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thedrifter
04-13-04, 06:40 AM
Marines take the fight to the streets
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification Number: 200441254630
Story by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen and Sgt. Colin Wyers



Fallujah, Iraq(April 7, 2004) -- Marines battling enemy forces in Iraq pushed into the city after several days of violent and deadly clashes.

Marines with Company E, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, established a forward base of operations inside Fallujah in order to battle back the foreign terrorists and former regime loyalists holed up in pockets throughout the city.

Outside of the walled compound, the distinctive "pop, pop, pop" of AK-47 assault rifles can be heard in the distance. On the rooftops, Marines with M-240G machine guns and M-16A4 service rifles open fire in response to hidden insurgents.

"Our mission is to get rid of all the insurgents in the city," said Staff Sgt. Pedro Marrufo, the platoon sergeant for 1st Platoon. "There's a lot of fighting going on, but my boys are still motivated. We've been successful."

Inside the building, Marines fresh off post sat in a parlor eating their Meals, Ready-to-Eat. The sounds of rap music from an American Forces Network radio station in Baghdad played in the background. Infantrymen smiled and laughed with shared jokes and stories, through the din and grime of several days of combat.

The Company E grunts first moved into Fallujah on April 6. The push into the urban area came after enemy forces from a nearby mosque targeted the Marines' defensive positions on the city's edge. By sunset, Marines moved their foothold into the city.

From there, the company mounted foot patrols on city streets through the city in the following days, clearing buildings suspected of housing insurgents. The first step, though, was eliminating enemy firing positions from the nearby mosque.

The mosque, as a holy site, was protected by Geneva Conventions accords. It lost its protected status, though, once enemy forces used the sanctuary to fire on advancing Marines.

Marines entered the grounds, sweeping through and anticipating a fight. They found it empty.

But even as the Marines cleared the grounds, enemy forces fired rocket-propelled grenades from outside the mosque. Marines returned fire, quieting the enemy positions.

In the surrounding neighborhood, Marines knocked in metal gates after sawing through them with a gas-powered chop saw. They swept through room-by-room, talking to residents through a translator. At times, the locals were just innocents, caught in the crossfire by an enemy mingling in their midst.

Other times, threats to Marines lurked behind every corner. Firing positions were mounted on rooftops as Marines took on insurgents moving through nearby alleyways.

Company E Marines finally settled on a group of abandoned houses as their base of operations. Searches of the structures turned up photographs of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein and his family, as well as documents and weapons used in attacks against Marines.

Marines in this section of Fallujah haven't sat idle behind walls, though. Foot-patrols through the surrounding neighborhoods continue, supporting M-1A1 tanks and directing fire from Air Force AC-130 Spectre gunships.

"We will win the hearts and minds of Fallujah by ridding the city of insurgents," said Cpl. Justin M. Rettenberger, a squad leader with 1st Platoon, from Hazelgreen, Wis. "We're doing that by patrolling the streets and killing the enemy."

The Marines have also been working with soldiers from the Army's Company A, 9th Psychological Operations Battalion, in order to communicate with the people around the area.

"We're making our presence known and letting them know we don't plan to leave anytime soon," Rettenberger explained. "We're being successful because we've had families greet us - so we are making an impact here."

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/20044126197/$file/echoco9lr.jpg

Infantrymen from 1st Platoon, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, look on from a rooftop as M-1A1 tanks from 1st Tank Battalion fire on buildings where enemy snipers took positions. The company entered Fallujah, Iraq April 6 to destroy enemy fighters who were attacking Coalition Forces from the city.
(Official USMC photo by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen) Photo by: Sgt. Jose E. Guillen

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/7A9A2E381FE334A185256E740035B21B?opendocument


Ellie

thedrifter
04-13-04, 09:32 AM
U.S. commander requests more troops for Iraq

By MATTHEW SCHOFIELD and DREW BROWN

Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Monday that he'd requested two more brigades of troops, perhaps as many as 14,000 soldiers, to help quell the worst outbreak of fighting in Iraq since the American-led occupation began more than a year ago.

