when one "BIG" one would do just find in Fallujah.
Posted on 04/21/2004 9:03:52 PM PDT by saquin
FALLUJAH, Iraq ---- A scarlet sunrise Wednesday heralded the resumption of violence and the apparent end of a cease-fire in this besieged city; Marines advancing a block or two into the city were attacked by heavily armed insurgents entrenched in a neighborhood just beyond U.S. lines.
The fighting quickly escalated from a firefight and an exchange of mortar fire to a series of air strikes and rocket attacks that waxed and waned for more than six hours.
U.S. tanks blasted away from protected positions between buildings, American helicopters skimmed the skyline firing missiles and rockets, and U.S. jets destroyed buildings with at least two 500-pound bombs.
Insurgents attacked American positions with ill-aimed mortar and rocket fire throughout the morning and, after a five-hour lull, attacked again with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades during the afternoon prayer time.
At least one Marine was seriously wounded in the first few minutes of the fighting, and spotters for the striking jets and helicopters said they believed a dozen or so insurgents were killed by bombs.
The day's violence seemed to return to levels that grabbed the world's attention two weeks ago.
Cease-fire appears moot
The fighting also seemed to demolish the pretense of a cease-fire that has kept thousands of Marines out of the heart of the city for more than 10 days while a thousand or more insurgents are thought to remain trapped inside.
Marine officials earlier this week gave Iraqi leaders until Friday to get insurgents to turn in their heavy weapons and turn over those who killed and mutilated four American security contractors on March 31.
Few seemed to hold out much hope the Americans' demands would be sufficiently met to dissuade the troops from launching a final assault on the city.
And Wednesday's six-hour battle proved that the Marines are still on the move and the insurgents are far from disarmed.
"I wonder what this means to the peace talks?" Capt. Kyle Stoddard, commander of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, wondered aloud Wednesday as both sides volleyed mortars over the no man's land between them that has provided a buffer for most of the last two weeks.
Stoddard and the other troops on the front line never received a definitive answer on the status of the talks.
By the end of the day, when gunfire again erupted and a nearby mortar blast shook his compound, Stoddard commented laconically, "No, it looks like we're still just talking."
Battle began at dawn
The first shots crackled at about 5:45 a.m. Wednesday as the 2nd Battalion's Echo Company moved south into the city to clear homes forward of their positions in the northwest corner of the city ---- the bloodied ground of some of the fiercest fighting that began on April 5.
Insurgents raked the advancing Marines with machine-gun fire, then fired rocket-propelled grenades that exploded against walls.
Echo's infantrymen answered with a barrage of small-arms fire and launched volleys of grenades whose explosions sent a thunderous roar reverberating across the city, shrouded beneath a compact ceiling of low clouds.
"These boys definitely want to come out and play this morning!" said Sgt. Warren Hardy, 26, of Colorado Springs, as he watched the red glow of a rocket-propelled grenade sail overhead and crash near a Marine position about 200 yards away.
As if set to accompany their counterattack, insurgents blared militant chants from a mosque set just behind the line of fighting.
A translator with the Marines said the singing called residents to "stand up and fight," "join the uprising," and "drive out the infidels."
The Marines broadcast their own message that resistance was futile and that Marine snipers ---- whom intelligence reports say have terrified the Iraqi fighters ---- held the insurgents in their sights.
Choppers under heavy fire
When an attacking Cobra helicopter took intense fire from the area of another mosque nearby, it fired a Hellfire missile, taking a bite out of the towering minaret.
The AH-1 Cobra and a UH-1 Huey returned again and again to rake the neighborhood with machine-gun fire, rockets and missiles.
When troops reported spotting armed men running back and forth into and out of buildings about 1,000 yards south of their lines, snipers worked methodically to pick off the runners while helicopters circled wide back onto targets marked by white phosphorous mortar rounds.
Air controllers guided in F-16 fighter jets from the clouds and pointed out an enemy stronghold with a laser beamed from a rooftop more than 1,000 meters away.
"We're going to have bombs on the deck in two minutes," warned an air controller from a rooftop where Marines were returning fire into the hollow windows of the sea of brick buildings where insurgents moved with ease.
At 9:20 a.m., the first 500-pound bomb slammed into a building near a rebel-held mosque where Marines said that for days they'd watched insurgents stockpiling what they thought were weapons.
Bombs level suspected strongholds
When tremendous clouds of smoke and dust cleared, the skyline was forever changed: the building vanished from sight.
"They seem to have an affinity for the area around the mosque," said Marine air controller Capt. Roy "Woody" Moore, of Fairfield, Conn., who helped guide the bombs onto their targets Wednesday.
"They returned to the spot a couple of days after we hit it and started running their operations out of there ---- so we hit it again," he said, adding that hours after the fight, his adrenaline still had him "wound up" tight. "Today they were shooting at us from there so they kinda made it easy."
Fighting may ensure offensive
The sound of gunfire and the nearby impact of mortars have become so commonplace at this edge of the embattled city that Marines barely flinched when projectiles hit buildings and crashed into two cemeteries fewer than 200 yards away.
While officially they have not received orders to move to take the city, Marines privately said the fighting Wednesday ensured that a final assault would be the only way to stamp out what they describe as the town's stubborn core of local insurgents and foreign fighters.
Marines cheered the explosions from their helicopters' missiles and taunted and cursed at enemy sniper fire. Many seemed glad the shooting had started again.
When the second 500-pound bomb exploded and sent slabs of concrete and chunks of walls hundreds of feet in the air in a huge fireball, the troops hollered like teenagers at a showing of the "Terminator."
It seemed to be a game that, when the city before them again went silent, the Marines appeared to be winning Wednesday.
From the above article:
Marine officials earlier this week gave Iraqi leaders until Friday to get insurgents to turn in their heavy weapons and turn over those who killed and mutilated four American security contractors on March 31.
From the NY Times:
"The top Marine Corps general in Iraq said an American attack against insurgents in Falluja was "inevitable" within days unless the militants there immediately surrendered their heavy weapons and ammunition, as called for in the agreement. Soldiers in Falluja said that demand was complied with only half-heartedly: A pickup truck was delivered only partly full of weapons that were largely rusty and unserviceable.
"This is an insult," one of the soldiers at the weapons delivery said."
It certainly seems like this weekend is the time to watch.
Actually more smaller bombs would probably work better and cause destruction over a wider area, if you can lay down the proper pattern.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Our Snipers Have You In Their Sights
You gotta love a message like that in the morning!!
AMEN to that! :-)
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