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.

[P8riot]

Kind sounds like the "Mail Bouy Watches" we had the new kids stand when I was in the Navy. LOL!

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

human toothpaste. ew.

[tomahawk]

It's just another Reuters reporter on the job, spreading lies and disinformation, trying to make the United States look bad.

A truly pathetic media organization.

[Redcloak]

I think that the reporter is confusing the muzzle blast in a somewhat confined space for the effects of the round.

[expatpat]

I suspect that there's a lot of hooey here. HOWEVER, as you know a high-velocity (supersonic) object creates a shock wave. The front part of the shock wave is an over-pressure, the last part is an under-pressure (vacuum).

[Calamari]

....took to canoes, rowing down the river and trying to fix explosives to the main bridge.....

Iraqi Navy?

[Blood of Tyrants]

And people were wondering why the DoD ordered 72,000 boby bags.

[Blood of Tyrants]

And people were wondering why the DoD ordered 72,000 body bags.

[cookcounty]

Vaccuum.......

I have a hunch there are some soldiers getting a kick out of "funnin' " the gullible, ignorant journalists.

[Straight Vermonter]

For further illumination on the subject.

That is the sabot emerging from the shell.

[guitfiddlist]

I suspect the "vacuum" hauling all those guerillas out was more like, "Holy Mecca! I'm getting the hay outta here!"

[cookcounty]

" a DU shell in a direct hit.....

Now, does "DU" stand for "Depleted Underground?"

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

...the only military success enjoyed by the Arabs was against the Turks in World War II--and that was ONLY because a young English Officer, T. E. Lawrence, was in command....These people have no more idea how to fight than the Plains Indians in the Nineteenth Century American West, who thought hitting a horse-soldier with a coup stick was the ultimate in bravery--then he got shot right off his horse.

Agreed. Their apogee was reached during the Abbisad Caliphate (700-900 AD). Their decline since then has been truly remarkable -- they have fallen far more than did Roman civilization.

[guitfiddlist]

Now, does "DU" stand for "Depleted Underground?"

Both refer to incredibly dense things.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

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

Holy Shi'ite! That's incredible. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of scum-bags.

[gcruse]

Veterans of Grand Theft Auto III will recognize this scene.

[Zack Nguyen]

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.

Thta is amazing, but I don't understand. Could someone more educated explain this?

[WKB]

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.

I hope there is video of this!!

[jellybean]

Now that is a novel battle tactic!

It's called the 'Hoover Maneuver' ;)

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Now that's a heavy duty vacuum!!!

LOL! New secret weapon: Orek vacuum cleaner with the anti-personnel attachment!