Evidence mounted Monday that coalition forces were losing control of the roads in Iraq as another supply convoy was set ablaze and officials announced that nine more Americans were missing.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said 70 Americans and roughly 700 Iraqis had died since April 1, making the past 12 days the deadliest of the war. The military reported Monday that three Marines near Fallujah and a soldier in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, were killed Sunday, even as a cease-fire in the embattled city generally held.

In an e-mail, a defense contractor who asked not to be named said the situation was getting worse, and that while the coalition controlled pockets within Iraq, the rebels "own the roads."

Gen. John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, which handles operations in the Middle East, refused to say in a teleconference Monday how many more troops would be needed in Iraq or how long they would stay. He said he was requesting "a strong, mobile combat-arms capability" of "two brigades' worth of combat power, if not more." A mechanized combat brigade generally numbers anywhere from 5,000 to 7,000 troops.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the two additional brigades would come from fresh units in the United States or forces already in Iraq and Kuwait but scheduled to come home, senior defense officials said. Abizaid said he was working out the details of the request with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and he refused to say which units were under consideration.

Seven American contract workers and two American soldiers were missing after their convoy came under attack Friday. Seven Chinese were released Monday after a day of captivity followed their entry into the country from Jordan. Three Japanese hostages captured Thursday weren't released, contrary to a Japanese news report Sunday, and their fate remained uncertain throughout the day.

The latest kidnappings raised to more than 40 the people taken in the past week, from 12 countries.

Contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, confirmed that seven of its employees were missing, including Thomas Hamill, 42, who's known to be kidnapped. The company said it was continuing to send several hundred employees a week to Kuwait and Iraq.

Also on Monday, an Iraqi police car in Baqouba hit a homemade bomb. An internal coalition security memo noted that an Apache helicopter shot down Sunday was the seventh aircraft shot down or sustaining "effective small-arms fire in the last four days," including five in Baghdad. Eight convoy trucks have been destroyed since Sunday in the capital on the road to Baghdad International Airport.

Kimmitt noted that the situation in Iraq wasn't "business as usual."

"There are people out there taking hostages, kidnapping people," he said. "But we are restoring a tremendous amount of order."

He added that the number of coalition engagements with the enemy last week was two or three times above normal and the coalition was concerned over the enemy's ability to strike convoys.

Still, President Bush said in a news conference in Texas that the situation in Iraq was improving, "after a bad week."

The cease-fire in Fallujah, the site of much of the most intense fighting last week, seemed to hold for a third day. The Marines added another battalion of infantry Sunday, and Monday there were 2,000 Marines in and around the city, taking occasional drive-by fire.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of American forces in Iraq, said in the teleconference that U.S. forces had retaken Kut and Nasiriyah in southern Iraq. He acknowledged that Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr's militia still controlled Najaf and parts of Karbala - both Shiite spiritual centers - though he said coalition forces had cordoned off both cities in preparation for moving against Sadr, who is believed to be in Najaf.

"The mission of the U.S. forces is to kill or capture Muqtada al Sadr. That's our mission," he said.

Some police in Najaf and Karbala returned to work Monday, after Sadr apparently ordered his followers to withdraw from government buildings in those cities.

Abizaid acknowledged that some American-trained Iraqi security forces had defected during the weeklong uprising and others had refused to fight.

"These numbers are not large but they are troubling to us, and clearly we've got to work on the Iraqi security forces," he said.

With less than three months to go before the scheduled June 30 transfer of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government, the poor showing of Iraqi forces calls into question how well they will be prepared to handle security after the hand-over and how long a large U.S. presence in Iraq will be needed.

Coalition Provisional Authority Spokesman Dan Senor praised the work of the Iraqi Governing Council in recent days, specifically for asserting itself and negotiating for a cease-fire in Fallujah. He said its actions were even more important in this difficult period.

Senor said militia groups such as Sadr's Mahdi Army were using "mob violence" before the June 30 return of sovereignty date to try to shape Iraq's political future.

