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thedrifter
03-23-03, 08:19 AM
March 22, 2003

3rd ID squadron meets stiff resistance near As Samawah
Iraqi troops believed to be using women, children as shields

By Sean D. Naylor
Times staff writer


AS SAMAWAH, Iraq — For the second day in a row U.S and British troops faced stiffer than expected resistance from Iraqi forces determined to slow, if not halt, the drive to Baghdad.
No where was this more evident than in As Samawah, where the 3rd Infantry Division’s 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment fought a day-long battle with Iraqi troops at a canal crossing near the southern bank of the Euphrates River.

By day’s end, the squadron had killed at least 40 Iraqi troops and was in control of the bridge. The Americans suffered no casualties but at nightfall they were still receiving fire and their advance was slowed.

Worse, there were signs the Iraqi troops were herding women and children to use as human shields.

The squadron’s mission had been to seize and hold two bridges over a canal that runs southwest out of this provincial capital of 75,000 people, 150 miles south of Baghdad.

In recent weeks, American and British aircraft had dropped tens of thousands of leaflets over the town urging the Iraqi army to surrender.

The squadron commander, Lt. Col. Terry Ferrell, had wanted to take the bridges by dawn, but after a grueling 120-mile sprint across the desert from the Kuwaiti border, his leading element, C Troop, arrived at the bridges just after first light.

The initial signs were promising.

Just before 7 a.m., C troop reported that as it drove up to the bridges it was being met by crowds of civilians waving white flags.

“They appear to be glad to see us,” C troop commander Capt. Jeff McCoy reported over the radio to Ferrell. Sitting in an M-3 Bradley fighting vehicle about six miles behind McCoy, Ferrell remained wary.

“I still think the threat’s there,” he told McCoy over the radio. “Stay sharp, son.”

Nevertheless Ferrell reported to the 3rd Infantry Division commander, Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, “The bridges are uncontested.”

Ferrell’s plan was to split his troops between the two bridges, which are about a mile apart, consolidate his squadron on the positions by 1 p.m., then cross the bridges and proceed on to his next objective.

But that plan was blown away in a hail of machine gun, mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire from Iraqi army regulars on the north side of one bridge.

At the westernmost of the bridges, the one farthest from town and code named Pistol, his men were shot at by Iraqi soldiers on foot. Two tanks and two Bradleys returned fire and crossed the bridge.

The Iraqis retreated to a military compound about 200 yards from the bridge and the tanks opened fire. The Americans watched about 80 Iraqi troops run from the compound and into the town about half a mile away. The Iraqis retreated behind a 15-foot tall earthen wall.

Another 20 Iraqi troops in the compound loaded a mortar onto a truck and escaped.

“That mortar’s been running around in the city all day creating havoc,” McCoy said.

When his tanks on the north side of the bridge started drawing mortar fire, McCoy pulled them back to the south side of the bridge. As he withdrew, an ambulance marked with the Red Crescent drew up to the compound. The Americans assumed it was there to treat wounded Iraqi soldiers. They were surprised when a dozen armed soldiers jumped out to reinforce the compound. The soldiers wore the black berets and green fatigues of the Iraq army.

Once his tanks and Bradleys were safely on the south side of the bridge, McCoy called in a salvo of 155 mm artillery fire from self-propelled Paladin howitzers.

“We hit something because there was a lot of secondary explosions,” McCoy said. “So we did a repeat.”

That reduced the fire from compound.

The Americans fired high-explosive tank rounds into the compound and kept up a stream of machine gun fire. Two OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed scout helicopters blasted the compound with rockets. The U.S. soldiers tried to call in close air support from A-10 Thunderbolts, but poor visibility kept the jets away.

In addition to the rocket attacks on the compound, the Kiowa Warriors searched the area for SA-60 anti-aircraft weapons.

Over one wooded area they received such a heavy hail of fire that the pilots, who were flying with their doors open, could smell the gun smoke, Ferrell said.

By the end of the day, McCoy’s troops had “physically counted” 40 dead Iraqi soldiers, including 20 they could see lying in the compound. He had also reoccupied the northern end of the bridge.

But Iraqi resistance continued. When Ferrell visited McCoy’s position at dusk, a bullet smacked against a humvee 15 feet from where he was sitting.

The Iraqi troops who had retreated behind the dirt berm into As Samawah took up positions in bunkers and houses and the firefight with Americans continued.

In an ominous development, in the late afternoon, “a bunch of guys” — McCoy said they were too far away to see if they were in military uniforms — “kept taking women and children and forcing them into a bunker,” McCoy said.

McCoy said his troops had received no fire from the bunker, but he thought the Iraqis were “probably doing it, so I don’t shoot at it.” He didn’t.

But there was some grudging respect. “They fought pretty hard,” McCoy said of the Iraqis.

“Didn’t anybody tell these guys they were supposed to surrender?” said Capt. Kevin Schweizer, a squadron staff officer.


Sempers,

Roger