Gunfight At Baghdad's Deserted Shopping Mall

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 3-6-2007 | Damien McElroy

[blam]

Gunfight at Baghdad's deserted shopping mall

By Damien McElroy in Baghdad
Last Updated: 2:07am GMT 06/03/2007

Water no longer flows in the fountain in the lobby. Razor wire ascends the still steps of the escalators. The shops are shut but full of goods abandoned when the owners were forced to quit by the encroaching violence.

Midday at the Al Adel Shopping Centre in Baghdad should have seen middle class families wandering between clothing and bric-a-brac shops laid out over four levels. Instead a lone American sniper from a Brigade Reconnaissance Team platoon took position on the roof.

US army snipers supporting the Iraqi security forces

A motorway flyover intersection and busy roundabout lay in his immediate line of sight. Nearby an Iraqi National Police checkpoint, set up to intercept car bombs and militia gunmen, came under fire from two directions.

On the ground the nervous policemen were poised to do the "death flower" - the Iraqi tendency to fire wildly in all directions in response to incoming fire.

The attacker to the north wasn't visible but an assailant firing from a rooftop to the south with an AK47 assault rifle was spotted from the sniper's higher vantage point. A clean hit from the American sniper silenced the gunman and the checkpoint was able to remain in position, continuing to screen vehicles passing through a busy section of the city.

The encounter proved to be a vindication of the new American approach of putting platoons of soldiers on the ground alongside Iraq's security forces. Captain Dustin Mitchell, whose men first took up positions at the shopping centre less than month ago, defines their role as "bridging the gap" in the effectiveness of the three branches of the Iraqi security forces.

"They can handle themselves, I've no doubt of that," he said. "But what we still need to do is get their confidence up to a level where they are capable of denying the enemy space to attack.

"By being here on the ground we can make a pretty impressive difference in the situation."

The darkened shell of the shopping centre acts as a Command Outpost. The fortified tower is used to direct operations by US soldiers, the Iraqi army, paramilitary national police squads and regular Iraq police.

The Command Outpost sits on a fault line in Baghdad's maelstrom of sectarian killing. Behind it is the formerly mixed Adel neighbourhood, now almost exclusively Sunni Muslim. A few streets away a main road marks the dividing line with Huriya district, also once mixed but now Shia Muslim.

Lt Brian Weightman is at the forefront of the "boots on the ground" strategy, part of a new security plan to pacify Baghdad. He leads three-hour US-Iraqi patrols through the streets surrounding the Command Outpost. Nine American soldiers and a combined force of 18 Iraqis walk together, stop to talk to householders, sip chai - stewed, sweetened tea - and gather low-level intelligence.

The Al Adel Shopping Centre is now used as a command outposts to help maintain greater order in Baghdad

The purpose of eschewing armoured cars and fighting vehicles is to build confidence so local residents turn to the forces of law and order when threatened.

It is not always safe. There are many factions in Baghdad determined to attack a routine patrol.

Lt Weightman said: "We missed a [car bomb] today by seconds. We'd just turned off the main drag into a side street when one went off."

But he drew a politically significant distinction between a planted bomb and being shot at. "Twice a day we'll take small arms fire... I figure that's someone who is hacked off with his situation. That guy will have to be dealt with by the political process but an al-Qa'eda terrorist planting a bomb is different."

Lt Col Steve Miska, a commander with a steady gaze and a slow drawl, believes maintaining a visible permanent presence at street level is crucial to restoring security in the city. Some of the methods are unorthodox but there is a clear logic in his approach.

"Why not when you're out on patrol with the Iraqis slip somebody $50 or whatever it takes to raid his house?" he asked Lt Weightman. "That way you can give him some money, he knows he isn't going to get robbed that night and with you being there and it being an exercise, the Iraqis aren't going to get up to any mischief."

[manic4organic]

The "death flower." That would be funny if it weren't so sad.

[Cheapskate]

That seems like a part of the problem.

If they do the death flower routine and kill innocents, no biggie.

But when we kill an innocent that gets in the way or was in the wrong place,HEADS ROLL!

[Slump Tester]

Yet the guy says "They can handle themselves, I've no doubt of that,"

[Zhang Fei]

The "death flower." That would be funny if it weren't so sad.

This is first time I've heard the Mad Minute referred to as the Death Flower. It's one of those things that GI's used to do - before the politically-correct 1990's, to clear out enemy positions.

[Zhang Fei]

BTW, the Mad Minute was also known as recon by fire.

[Tainan]

BTW, the Mad Minute was also known as recon by fire.

At least it was in the AAR's...heh heh heh.

[DariusBane]

I don't know about politically incorrect. Back in the WWII and Korean war culture the American draft armies might do the "death flower" but we transitioned to "one shot one kill" by training. It's not politically correct, it's just the difference between a small professional army and a national levy.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Check your pings for news.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Tomorrow's headline at the NY Times:

U.S. military shuts down Baghdad shopping mall. Humanitarian crisis looms.

[Lurker]

but we transitioned to "one shot one kill" by training.

And this is the first piece of training to be thrown out the window in a combat zone.

It's called 'fire superiority'.

OSOK is for boot camp and snipers. For grunts it's 'when in doubt, empty the magazine.'

L

[tlb]

>>>It's called 'fire superiority'.

I'm not reading "death blossem" as fire superiority, recon by fire, or any of the rest. It's describing panicked undisciplined shooting at anything in sight in the middle of a crowded community. Put another way, comparing it to urban gangbangers doing a drive-by that shoots everybody except the actual target.

Iraqi soldiers shooting down grandma and the babies isn't going to win the GI's any friends or win the war, especially when the enemy snipers are sitting back safe and laughing.

[Zhang Fei]

And this is the first piece of training to be thrown out the window in a combat zone. It's called 'fire superiority'. OSOK is for boot camp and snipers. For grunts it's 'when in doubt, empty the magazine.' L

I think OSOK should be applied (at the commander's discretion) in areas where the locals genuinely are afraid of the terrorists. The problem is that many areas in Iraq *support* the terrorists. And the Iraqi soldiers who are doing their own Mad Minute impression are keying off of that*. I don't blame them. Where the locals are hostile, and in many cases related by blood to the terrorists, Mad Minutes have a deterrent effect. Make trouble in a given neighborhood and prepare for collateral damage in the form of destroyed property and lost lives.

* GI's and foreign journos may look at Iraqi Mad Minutes as a lack of professionalism. The Iraqi soldiers may look at it as collective punishment for an area that aids and abets the terrorists.

[FreeAtlanta]

"Death Blossom"



The Last Star Fighter

[WesternPacific]

Yep, my son said the Iraqies would fire in a 360 degree pattern. My son's unit would wear glow sticks and their Iraq counterparts were forbidden to fire towards a glow stick. It helped a little.

[DariusBane]

I don't think the term "death flower" is a term of admiration.