Posted on 10/21/2005 7:01:20 PM PDT by 1066AD
US troops fighting losing battle for Sunni triangle By Adrian Blomfield (Filed: 22/10/2005)
The mob grew more frenzied as the gunmen dragged the two surviving Americans from the cab of their bullet-ridden lorry and forced them to kneel on the street.
Killing one of the men with a rifle round fired into the back of his head, they doused the other with petrol and set him alight. Barefoot children, yelping in delight, piled straw on to the screaming man's body to stoke the flames.
It had taken just one wrong turn for disaster to unfold. Less than a mile from the base it was heading to, the convoy turned left instead of right and lumbered down one of the most anti-American streets in Iraq, a narrow bottleneck in Duluiya town, on a peninsular jutting into the Tigris river named after the Jibouri tribe that lives there.
As the lorries desperately tried to reverse out, dozens of Sunni Arab insurgents wielding rocket launchers and automatic rifles emerged from their homes.
The gunmen were almost certainly emboldened by the fact that the American soldiers escorting the convoy would not have been able to respond quickly enough.
"The hatches of the humvees were closed," said Capt Andrew Staples, a member of the Task Force Liberty 1-15 battalion that patrols Duluiya and other small towns on the eastern bank of the Tigris, who spoke to soldiers involved.
Within minutes, four American contractors, all employees of the Halliburton subsidiary Kellog, Brown & Root, were dead. The jubilant crowd dragged their corpses through the street, chanting anti-US slogans. An investigation has been launched into why the contractors were not better protected.
Perhaps fearful of public reaction in America, where support for the war is falling, US officials suppressed details of the Sept 20 attack, which bore a striking resemblance to the murder of four other contractors in Fallujah last year.
Duluiya, located in the notorious Sunni triangle, is much smaller than Fallujah but no less violent, even if events here rarely make the news.
The violence here seems to encapsulate the growing difficulties the US military is facing in trying to defeat the insurgency. Pinned down by a constant stream of hit-and-run attacks from former Saddam regime loyalists, American soldiers are unable to focus their attention on the foreign extremists who pose a far more dangerous threat to the future of Iraq.
Yet it is here that the battle against the suicide bombers must be won.
The isolated towns east of the Tigris supply the foreign fighters and their allies and provide a haven where they can regroup after American offensives on their urban strongholds.
If the Americans do not close off these boltholes, it seems unlikely the war can be won.
But hopes for progress are growing more remote. The insurgency in eastern Salahuddin province is growing more intense, more deadly and more sophisticated.
Lt Col Gary Brito, the battalion's commanding officer, said that in recent months the number of roadside bombs targeting his men had increased by a third - even though journeys out of base have been cut back. They are having a more devastating effect too.
"Before only two out of 10 used to be effective," he said. "Now four or five have a catastrophic effect, blowing away a vehicle or causing casualties." In the past few months at least four American soldiers in this battalion alone have been killed. Another 39 have been wounded.
Even routine patrols are fraught with danger.
"What the hell was that," shouted Lt Chris Baldwin as a huge explosion rocked Baker Company's convoy of humvees trundling along a street in Dour, another town under Lt Col Brito's watch.
"Contact! Contact!" he bellowed into his radio as the gunners opened fire on a row of nearby houses from where the rocket-propelled anti-tank missile was fired.
As the gunfire died down, the soldiers burst into house after house, their facades peppered with bullet holes.
But, as is so often the case, the attacker had vanished down one of Dour's maze-like alleys.
Instead the Americans were confronted with sullen Iraqis, holding their terrified children to their sides. An old woman sat on her bed, clutching her heart, as the soldiers interrogated the family.
"They heard nothing, they saw nothing, same as ******* usual," said Sgt Jody Miller. Taking another deep drag from his cigarette, he turned to the company's translator.
"Tell them to tell us where the bad guys are so we stop frigging shooting up their houses," he said.
Nobody was hurt but the mutual distrust between the Americans and the local community deepened just a little bit more.
Now that we know where the b****ds are, go in shooting. Spare no one.
Perhaps fearful of public reaction in America, where support for the war is falling, US officials suppressed details of the Sept 20 attack, which bore a striking resemblance to the murder of four other contractors in Fallujah last year.
I guess it supposedly happened in Sept.
In Sept. we were engaged in Operation Saratoga. In that area.
Nice thought, but no can do. We are trying to hold the line, not descend into the abyss, whatever its attractions.
Yeah, all the way back to September 20.
