Posted on 11/09/2004 8:02:36 PM PST by saquin
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 9 - After nearly 16 hours of fighting, the United States marines thought they had finally won their battle for the green-domed mosque, which insurgents had been using as a command center.
Then a car drove up behind a group of the marines on Al Thurthar Street. Seven men bristling with Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades and black ammunition belts spilled onto the street, ready to fight at point-blank range. The marines turned and fired, and killed four of them immediately, blowing one man's head entirely away before he fell on his back onto the pavement, his arms spread wide.
Three more fled. Cpl. Jason Huyghe cornered two of them in a courtyard. One of them, he suddenly realized, was wearing a belt packed with explosives.
"I saw the guy roll over and pull something on his jacket," Corporal Huyghe said, "and he exploded."
The seventh man limped into the dark streets of the city and escaped.
The battle for Falluja does not fall into any neat category, and even the messy label of urban warfare does not capture the intensity and unpredictability of this battlefield. In some places, the insurgents appear to fire and fall back, perhaps trying to tease the marines into ambushes or dissolve into the grimy fabric of the city to fight another day.
But elsewhere, they hold their ground until the buildings around them are obliterated, or open fire abruptly from exposed positions and are literally cut to pieces. Nothing here makes sense, but the Americans' superior training and firepower eventually seem to prevail.
This fight started around 8 p.m. on Monday, with the troops, from the First Battalion, Eighth Marines, pinned down only 50 feet from where they had poured across Falluja's northern boundary. Under heavy fire, they called in artillery and airstrikes but were still there at 4 a.m., battling insurgents in a water tower 600 yards away. Finally, the Americans annihilated the tower with rockets, machine-gun fire from AC-130 gunships and other weapons, and started to move again.
Gradually, they worked their way toward the Muhammadia Mosque, which was about halfway to the center of the city. They had to fight for every inch of ground; one insurgent with an AK-47 could pin down the whole company. Insurgents were firing from an entire row of buildings, including the mosque. Tens of thousands of rounds cracked through the air in all directions.
At one point, 40 marines ran across a street in front of the mosque. One fell, and Cpl. Jake Knospler rushed to drag him away. "By the time I got to the street, two more marines were down," Corporal Knospler said later, his pant legs smeared with blood.
In fact, five marines were wounded in that one incident. The advance ground to a halt again: although the marines had four Abrams tanks, quarters were too close for their guns to be much good during most of the fight.
The confusion was such that at one point, a tank fired a phosphorous round that rained down on the American troops, breaking into a hundred flaming pieces and burning backpacks and gear but seriously hurting no one.
The wounds and the exhaustion were taking their toll on the marines. At one point, Capt. Read Omohundro, the company commander, turned to speak to the young man who was always at his side with the radio to find that only the man's aide was there.
"Where's Sergeant Hudson?" the captain asked.
"He's been shot, sir,'' came the reply.
In the end, the tanks fired at least eight rounds at the perimeter of the mosque; a dozen Howitzer shells followed. The marines opened the doors of the mosque for Iraqi security forces to clear out the interior; it was thought better to let the Iraqis go into the holy place, even though it had been transformed into a kind of barracks.
The Iraqis entered, their uniforms crisp and spotless because they had done none of the fighting until then, and fought with the insurgents and won.
The day was not all destruction. As the marines fought their way through a town seemingly empty of civilians, it was a surprise when the troops leaped into a house during a firefight to find a confused elderly man seated on the front porch. He was dressed in brown pajamas and he was alone. The marines gathered around him, with the bullets zinging past.
"Afwan,'' he said in Arabic, the word for "excuse me." "Afwan."
The marines moved on and left him standing on the porch.
God Bless those US and coalition troops. Each and every one of them.
Ping to Fallujah news! Praying for the Polish soldiers too!
We owe them a debt we can never repay.
Sergeants are RTO's?
Probably another embed with little knowledge or experience.
Trust me; if your RTO is dead, you know it.
So the idiot with a suicide bomb belt runs AWAY from us then blows himself up? Dyslexic terrorist?
This could range from being completely accurate to being made up in a bar in Hoboken. I want proof before I believe any of it.
"The marines turned and fired, and killed four of them immediately, blowing one man's head entirely away before he fell on his back onto the pavement, his arms spread wide."
Wish I could see that on video.
Holy Crap!
Whereas the NYT speaks of fighting tooth and nail for every inch???
God Bless the Marines - but I have to believe that the NYT is leaning in the wrong direction as usual - recall that they had us loosing the initial invasion into Iraq.
"The confusion was such that at one point, a tank fired a phosphorous round that rained down on the American troops, breaking into a hundred flaming pieces and burning backpacks and gear but seriously hurting no one."
______________
Amazing... God bless our troops.
Slow and easy guys. The object is to kill them not yourself.
This pains me to no end that a mosque from whence enemy are firing is valued more than the lives of our Marines. I'm so mad I could spit.
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.