And ..they were killing each other off before we even got there. hehe (from may 13th)
"Instead, according to Pool, rival bands of insurgents are now fighting among themselves, trading mortar, gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire almost nightly.
Residents acknowledge fighting in Qaim began even before the U.S. offensive, and characterized it as tribal clashes. The cause of the clashes was not immediately clear."
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20050513/D8A2IBKG0.html
"And ..they were killing each other off before we even got there. hehe (from may 13th)........"Instead, according to Pool, rival bands of insurgents are now fighting among themselves, trading mortar, gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire almost nightly. Residents acknowledge fighting in Qaim began even before the U.S. offensive, and characterized it as tribal clashes. The cause of the clashes was not immediately clear."
Understand. Too much verbosity in my replies, can't cover all aspects. I was aware of what you write, but thank you for the comments, good ones, and the link, guess I will check it out, but may have already. Been so many to look at in the past week.
But I would like to further endorse what you bring up. The fact is, our Intel has known for a long time about the tribal unrests in this region. And surely it played into the equation for this operation. For all we know, we may have had some deals go down with some of the tribes to allow them to fight against the insurgents, and lets say our Marines stayed clear of their promised AOR.
Good call.