I find it interesting that setting a living soldier on fire has received no outrage from anyone from the ROP, but there's a major firestorm forming because two Taliban bodies were burned.
The measure is in the voter turnout in the Sunni Triangle. The Iraqui people deplore this incident as much as anyone.
Very insightful post. There are only pockets like this -- "one bad street." No problem then. Kill everyone in the street. Leave no orphaned son to harbor love of revenge. Hang them and burn the bodies.
If the Iraqi people deplore this incident, this is what they will do. I know that the only thing holding some of them back is our coalition support teams.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
From the Saudi Press Agency (h/t littleredblog.com):
U.S. forces surround Iraq's Duluiya, arrest dozens
BAGHDAD, Oct 19, SPA-- U.S. and Iraqi forces surrounded the town of Duluiya north of the capital, Baghdad, overnight, raiding homes and arresting dozens of suspected insurgents, Iraqi National Guards said on Tuesday.
U.S. helicopters struck surrounding orchards where suspected insurgents were believed to be hiding out, witnesses said. There was no immediate word on casualties or comment from U.S. forces.
Duluiya lies about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Samarra, where U.S. forces carried out an offensive earlier this month to root out rebels ahead of elections planned for January. --SPA 0041 Local Time 2141 GMT
Read the article again, it was supposedly a contractor (possibly an Iraqi) set on fire, not a soldier.
BWAAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA....Ok now that I got that out of the way...
"...forced them to kneel on the street.
Killing one of the men with a rifle round fired into the back of his head, they doused the other with petrol and set him alight."
First of all, where is the "outrage" and the calls for an investigation for torture and abuse. Not to mention the multiple Geneva violations involved here. Seems to me something about muslims upset right now at how FOUL it is to ummmm burn bodies?
"As the lorries desperately tried to reverse out, dozens of Sunni Arab insurgents wielding rocket launchers and automatic rifles emerged from their homes."
I guess that about does it for the "innocent civilians" claims eh?
"The gunmen were almost certainly emboldened by the fact that the American soldiers escorting the convoy would not have been able to respond quickly enough."
Time to come out of the houses with rocket launchers and for kids to pile on straw but no time for the military to respond? *cough cough* bulls#@t *cough cough*
"The jubilant crowd dragged their corpses through the street, chanting anti-US slogans."
Some more "innocent civilians".
"An investigation has been launched into why the contractors were not better protected."
Oh, theeeerrrrres the investigation. FFS!
"Perhaps fearful of public reaction in America, where support for the war is falling......"
oh PULEEAAASE! The claims of falling support have been made for so long if they were true there would be no support at all today. This is jibberish. Oh and this stuff doesn't make Americans LACK support, it PISSES US OFF!garnering MORE.
"......US officials suppressed details of the Sept 20 attack, which bore a striking resemblance to the murder of four other contractors in Fallujah last year."
This is a pretty BOLD, not to mention unsubstantiated claim, funny how no officials are named. Fallujah tried to emulate Somalia too and they found out we didn't run away like CLINTOON did. I suppose if they seek to emulate fallujah, the more power to em. They will get the same result.
"growing difficulties" .... "Pinned down" ....."American soldiers are unable".....
Nah, no negative bias there at All! LMAO.
"urban strongholds"
Ummmmm, Geneva.....? Jeez.
"But hopes for progress are growing more remote."
ONLY in the eyes of people that wish the USA and the Iraqi majority to fail.
"Even routine patrols are fraught with danger."
In a W A R, wouldn't that be a bit of common sense?
"But, as is so often the case, the attacker had vanished down one of Dour's maze-like alleys."
Heck of an assumption there. Being that they come out of their houses with rocket launchers, it seems a a safer assumption would be that he simply went inside his house. ;)
"Nobody was hurt but the mutual distrust between the Americans and the local community deepened just a little bit more."
Now this REALLY doesn't make any sense.
Soldiers are there to FIGHT the ones these folks are afraid of. This causes them to distrust US??? That is about as Silly as it gets!
I think you will find that is from 2004. I saw it as well.
aaahh, thank you!
I know there is a very rationale reason we haven't leveled these hellholes. I'm just curious what it is.
Right you are, but I'm sticking to the obvious ROP hypocrisy regarding burning bodies, especially living ones.
Well, we may have to do some rough housecleaning of our own at some point.
Something else I'd hope we could avoid -- but the anti-American crowd may force our hand someday.
What we need is better PR
The Telegraph used to be what passed for conservative in the UK. Now they apparently have joined the cheerleaders for jihad.
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