"It is critical that we confront them now rather than after June 30th," he said. "It is critical that we cleanse the body politic of the poison that remains here after 35 years of Saddam Hussein's totalitarian rule."

(Schofield reported from Baghdad, Brown from Washington. Patrick Peterson in Camp Fallujah, Iraq, and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.)

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/8415647.htm?1c


Ellie

thedrifter
04-13-04, 05:55 PM
April 13, 2004

Troops push to Najaf; helicopter shot down

By Denis D. Gray
Associated Press


NAJAF, Iraq — A 2,500-strong U.S. force, backed by tanks and artillery, pushed to the outskirts of the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Tuesday for a showdown with a radical cleric. Near Fallujah, a U.S. military helicopter crashed, and an insurgent said he shot it down with a rocket-propelled grenade.
The Marines confirmed a Sikorsky H-53 helicopter was down, although there was no immediate word on casualties.

An Associated Press reporter saw it burning 12 miles east of Fallujah in the village of Zawbaa. U.S. troops trying to reach the downed aircraft were attacked by gunmen, the reporter said. Witnesses said four U.S. service members were shot by insurgents.

One of about a dozen insurgents near the site said he shot the chopper down with a rocket-propelled grenade, although he and the others could not get close enough to the wreckage to search for victims.

On Monday, meanwhile, Gen. John Abizaid, the top commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, said he has asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to adjust the U.S. troop rotation into and out of Iraq this spring so that U.S. commanders can have the use of perhaps 10,000 more soldiers than they otherwise would have.

On the way to Najaf, the U.S. force’s 80-vehicle convoy was ambushed Monday night by gunmen firing small arms and setting of roadside bombs north of the city. One soldier was killed and an American civilian contractor was wounded, officers in the convoy said.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, said their mission was to “capture or kill” radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Units set up a cordon on approaches to the city, barring militiamen from leaving.

Iraqi leaders launched hurried negotiations aimed at averting a U.S. assault on the city, site of the holiest Shiite site, the Imam Ali Shrine.

The sons of Iraq’s three grand ayatollahs — including the most powerful one, Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani — met al-Sadr Monday night in his Najaf office and assured him of their opposition to any U.S. strike.

“They agreed not to allow any hostile act against Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr and the city of Najaf,” said a person at the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The delegation also was reportedly trying to work out a compromise to prevent a U.S. attack.

Col. Dana J.H. Pittard, the commander of the force, said his troops were aware that a “single shot in Najaf” by U.S. service members could outrage Iraq’s powerful Shiite majority.

“Look at this as the Shiite Vatican,” Pittard said before the deployment.

The grand ayatollahs — older, moderate leaders with immense influence among Shiites — have long kept the young, fiercely anti-American al-Sadr at arm’s length. The dispatch of the delegation reflected the eagerness to avoid bloodshed in Najaf and the new influence that the uprising by the al-Mahdi Army’s militia has brought al-Sadr.

In a concession to American demands, al-Sadr ordered his militiamen out of police stations and government buildings in Najaf and the nearby cities of Karbala and Kufa. Police were back in their stations and on patrols, while al-Sadr black-garbed gunmen largely stayed out of sight.

But the militia rebuffed a U.S. demand to disband.

Earlier Tuesday, al-Sadr militiamen based in the main mosque in the nearby city of Kufa opened fire on a passing patrol of Spanish forces, prompting a short gunbattle.

Overnight, a mortar was fired at the Spanish base between Kufa and Najaf, and Spanish forces repelled an attack on a nearby water distillation plant.

While a cease-fire has kept Fallujah relatively calm for four days, the area between the besieged city and Baghdad has seen heavy clashes by insurgents and U.S. forces. An Apache helicopter was shot down Sunday in nearby Abu Ghraib, killing its two crewmembers.

Before Tuesday’s helicopter crash, a U.S. convoy was attacked near the same site, and two Humvees and a truck were burning, said witnesses, who also reported U.S. casualties.

