Posted on 04/23/2004 11:34:21 AM PDT by Dundee
Anzac spirit patrols streets of Baghdad
AS the death toll mounts in Iraq, Australian soldiers are playing a deadly game of cat and mouse on the dark streets of Baghdad.
They move in small patrols through the war-torn city, silently scanning the rooftops and checking walled compounds for an attack that could come at any moment.
During their two-hour night patrol, the paratroopers think their moment may have come when they find a man hiding in a construction site.
With their Steyr assault rifles on him, the man emerges from the darkness and admits he's a neighbour just snooping around. The man is let go and the patrol continues on into the night.
These night patrols have become a test of nerves for the troops of the Townsville-based Third Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), whose job it is to protect Australia's embassy staff in the increasingly lawless Iraqi capital.
So far, they have been lucky. Despite the growing list of American, British and Iraqi casualties, no Australian has yet lost his life in the conflict.
But these rare pictures of the troops of 3RAR on a night patrol in Baghdad are a raw reminder of the dangers Australian soldiers face each day in troublespots around the globe.
Tomorrow, the sacrifice of the 102,000 Australians who never came home from such distant battlefields will be remembered in one-horse towns and capital cities across the country as the nation commemorates Anzac Day.
From Baghdad to East Timor, and from the Persian Gulf to Solomon Islands, Australian troops will fall silent to honour the memory of their fallen predecessors.
At Gallipoli, tens of thousands of young Australians and New Zealanders will ignore government travel warnings to gather on the clifftops to pay tribute to the original Anzacs.
And in Australia, thousands will rise before dawn to stand alongside the old men and women who remember what the rest of us can only imagine.
Only one of the country's six surviving World War I soldiers - Western Front veteran Marcel Caux - is expected to be well enough to join the ceremonies.
At 105, Caux is five times the age of most of those troops from 3RAR who patrol a 12sqkm patch of Baghdad using rifles, grenades and quick reflexes to avoid trouble.
Lieutenant Ian Lumsden describes the atmosphere of these patrols as "menacing".
"The streets of Bagdhad are dangerous enough during the day, and at night they are one of the most dangerous places on earth for coalition soldiers," says Lumsden, a naval reservist who recently joined an Australian night patrol.
"Without a word being spoken, the patrol stealthily moves forward, passing buildings that are half constructed," he says.
"There is nothing to stop someone throwing a grenade over the wall or taking a shot from a rooftop."
He says most people in this part of Baghdad are now used to the Australians and are happy to have them patrolling their area.
At each street corner, the soldiers use their Steyr rifles to cover colleagues as they cross to the next. When they hear an unfamiliar noise, the patrol freezes and trains rifles on the target.
The commanding officer, Major Kahlil Fegan, says these patrols are an essential part of keeping the peace.
"We don't just live here," he says. "We dominate our area of responsibility."
And that's the way it should be.
God protect all those in harms way right now.
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