Posted on 11/09/2004 6:21:19 PM PST by pissant
The flimsy metal door was ripped off its hinges as a hefty boot from a Legion platoon soldier made decisive contact. Inside the small room lay an AK-47 rifle, alarm clock parts and a handwritten notebook in Farsi. Moments earlier, the gunman, thought to be Iranian, had fled as Legion, Hunter and Outlaw platoons of the US army's Task Force 2-2 undertook one of the more dangerous tasks of the battle for Fallujah.
Clearing buildings door to door in a guerrilla stronghold is risky at any time. Into the bargain this time, the platoons from Phantom troop had been ordered to sweep Fallujah's industrial zone, a haven for foreign fighters.
Also in the room was a red-and-white keffiyeh, a bag of bandages, an optical sight typical of those used by a sniper and a pile of photographs of Arab men, including one in a similar keffiyeh, of military age, and boxes of ammunition.
Moving deliberately through the area, the Phantoms came under sniper, mortar and small arms fire and had to negotiate mines and other explosives.
Remarkably, they had completed a third of their task by nightfall yesterday without suffering a single casualty.
But although the Persian notebook, which contained at least one e-mail address, could be of intelligence value, the soldiers did not find any insurgents, either alive or dead.
"It's weird how we killed so many people last night but haven't seen any bodies today," said Specialist Nick Price of Legion platoon. "Where are they?"
The bodies of Arab fighters tend to be recovered quickly so they can be buried by sunrise the next day, in accordance with Muslim custom. But the paucity of insurgents could indicate that many had fled Fallujah to fight another day.
Having fought through the night, the Phantoms were battling against fatigue. Sleep was grabbed in morsels while sitting in the back of their Bradley fighting vehicle.
Fear was another enemy. The industrial zone, in the south-east corner of Fallujah, was thought to be the site of two car-bomb factories and had been the target of bombardment for months.
"This is all bad guys," said Capt Kirk Mayfield, commander of the Phantoms, pointing at an aerial photograph of the area. "Every sigint [electronic intercept], every humint [informant report] tells us this is where all the foreign fighters hang out."
Briefing his squad, Sgt Jamal Alexander could sense the apprehension. "You all know what you're getting into," he said. "Stay alert and stay alive. There aren't any friendlies in there. Anybody walks up, you kill them."
The sniper fire began almost immediately. So too did the mortars, sending earth showering the tin roofs of the warehouses and workshops as they landed up to 50 yards away.
"There's a man in black with a weapon on that roof," shouted Sgt Ndifreke Aanam-ndu, a Nigerian who hopes to gain American citizenship by serving in the army.
He fired three shots with his M-16 as one of the Bradleys providing support blew holes in the building.
The insurgents, however, melted away. There were no bloodstains found at another firing point identified in an upstairs room, where a sniper had left 7.62mm rounds and an empty can of Red Bull energy drink.
There was an eerie silence in the industrial area, punctuated by loud explosions and the crack of gunfire. There were no signs of life and most buildings appeared to have been locked up and abandoned weeks earlier.
When a boot didn't work, Sgt Alexander pulled out a shotgun to blast the locks. In every room the soldiers entered there was the possibility of death from a cornered fighter or a building rigged with explosives.
Clambering across a pile of rubble as they came under sniper fire, Legion platoon came across a copper wire leading from a building to a plastic tube that looked likely to be filled with explosives.
In one house, the soldiers were startled by barking as they burst in. "If that bitch goes for you, shoot it," ordered one nervous NCO.
This prompted a mini-revolt from the others. "No, don't," shouted another, as three labrador puppies ran across the room while their mother cowered. The soldier stroked the dogs and apologised because he had no food.
Back in the Bradley after more than four hours of clearing the industrial area, the men turned to talking about what they would like to do when they left Iraq.
"I just want to go to Amsterdam and party," said Pte Mike Rothemeyer. "If I go to Brazil and Egypt I'll die a happy man," mused Sgt Alexander. "I want a picture of me on a camel in front of a pyramid. That would be enough."
And these guys are just homegrown freedom fighters. LOL.
Interesting read. Here's hoping things go well and the remaining terrorists all die first.
mc
"and a handwritten notebook in Farsi. Moments earlier, the gunman, thought to be Iranian"
And we all know how much Zarqawi and his fellow Sunni Salafists hate those Shi'a heretics! (sarcasm off)
Yeah, and I bet when he gets here, he won't adopt a name like "Mohammed", either...
"There's a man in black with a weapon on that roof," shouted Sgt Ndifreke Aanam-ndu, a Nigerian who hopes to gain American citizenship by serving in the army.
He has my support.
"He has my support."
These are the type of immigrants the USA, or any country for that matter, really need. An immigrant willing to die for his adoptive country is not going to run around causing shit like some of the Palestinians in the US are doing.
Good luck to you and all the other men and women fighting the good fight, Ndifreke.
Marines are good men too, but the men in this story are U.S. Army soldiers.
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