Hundreds of Iraqis killed in four-day battle for Kifl (3rd Infantry UPDATE)

Reuters AlertNet ^ | 29 Mar 2003 19:45:36 GMT | By Kieran Murray

[11th_VA]

KIFL, Iraq, March 29 (Reuters) - When U.S. tanks rumbled into this town on the Euphrates river, irregular Iraqi forces set up sniper nests up and down the main street, opening fire from doors, windows, market stalls and patches of open ground.

A crimson sunset painted the street red and visibility fell to less than five meters (15 feet) as a swirling sand and dust storm kicked up when the guerrilla units attacked.

U.S. officers said fighters in minivans, pick-up trucks and cars drove straight at the oncoming tanks. Others took to canoes, rowing down the river and trying to fix explosives to the main bridge.

But the guerrilla-style forces were vastly outgunned by the tanks of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, and hundreds of Iraqis have died in this town over the last four days.

The officers said the tank unit fired two 120 mm high velocity depleted uranium rounds straight down the main road, creating a powerful vacuum that literally sucked guerrillas out from their hideaways into the street, where they were shot down by small arms fire or run over by the tanks.

"It was mad chaos like you cannot imagine," said the tank unit's commander, who identified himself as "Cobra 6" as he did not want friends and neighbours back home to know what he had been through.

"We took a lot of fire, and we gave a lot of fire," he said.

"You couldn't see anything except all those hues of red and the sound of fire from all sides. It was not earthly. I'll have nightmares about it."

Dozens of bodies still littered the streets on Saturday.

Some were wrapped in blue and black body bags, but others were still out in the open, rotting in the midday sun. Several spilled out of their charred and shattered cars and trucks, burned beyond recognition.

HIGH COST

Iraq's efforts to stall the U.S. military advance towards Baghdad appear to include putting elite officers in with irregular paramilitary or guerrilla structures at strategic points.

In Kifl, which lies north of Najaf and about 130 km (81 miles) south of Baghdad, the strategy may have slowed the U.S. forces, but only at an extremely high cost.

Some U.S. soldiers estimate that at least 1,000 Iraqis were killed here since the fighting began at dusk on Wednesday, and everyone puts the number in the hundreds.

Officers say just one U.S. soldier has died.

Sporadic mortar fire and bursts of sniper fire kept U.S. troops alert in the town late on Saturday, but officers said most of the resistance in the town had been overcome.

The main danger was now posed by an artillery unit about 16 km (10 miles) to the north.

"I'm sure there are still some knuckleheads in the town, but the real problem is what's outside," said Colonel Joseph Anderson of the 101st Airborne Division, which moved in to help secure Kifl on Saturday.

Wave after wave of Iraqi soldiers and paramilitaries had set up mortar positions at an old brick factory on the edge of town, getting dropped off from civilian vehicles at a large tree that U.S. forces here now call the "Gateway to Hell".

U.S. officers said they had destroyed up to 50 vehicles making drop-offs there, adding the brick factory, like much of Kifl, was now virtually abandoned.

The canoes lie empty on the river beds and only U.S. soldiers walk up and down the town's main streets.

Some families were still seen in their homes on the edge of town on Saturday, tending to sheep and goats as U.S. tanks and trucks rolled by with nervous soldiers looking out over the fields, their guns loaded for any new guerrilla threat.

While the guerrilla tactics appeared to have failed in Kifl, the Iraqis claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb which killed at least four U.S. soldiers on Saturday at a military checkpoint near Najaf.

[lostlegend]

During the battle of Guadalcanal, November 1942, an American sailor on the center top of the superstructure of one of our cruisers saw two red fireballs coming towards him. It was night. The fireballs were a pair of 14" Japanese battleship rounds fired from a nearby battleship.

The rounds passed over the sailors head, barely missing the ship. The suction as they passed sucked him off the ship, up into the air, somersaulting him nearly off the ship. He came down just inside the guard rails of the main deck, breaking both legs in the crash. He survived to tell about it, as did some eyewitnesses.

Another sailor got the same treatment, being suck off the bridge by 14" rounds passing overhead. He was somersaulted skyward, downward, and spread eagled over an 8" gun barrel. He was badly injured, but survived. (See the book, "Decision at Sea").