The U.S. military said about 70 Americans and 700 insurgents had been killed this month, the bloodiest since the fall of Baghdad a year ago with U.S.-led forces fighting on three fronts: against Sunni insurgents in Fallujah, Shiite militiamen in the south and gunmen in Baghdad and on its outskirts.

More than 600 Iraqis have been killed in Fallujah since the siege began on April 5, said the head of the city hospital, Rafie al-Issawi. Most of the dead registered at hospitals and clinics were women, children and elderly, he said.

In all, about 880 Iraqis have been killed in the violence, according to an AP count based on statements by Iraqi hospital officials, U.S. military statements and Iraqi police.

Another toll from the week’s violence: more than 40 foreigners reportedly were taken hostage by insurgents, although a dozen had been released Sunday and Monday. Those still believed held included three Japanese and truck driver Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss., whose captors had threatened to kill them.

Four Italians working as private guards for DTS Security, a U.S. company, were reported missing in Iraq, the ANSA news agency quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying Tuesday. An Arab satellite TV network said the four were kidnapped by insurgents near Fallujah and showed video of them in a room surrounded by gunmen wearing Arab headscarves.

Eight Ukrainian and Russian employees of a Russian energy company who were kidnapped in Baghdad were freed Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Seven Chinese were freed Monday after being held for a day, China’s official news agency said. Two reportedly were injured.

Two U.S. soldiers and seven employees of a U.S. contractor, including Hamill, were missing after an attack Friday on a convoy west of Baghdad, Sanchez said.

The recent burst of violence has exposed weaknesses in Iraq’s U.S.-trained security forces. A battalion of the Iraqi army refused to fight in Fallujah, Sanchez said. And some police defected to al-Sadr’s forces, Abizaid said.

In an effort to toughen the Iraqi forces, Abizaid said the U.S. military will reach out to former senior members of Saddam Hussein’s disbanded army — a reversal in strategy. The military has tried to avoid relying on top officials from the ousted regime.

“It’s ... very clear that we’ve got to get more senior Iraqis involved — former military types involved in the security forces,” he said. “In the next couple of days, you’ll see a large number of senior officers being appointed to key positions in the ministry of defense and the Iraqi joint staff and in Iraqi field commands.”


AP correspondents Abdul Hussein Yousef in Najaf and Abdul-Qader Saadi in Fallujah contributed to this report.


http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2816671.php


Ellie

thedrifter
04-13-04, 08:25 PM
Fallujah Stable, 'Robust' Manhunt for Zarqawi Under Way
By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2004 -- The security situation in Fallujah, Iraq, remains stable, and coalition forces there are engaged in a "robust hunt" for al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, believed to be in or near the city, coalition officials said today.

"We believe right now Fallujah to be the hotbed for foreign fighters who are in Iraq, in which we include Zarqawi," senior coalition spokesman Dan Senor told reporters in Baghdad today. He would not provide details on how the manhunt is being pursued.

Zarqawi, a Jordanian national, has a $10 million bounty on his head. He is a convicted terrorist, and has claimed responsibility for numerous acts of terrorism in Iraq. He is believed to be the author of an intercepted letter intended for the highest levels of al Qaeda leadership. The letter provides a blueprint for inciting civil war and promulgating disorder in Iraq to derail progress toward Iraqi sovereignty.

Marines captured two known terrorists and three individuals suspected of terrorist activity, said Combined Joint Task Force 7 news release today. All were captured in a coordinated raid near Kharma, a small town northeast of Fallujah. Marines recovered four AK-47 rifles, two shotguns and three other small arms in the seizure, along with four AK-47 magazines and 3,000 rounds.

In other action, Marines near Kharma came under intense fire from about 100 enemy combatants located in buildings on the outskirts of town, according to the release. The Marines maneuvered, returned fire and called artillery and close-air support to destroy the enemy.

Also, Marines in the western reaches of Anbar province, near the Syrian border, discovered two sets of improvised explosive devices. One set was a series of four IEDs buried in dirt mounds along a road; the other was constructed of two 155 mm artillery rounds. Engineers and explosive ordinance disposal technicians cleared both sets, with no explosions or casualties.

