Posted on 11/09/2004 8:02:36 PM PST by saquin
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 9 - After nearly 16 hours of fighting, the United States marines thought they had finally won their battle for the green-domed mosque, which insurgents had been using as a command center.
Then a car drove up behind a group of the marines on Al Thurthar Street. Seven men bristling with Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades and black ammunition belts spilled onto the street, ready to fight at point-blank range. The marines turned and fired, and killed four of them immediately, blowing one man's head entirely away before he fell on his back onto the pavement, his arms spread wide.
Three more fled. Cpl. Jason Huyghe cornered two of them in a courtyard. One of them, he suddenly realized, was wearing a belt packed with explosives.
"I saw the guy roll over and pull something on his jacket," Corporal Huyghe said, "and he exploded."
The seventh man limped into the dark streets of the city and escaped.
The battle for Falluja does not fall into any neat category, and even the messy label of urban warfare does not capture the intensity and unpredictability of this battlefield. In some places, the insurgents appear to fire and fall back, perhaps trying to tease the marines into ambushes or dissolve into the grimy fabric of the city to fight another day.
But elsewhere, they hold their ground until the buildings around them are obliterated, or open fire abruptly from exposed positions and are literally cut to pieces. Nothing here makes sense, but the Americans' superior training and firepower eventually seem to prevail.
This fight started around 8 p.m. on Monday, with the troops, from the First Battalion, Eighth Marines, pinned down only 50 feet from where they had poured across Falluja's northern boundary. Under heavy fire, they called in artillery and airstrikes but were still there at 4 a.m., battling insurgents in a water tower 600 yards away. Finally, the Americans annihilated the tower with rockets, machine-gun fire from AC-130 gunships and other weapons, and started to move again.
Gradually, they worked their way toward the Muhammadia Mosque, which was about halfway to the center of the city. They had to fight for every inch of ground; one insurgent with an AK-47 could pin down the whole company. Insurgents were firing from an entire row of buildings, including the mosque. Tens of thousands of rounds cracked through the air in all directions.
At one point, 40 marines ran across a street in front of the mosque. One fell, and Cpl. Jake Knospler rushed to drag him away. "By the time I got to the street, two more marines were down," Corporal Knospler said later, his pant legs smeared with blood.
In fact, five marines were wounded in that one incident. The advance ground to a halt again: although the marines had four Abrams tanks, quarters were too close for their guns to be much good during most of the fight.
The confusion was such that at one point, a tank fired a phosphorous round that rained down on the American troops, breaking into a hundred flaming pieces and burning backpacks and gear but seriously hurting no one.
The wounds and the exhaustion were taking their toll on the marines. At one point, Capt. Read Omohundro, the company commander, turned to speak to the young man who was always at his side with the radio to find that only the man's aide was there.
"Where's Sergeant Hudson?" the captain asked.
"He's been shot, sir,'' came the reply.
In the end, the tanks fired at least eight rounds at the perimeter of the mosque; a dozen Howitzer shells followed. The marines opened the doors of the mosque for Iraqi security forces to clear out the interior; it was thought better to let the Iraqis go into the holy place, even though it had been transformed into a kind of barracks.
The Iraqis entered, their uniforms crisp and spotless because they had done none of the fighting until then, and fought with the insurgents and won.
The day was not all destruction. As the marines fought their way through a town seemingly empty of civilians, it was a surprise when the troops leaped into a house during a firefight to find a confused elderly man seated on the front porch. He was dressed in brown pajamas and he was alone. The marines gathered around him, with the bullets zinging past.
"Afwan,'' he said in Arabic, the word for "excuse me." "Afwan."
The marines moved on and left him standing on the porch.
No, you don't. Thankfully, these guys were just stupid, and our guys turned them into worm food. In war, stupid=dead.
It's 229 years. Founded at Tun Tavern by Captain Mullins in 1775, I think.
The Old Gray Whore
Just ain't what she used to be
Ain't what she used to be
Ain't what she used to be
The Old Gray Whore
Just ain't what she used to be
Many long years ago.
'were probably a bad translation from Indonesian or something, with diagrams that don't make any sense'
the instructions were in FRENCH, of course....
I always enjoy the mental image of the wild eyed Palestinian suicide bomber riding his bicycle, hell bent for leather, towards an Israeli guard post, when, in his excitement, fear, and determination, he prematurely exploded himself, leaving the front wheel of his bicycle rolling slowly into the guard post wall and falling over, to the amazement of Israeli guards left shaking their heads.
Tun Tavern, Philadelphia, 1775
14.10 hrs 1st Marine is given his shilling and sworn in.
14: 25 hrs 2nd Marine is sworn in and then given his shilling. Told to go stand by the 1st Marine sworn in.
1st Marine to 2nd Marine: "We never did it like that in the OLD Corps!"
A little old soldier humor there boys and girls in memory of all the good young jarheads in VMO-2 who saved this young soldier's ass in 1965.
Is "Dexter Filkins" Jayson Blair's new pseudonym?
Be kind of hard, we never built that many MOABs. Besides a 500 to 2000 pound JDAM could do the job just as well, and AFAIK, we have plenty of those. Even a 500 pounders might be overkill. Just send in an AC-130 or even an A-10 (or an Apache) and chop the thing to pieces with 30 or 40 mm cannon fire.
God Bless our troops! You're in our hearts and prayers!
Easy for you to say sitting at home. By your simplistic logic, everyone who goes into battle is "stupid".
Obviously these 7 guys who drove into a situation where they were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned knew the consequences.
Even to the point of preferring death to surrender. Have to give them that much at least.
Fox aired a gun camera video of a bombing run in the city today. The bomb went off and triggered dozens of secondary explosions from all of the IED's that were set up along both sides of the road. Dozens.
This ain't going to be easy, but it has to be done.
"Nothing here makes sense, but the Americans' superior training and firepower eventually seem to prevail"
How about the bravery of our troops or is that word unknown to the NYTimes.
I'm also glad that we are doing it there instead of here..
No, I don't think everyone who goes into battle is "stupid". Where did you get that from? There's a difference between bravery and foolhardiness. Fortunately, these attackers failed miserably in their purpose. They threw their lives away to no effect. I wish all their brethren the same fate.
"The wounds and the exhaustion were taking their toll on the marines."
For some reason I believe that the wounds and exhaustion are taking their toll on the terrorists WAY more than on our brave marines. NYT always gets it bass ackwards.
my son was the marine that took out that jeep with his saw(squad automatic weapon)100 rounds then a reload and then another 100 rounds, he shared this with me while he was recovering in Bethesda naval hospital after he was wounded a few days later in an ambush. not something a 22 year old should have to remember for the rest of his life
there was only 3-4 marines in the street providing security for the rest of the platoon that was inside a building..the enemy thought they were an easy target
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