In 1945, my father climbed up a ladder from his engine room battle station, and opened a deck hatch to watch a shore bombardment. Just then the 5" (130mm) gun on the superstructure up above the hatch fired a shell. The muzzle blast blew him back down the ladder several decks into the engine room. Later, after the ship, which had been shot up in an air sea battle, was sent back to Seattle for repairs, my father required hospitalization and surgery to patch him up. He still has hearing and sinus problems from the incident (he's now 85). The ship in question was the U.S.S. Porter, DD800, a Fletcher class destroyer.

A 5' 38" round is much slower than a 120mm tank shell. The story as reported might be true. Why, I'd pay $5.00 cash money to see the instant replay.

[BartMan1]

don't bring a pickup truck to a tank fight.


This is sound advice.

[Ethrane]

"The main danger was now posed by an artillery unit about 16 km (10 miles) to the north.

"I'm sure there are still some knuckleheads in the town, but the real problem is what's outside," said Colonel Joseph Anderson of the 101st Airborne Division, which moved in to help secure Kifl on Saturday.

Why do I feel I'd like to serve with this man?

KNUCKLEHEADS?

Priceless...

[jps098]

I don't know about being on the receiving end, but I know that I really hated firing HEAT rounds with my head out of the turret because the vaccum effect almost sucked my soft contacts right out of my eyes. If you had dust on your face, it was gone after that first round.

[aristeides]

Where is Blyadishchevo?

[Zack Nguyen]

Thanks for the info, Congressman.

[foto]

Sounds quite possible if you disregard the part about the Du shell being the cause. I would imagine the that the actual vacum he's talking about is caused by the muzzle blast as the hot gases from the shell shoot through a small alleyway, not the actual projectile. If you imagine that the attackers were within 20-50 feet hiding and shooting from doorways in a small alley the huge rush of the gases shooting through would create some big pressure changes in the immediate area which could unbalnce them and pull them into the path of the gases that just passed. Just gotta get the image of a wide U.S type road out of your head or that the effect is working the entire distance the projectile is traveling.

[happygrl]

Too bad the military wouldn't accept a middle-aged woman whose only credential is pure anger.

Oh my ! If that isn't a classic line, I don't know what is !!!!!!

[happygrl]

"This is something we've got to do. I think we're doing it as professionally as possible," Wise said. "I put my faith in the Lord and He will get me through it. He's calmed my nerves a whole lot."

Lord bless and protect this brave soldier, Pvt. Jarrod Wise.

[WhiskeyPapa]

The officers said the tank unit fired two 120 mm high velocity depleted uranium rounds straight down the main road, creating a powerful vacuum that literally sucked guerrillas out from their hideaways into the street, where they were shot down by small arms fire or run over by the tanks.

Hard to believe.

Walt

[Recon by Fire]

I don't know about being on the receiving end, but I know that I really hated firing HEAT rounds with my head out of the turret because the vaccum effect almost sucked my soft contacts right out of my eyes. If you had dust on your face, it was gone after that first round.

I know from personal experience that you don't want to be next to an Abrams when it fires its main gun. I remember being in a battle position and the Abrams right next to me fired and the blast knocked me inside my BFV.

[e_engineer]

Someone is having a great laugh about how they suckered that Reuters reporter. Sell the man a bridge! Ask him to go get a left handed smoke shifter! A bucket of prop wash.

[sheikdetailfeather]

"Could someone explain this?"

Don't you recall that Ross Perot referred to "that giant sucking sound?" Well....

[SolutionsOnly]

Canoe Attack! Uh Oh! We didn't plan for that!
< *insert media hand wringing here* >

[stanz]

Oh my ! If that isn't a classic line, I don't know what is !!!!!!

I'm serious! When I was of age to join the military, it was rare for women to enlist- - -at least in my circle. I never knew any females in the service and no one ever considered it. We just either went on to college or to a job and eventually got married- - - end of career. Nowadays, recruiters are everywhere and so are female recruits. It's a different world. I see what's going on and I feel so helpless. That makes me angry. I know I wouldn't have any problems at all following orders - - -especially when it comes to defending myself or the lives of other Americans in the field. What's that expression....we get too soon old and so late smart.

[sheik yerbouty]

I won't sniffle for Kifl.

[LenS]

Well, the Arabs did chase the French out of Algeria. Which, come to think of it, explains why we mock the French. They're the only ones to lose to the Arabs in a millenium.

[Joee]

Or a "cannon report", "100 yds of shore line, and perhaps a table stretcher."

[RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS]

LOL!!!!!