A 1st Infantry Division soldier was killed and another soldier and civilian contractor were wounded in an improvised explosive device attack on their convoy south of Baghdad today, another CJTF 7 release said today. The wounded were evacuated to a military medical facility near Najaf and were reported to in stable condition. Their names are being withheld until their families are notified.

Despite the latest casualty, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said violence in most cities throughout Iraq has quieted, and the area of operations for coalition forces remains stable. Kimmitt is deputy operations director for CJTF 7.

Kimmitt provided details of more operations and events in Iraq:

In the north, government buildings and infrastructure are secure, and facility protection service and Iraqi security forces are maintaining order. And the situation remains stable in Mosul after municipal leaders made televised addresses to discuss the importance of working with Iraqi security forces and maintaining order.

A coalition base in the city was attacked April 11 with indirect fire, but there were no casualties or damage to equipment.

In Tall Afar, the Iraqi armed forces base camp was attacked by indirect fire April 10, but no casualties were reported.

The north-central zone of operations, where coalition forces remain on the offensive, has seen a decrease in anti-coalition attacks over the past week. However, Kimmitt said, coalition military leaders expect an increase in anti- coalition activity, with demonstrations in a number of cities planned.

Five attacks were reported in Tikrit, and two more in Tuz. An improvised explosive device attack April 12 wounded two coalition soldiers. Three more attacks were reported in Samara, and four in Baqubah.

In Baghdad, the 1st Calvary Division is moving against radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia and other extremist forces, Kimmitt said. During intelligence-based raids overnight, the division captured 16 suspects. Today, coalition forces detained 29 more suspects and confiscated numerous arms and ammunition.

Kimmitt said Hazim al-Araji, a spokesman for Sadr, was detained today for questioning and later released. After questioning, Araji was determined to have "no direct involvement in violent acts in Iraq, and is not viewed as an imminent threat to security," he said. "He was released at 5:50 p.m. today."

A CJTF 7 news release reported that 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, soldiers discovered 45 150-pound bombs near Kirkuk today. The site was secured and an explosive ordnance disposal team was sent to assess the cache.

Senor said several individuals have approached coalition officials seeking a peaceful resolution to the issue of Sadr's militia; however, he added the coalition's position is very clear.

"We respect and appreciate their good intentions; we too want to minimize the bloodshed. But we have a few principles that are very clear: The rule of law must prevail in Iraq. There is no role for illegal militias and illegal mobs and mob violence. There is no role for individual organizations that take control of government properties," Senor said.

In the Anbar province, Marine forces continue offensive operations, except in Fallujah, where a fragile cease-fire is in effect.

Kimmitt said that earlier this morning in the city, a helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing due to ground fire. "The attack resulted in three wounded, and a quick-reaction force secured the crew." Kimmitt said the helicopter was destroyed to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

In Ramadi and the central-south zone of operations, the situation is relatively stable, and Kimmitt voiced relief that there have been no attacks in Karbala, where millions of religious pilgrims came for the celebration of al-Arbaeen.

Security also is improving in the city of Kut, where there has been no resistance against coalition forces in the city, and the coalition force there has had freedom of movement, Kimmitt said. The deputy CPA administrator and 16 staff members returned to their offices there, he added, and are expected to be fully operational in the near future.

He said intelligence raids in the city led to the arrest of six suspects. Ukrainian soldiers, meanwhile, have "re-assumed responsibility" for two bridges.

Kimmitt also reported that the cities of Diwaniyah and Najaf are stable, although anti-coalition forces continue to conduct harassing attacks on coalition base camps at night.

In addition, the Multinational Division Southeast too is calm. Kimmitt said only one attack on coalition forces took place over the past 24 hours, and there were no attacks in Amarah, Basra, Nasiriyah and Samawa during that same period. A British Warrior fighting vehicle was engaged by what was believed to be a rocket-propelled grenade followed by small-arms fire. There were no casualties in either attack.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2004/n04132004_200404135.html


Ellie