thedrifter
03-28-03, 03:16 PM
Mar 28, 3:59 PM EST
Marines Settle Into Longer War Campaign
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press Writer
SOUTH-CENTRAL IRAQ (AP) -- Convoys bearing tens of thousands of Marines bound for Baghdad are taking days to crawl a few miles of central Iraq's "Ambush Alley" - so dubbed for the rocket-propelled grenade and mortar attacks along the way.
Instead of barreling up to the big fight at Baghdad, they are seeking out their opponent here.
Marines who recently found an abandoned Iraqi mortar nest by the side of the road, with helmets strewn on the ground and tea kettle still at the ready, left the mortars there - instead of collecting them and moving on, as they might have in past days.
When three Iraqi fighters returned to the mortars, Marines lying in wait killed them.
"There's no magic solution to it. It's just the hard, grinding work of patrols," Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy, commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment, said of the ambush-style fighting. "Blue-collar warfare."
Instead of the mass Iraqi surrenders many had anticipated, the Marines have met repeated firefights with a surprisingly fierce opponent - and countless Iraqi deserters, straggling on the roads.
Firefights increasingly pop up to the front, rear and sides of the route north, bottlenecking advancing U.S. forces for hours or days while artillery, infantry and rocket- and bomb-lobbing Cobra attack helicopters and F-18 fighter jets try to clear the route. Sandstorms have slowed progress too.
Going slow, the Marines have changed tactics.
"I thought the first fight was going to be tank on tank in open desert," said Gunnery Sgt. Troy Yates of Sierra Vista, Ariz., who instead found himself opening fire on Iraqi tanks and machine-gun bearing infantry in towns in the south, with Iraqi families in the streets looking on.
"I didn't think it would ever be that close."
A tank commander traveling with the Marine 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment, Yates sprawled Friday on top of his tank watching two crew members play chess.
His crew, and those around him, were stopped in the same mud field for 20 hours and counting, after Marines up front ran into attack Thursday from Iraqis hiding in a cement plant and fields just ahead.
All along the route, Marine tanks swing turrets toward open fields, while foot patrols climb the dirt berms that line Iraqi fields and probe for attackers.
At midweek, attackers on "Ambush Alley" swung up over one such berm and opened fire, killing a Marine corpsman in a convoy.
Marines expect to be dealing with the attackers - one by one - until the United States deals with its bigger problem: Saddam Hussein.
"I've got no doubt these guys up here are fighting under duress," McCoy said, gesturing up the road, north. "An 'If you surrender we'll kill your family' type of thing."
"Until they hear the regime is down and out and Saddam's gone or dead, they're going to resist."
For now, the new slow-go fighting is letting fuel and gear catch up with the Marines.
On Friday, Marines hauled off jerry cans filled with newly arrived water, and armfuls of newly restocked 12-pack boxes of meals-ready-to-eat rations.
They sidled tanks, Humvees and trucks up to newly arrived fuel trucks - although some more enterprising Marines were seen in what Marines said were fuel trucks captured from Iraqi forces.
After a hard drive up from the south with only 45 minutes or an hour of rest a day, they tried to catch up on sleep.
The big fight still will be in Baghdad, they figure. Getting it done there, they say, is their ticket home.
"We are going to win, it's inevitable," Yates said, after three fights that left outdated, outgunned Iraqi tanks smoking and black, and Iraqi dead in the streets. "If this is 'intense resistance,' it's OK."
Sempers,
Roger
Marines Settle Into Longer War Campaign
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press Writer
SOUTH-CENTRAL IRAQ (AP) -- Convoys bearing tens of thousands of Marines bound for Baghdad are taking days to crawl a few miles of central Iraq's "Ambush Alley" - so dubbed for the rocket-propelled grenade and mortar attacks along the way.
Instead of barreling up to the big fight at Baghdad, they are seeking out their opponent here.
Marines who recently found an abandoned Iraqi mortar nest by the side of the road, with helmets strewn on the ground and tea kettle still at the ready, left the mortars there - instead of collecting them and moving on, as they might have in past days.
When three Iraqi fighters returned to the mortars, Marines lying in wait killed them.
"There's no magic solution to it. It's just the hard, grinding work of patrols," Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy, commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment, said of the ambush-style fighting. "Blue-collar warfare."
Instead of the mass Iraqi surrenders many had anticipated, the Marines have met repeated firefights with a surprisingly fierce opponent - and countless Iraqi deserters, straggling on the roads.
Firefights increasingly pop up to the front, rear and sides of the route north, bottlenecking advancing U.S. forces for hours or days while artillery, infantry and rocket- and bomb-lobbing Cobra attack helicopters and F-18 fighter jets try to clear the route. Sandstorms have slowed progress too.
Going slow, the Marines have changed tactics.
"I thought the first fight was going to be tank on tank in open desert," said Gunnery Sgt. Troy Yates of Sierra Vista, Ariz., who instead found himself opening fire on Iraqi tanks and machine-gun bearing infantry in towns in the south, with Iraqi families in the streets looking on.
"I didn't think it would ever be that close."
A tank commander traveling with the Marine 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment, Yates sprawled Friday on top of his tank watching two crew members play chess.
His crew, and those around him, were stopped in the same mud field for 20 hours and counting, after Marines up front ran into attack Thursday from Iraqis hiding in a cement plant and fields just ahead.
All along the route, Marine tanks swing turrets toward open fields, while foot patrols climb the dirt berms that line Iraqi fields and probe for attackers.
At midweek, attackers on "Ambush Alley" swung up over one such berm and opened fire, killing a Marine corpsman in a convoy.
Marines expect to be dealing with the attackers - one by one - until the United States deals with its bigger problem: Saddam Hussein.
"I've got no doubt these guys up here are fighting under duress," McCoy said, gesturing up the road, north. "An 'If you surrender we'll kill your family' type of thing."
"Until they hear the regime is down and out and Saddam's gone or dead, they're going to resist."
For now, the new slow-go fighting is letting fuel and gear catch up with the Marines.
On Friday, Marines hauled off jerry cans filled with newly arrived water, and armfuls of newly restocked 12-pack boxes of meals-ready-to-eat rations.
They sidled tanks, Humvees and trucks up to newly arrived fuel trucks - although some more enterprising Marines were seen in what Marines said were fuel trucks captured from Iraqi forces.
After a hard drive up from the south with only 45 minutes or an hour of rest a day, they tried to catch up on sleep.
The big fight still will be in Baghdad, they figure. Getting it done there, they say, is their ticket home.
"We are going to win, it's inevitable," Yates said, after three fights that left outdated, outgunned Iraqi tanks smoking and black, and Iraqi dead in the streets. "If this is 'intense resistance,' it's OK."
Sempers,
Roger