Posted on 03/24/2003 10:47:00 AM PST by Destro
Hail of Gunfire and Grenades Forces Apaches to Pull Back
By JIM DWYER
IN CENTRAL IRAQ, March 24 - With a hail of small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, Iraqi forces downed two Apache helicopters today and forced 30 other helicopters in their brigade back to their base.
One two-member crew was unaccounted for; the other was rescued. Iraqi state television broadcast images of one downed helicopter, which appeared largely intact, and jubilant men dancing around it.
All 32 helicopters sustained some damage, occasionally slight, Army officials said, in what was a significant setback for the allies.
Fighting continued today in Nasiriya, meanwhile, after the death of 10 marines there on Sunday in the deadliest battle of the war so far.
The attack on the helicopters today surprised American Army leaders and may cause them to rethink their military strategy, which relied on the Apaches to destroy Iraq's armored divisions that ring Baghdad.
The commander of the American-led invasion of Iraq confirmed the loss of one Apache helicopter.
``The fate of the crew is uncertain right now,'' Gen. Tommy R. Franks said at a news briefing at Central Command in Qatar. We characterize that crew, two men, as missing in action.''
General Franks denied that the helicopter had been shot down by farmers, as Iraq claimed, but did not say what had forced it out of the air.
A CNN correspondent accompanying the United States Army Fifth Corps 11th Attack Helicopter Regiment, said the unit had been on a night-time combat mission targeting units of the elite Republican Guard.
The correspondent cited one of the pilots as saying they had run into a ``hornet's nest, a barrage of antiaircraft fire,'' near the city of Kerbala, 70 miles southwest of Baghdad, the closest fighting to the Iraqi capital since the war began last Thursday.
The Iraqi Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, said at a news conference: ``Farmers shot down two Apaches. We showed one today and might show the second and the pilots.''
``We are holding several other American and British prisoners and we may show some of them,'' the minister said.
The Apaches use a powerful radar, called the Longbow, that directs their Hellfire missiles.
But the Apaches are suddenly coming under attack from relatively low-technology weaponry.
Saddam Hussein ``is fighting an asymmetrical warfare,'' said Brig. Gen. Benjamin Freakly, assistant commander of the 101st Division. ``This is not tank on tank fighting.''
The attack took place near the village of Abu Mustafe, north of Al Hillah, and capped a punishing 24 hours for the allied offensive.
General Freakly said that in an attack like the one on the helicopters, ``you have 10 guys lying on top of a building firing R.P.G.'s and small arms. You can go in and bomb that building and reduce it to rubble,'' but at the potential cost of many civilian lives.
The Army now may consider new tactics, such as additional close aerial bombardment, to support the Apaches as they hunt for armored divisions.
The Apaches were from the 11th Aviation Regiment, based in Germany, and are attached to the V Corps.
Sandstorms are roiling the area, blowing at 25 knots, and are likely to rise to 40 knots on Tuesday and Wednesday. At 30 knots, a meteorologist said, visibility becomes practically nil.
General Franks also said today that the tenacity of some Iraqi units, including the fedayeen, was no surprise and that American-led forces had had some ``terrific firefights.''
The Republican Guard has been hit, he said, and ``they will continue to be hit, at points and places and times that make sense to us. The effect has been very positive for us.''
Count me AND General Patton as two of your adherents ;-)
Yeah -- 'fan" of 'Team USA.'
You choose sides yet?
A coalition of say... oh, I dunno, 'bout 45.
I'm not saying there should never be collateral damage and it's expected in war just as it should be expected that we are going to lose soldiers. War is hell. But a lot of armchair conducting of this war isn't going to help the soldiers on the field and second-guessing their superiors isn't helping anyone. I'm listening to the Pentagon now. I happen to believe them when they say things are going remarkably fast. I saw a journalist traveling with the troups ask a commander on-field about progress being held up. The commander gave him a puzzled look and smiled and said "I'm 24 hours ahead of schedule."
I grew up with the Vietnam war and all the newsfeed showing so many dead soldiers coming home. What's going on in Iraq now simply amazes me. We have the best trained soldiers and commanders in the world who are the best equipped. We have a major advantage over anything those people can throw at us and it's why our commander-in-chief says "we WILL win!" And it is why there exists this argument going on in this thread that there are dozens killed and not tens of thousands. I trust our military and their commanders and I trust Bush. I am not so sure that the journalists and folks not on the field have the knowledge to conduct this war better.
I forgot to add the thousands who surrendered quickly and eagerly and are not out in the field shooting and launching missiles at our guys saving more lives... those who trust us more than their own government and its military because of our legacy.
Gen. Franks, will all due respect Sir; if such a structure and its occupants are holding up the coalition advance, and if it is causing, or has the potential to cause, coalition casualities, then your job, Sir, is to make it cease to exist!
See my post #87. More of that is to come. And it means more lives saved... more of *our soldiers' lives* saved. Again, I trust those in command on the field. What I don't trust or respect is armchair commanding, any more than I trust or respect the anti-war/Bush/America protesters who believe they have all the answers for the U.S. when they don't have the insight.
You'll pardon me if I find it unnecessary to kneel in awe at the altar of your "heavy posting history."
I'd recommend that you either clean up a sloppy post, or convey your position clearly.
And the Croats...and the Slovenes...and...and...and...
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