Posted on 11/08/2004 8:39:55 AM PST by epluribus_2
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - More than 4,000 U.S. Marines and Army troops punched their way into northeastern Fallujah on Monday, kicking off a massive assault dubbed Operation Phantom Fury that seeks to put an end to half a year of insurgent control of the Sunni Muslim city.
The prelude to the assault on the Askari neighborhood was a crushing air and artillery bombardment of the city that rose to a crescendo by Monday evening, with U.S. strike jets dropping bombs around the clock and big guns pounding the city every few minutes with high-explosive shells.
Meanwhile, insurgents in Baghdad and nearby Ramadi tried to keep up the pressure on the coalition forces with new attacks, including one on a Catholic church in the capital.
Earlier Monday U.S. troops had fought their way into the city's western outskirts, seizing two bridges over the Euphrates River and helping Iraqi soldiers take the city's main hospital in the first stage of a major assault on the insurgent stronghold.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
ah. then it makes sense.
"It is a worse danger to overestimate one's self."
Loose Lips Sinks Ships
Free Republic | 09/15/01 | Jim Robinson
Posted on 09/15/2001 6:59:48 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/524504/posts
Just a reminder to please watch what is posted.
what is that coming down? some of us here are not too armament saavy.. are those bullets.. a series of bombs? fire? lasers? It is pretty!
well, I own an AK and not an AR15, so you can guess my preference, but...
uniformity of equipment is pretty important.
GOOD! We'll get the reports soon enough. Let's keep the advantage to the good guys.
Thanks for the ping Howlin.
Prairie
It's probably a time-lapsed photo of tracer fire from an AC-130
Tracer bullets from the Vulcan cannons. That is a time laps shot. It arcs through the sky because the plane is moving and arcs across the ground because there are plenty of things down there to shoot and it does not take long to shoot each and every one.
those are tracers.
1/3 rounds is a tracer IIRC
some troops load ALL tracers if they can get away with it - going for the full "Star Wars" effect.
IIRC, those are tracer rounds from the 40 mm cannon. Every 5th round is a tracer round. Gives you an idea of just how much death one of those things can spread.
Thanks!
Explaining the importance of taking hospital..To prevent propaganda estimates and to prevent roof being used by enemy to inform others of our positions. (Last time they found cell phones on the roof)(Wondering about mosques..surely we learned they were used as outposts before)
Thanks for the reminder.
"fixing to be blown to sh*t"
I guess that WOULD tend to make one restive.
Yeah but with so many zillions of aks in the country before the war I am betting most of our guys have 1 of 2 by now.
that pic is of the minigun fire.
I'm not sure what the tracer ratio is.
In the situation we are fighting in there it's also better to be carrying the types of weapons that are being used by the local enemy. If you run out of ammo you can always loot their corpses. ;-)
Man, that is tagline material if I ever saw it!
I had heard that this morning or late last night. And did you see that post on the other thread that I posted to you the NPR and Guardian info regarding some of the Iraqi troops not fighting with the US due to threats from Mooky Sadr and others.
Anyway here it is again.
U.S.: 42 Insurgents Killed in Fallujah
Another issue is the role of Iraqi forces fighting alongside the Americans. A National Public Radio correspondent embedded with the Marines outside Fallujah reported desertions among the Iraqis. One Iraqi battalion shrunk from over 500 men down to 170 over the past two week - with 255 members quitting over the weekend, the correspondent said.
Clerics in Fallujah denounced Iraqi troops participating in the assault, calling them the ``occupiers' lash on their fellow countrymen.''
``We swear by God that we will stand against you in the streets, we will enter your houses and we will slaughter you just like sheep,'' the clerics said in a statement.
A senior aide to firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged Iraqi forces not to fight alongside U.S. troops.
``We appeal to the Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi police not to help the occupation troops as they want to target the Iraqi people in Fallujah,'' said Sheikh Abdul-Hadi al-Daraji. The Iraqi troops should not be a tool in the hands of the occupation troops.''
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/ac-130.htm
Read up...the Bofors is even an old ww2 era calibre that was used as an anti-aircraft battery. Of course it's been adjusted over time. The Vulcan 20mm (6,000 rounds a minute) and the Gatling 25mm (1,800 rnd/min) is a good start.
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