them are fighting to get out, others are trying to get in." He spoke on condition that his name and rank not be used.
"It (Fallujah) has kinda become the Dodge City for terrorists from all over," he said Tuesday as Marine snipers and insurgents exchanged shots across a no-man's land near a train station. "This has just become an opportunity to fight the coalition."
Iraqis fight for country
One strategy Marines are employing to fight the murky guerrilla war along the cordon around Fallujah during the ceasefire is to use Iraqis to fight.
A special team of Marines and Army Special Forces advisers have deployed newly trained Iraqi security forces to search villages, raid outlying mosques and conduct road blocks on routes in and out of the city.
Marine Capt. Phil Cushman, 31, of Quartzite, Ariz., said he believes the local forces working with American advisers stand the best chance of success, especially while the Marines' offensive combat operations are on hold.
"We are using these guys in everything from house searches to humanitarian aid," Cushman said Tuesday.
Cushman and a handful of U.S. Army Special Forces advisers control a "company" of about 45 Iraqi special forces soldiers.
Desertions leave hard core of Iraqi fighters
The fighters, most of them Kurds from northern Iraq, are all that is left of Cushman's original force of more than 2,200 Iraqi soldiers.
When the shooting started last week, all but about 15 of the more than 2,000 Iraqi Civil Defense Troops deserted. The Marines hadto confiscate their weapons and equipment so they could not easily join forces with the insurgents, Cushman said.
He said the mass desertion tied his hands in terms of numbers.
Citing an example of the Iraqi soldiers' recent contributions, Cushman said that when a recent convoy of humanitarian aid just about rolled through a checkpoint into the city, one of the new special forces troops stopped it for inspection.
Cushman said the soldier probed some sacks of grain and discovered more than 750 armor-piercing sniper rifle rounds and sights for the type of rocket that have been terrorizing U.S. troops along the cordon and on their bases.
Red Crescent van smuggles arms
The Iraqis also helped uncover a bomb-making lab, a large weapons cache in a local school and have helped cut off escape routes from the city by lying in wait in culverts and ditches along the Euphrates River, Cushman said.
Except for a brief mutiny that cut the number of these counter-guerrilla forces by 15, Cushman said raising an indigenous force to fight its own battles is a long tradition in the Marine Corps and a key component of the guerrilla war Americans are fighting in Iraq.
"Before it was forgotten after World War II, that's what the Marine Corps did: small wars," he said. "I like the small wars aspect of this. We're trying to rebuild the confidence to turn this thing around so that people can live peacefully."
Cease fire continues
Marine commanders said Tuesday that they would respect the spirit of cease-fire but would hold their ground and do what it takes to defend against the kind of attacks that killed two Marines on Monday.
By 7 p.m. ---- curfew now for Fallujah, which is under martial law ---- American jets were again on the scene strafing targets on the ground.
While fighting continued into the late afternoon Tuesday ---- with distant explosions and fires in the city, random gunshots and rocket blasts along the cordon, and pinpoint raids on suspected supporters in the surrounding villages ---- Marines said they hoped for an end to the standoff or a good night's sleep.
"I hope it stays like this," said Lance Cpl. Juan Cejabarajas during a peaceful half hour before sunset Tuesday.
"But it won't. This is when whoever starts shooting. About 8 or 9 ---- that's when the fireworks start."
Staff writer Darrin Mortenson and staff photographer Hayne Palmour are reporting from Iraq, where they are with Camp Pendleton Marines. Their coverage is collected at www.nctimes.com/military/iraq.
A good place for them to collect for their trip to meet the 72 Virgins.
This is what many Americans are missing... the understanding that the terrorists want to kill Americans and Americans in Iraq are easier to get to than our shores. Better that they meet up with our bravest and finest who are prepared to take them on and destroy them there rather than have them come here to destroy our homeland. We owe our brave defender warriors more than we can ever possibly repay. Just wish all Americans could see that.
Well said.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.