Sparrowhawk
03-29-03, 09:31 PM
The dead Iraqui's now number into the thousands.....
http://www.msnbc.com/news/1843949.jpg
Town becomes horrific battleground
Hundreds of Iraqis reportedly die in ‘chaos you cannot imagine’
TV footage shows a dead Iraqi fighter on a bridge at Al Kifl as a U.S. Army soldier crosses it following heavy fighting.
AL KIFL, Iraq, March 29 — The suicide bombing that killed four U.S. soldiers Saturday happened just outside a dusty town that saw hundreds of Iraqis literally drive themselves into U.S. positions during a four-day battle that started with a swirling sandstorm and ended with nightmarish scenes.
WHEN U.S. tanks from the 3rd Mechanized Infantry first rumbled into this town on the Euphrates river on Wednesday, 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 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 in this town about 80 miles south of Baghdad.
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.
“All you can see is burned out vehicles,” NBC’s Dana Lewis reported after entering the town Saturday with troops from the 101st Airborne Division, which relieved the 3rd Mechanized Infantry.
A U.S. armored vehicle makes its way through Al Kifl, the town where a car bomber killed four U.S. soldiers. Fighting for the town has been intense in the last few days.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/1843780.jpg
‘CHAOS LIKE YOU CANNOT IMAGINE’
In the opening battle, 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 neighbors 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.”
Sgt. Mark Redmond told the New York Times that he wouldn’t call the Iraqi strategy bravery. “I’d call it stupidity,” he said. “We value a soldier’s life so much more than they do. I mean, an AK-47 isn’t going to do nothing against a Bradley (fighting vehicle). I’d love to know what Saddam is telling his people.”
Col. Joe Anderson of the 101st Airborne said he suspected many were forced to fight by Saddam loyalists. “They say do this for us or die,” he said.
In any case, the guerilla strategy might have slowed the U.S. forces, but only at an extremely high cost.
Lewis reported that commanders here say 1,200 Iraqis were killed trying to ram checkpoints or firing at U.S. soldiers.
Officers say just one U.S. soldier has died.
Redmond, who joined the Army three years ago at 23 after moving from job to job in his hometown near Gainesville, Fla., said he didn’t feel like a hero.
“When I go home, people will want to treat me like a hero, but I’m not,” he told the Times. “I’m a Christian man. If I have to kill the other guy, I will, but it doesn’t make me a hero. I just want to go home to my wife and kids.”
The main danger in the area was now posed by an artillery unit about 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 Anderson.
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.
‘IT’S BEEN GOING ON AND ON’
Lewis said the streets are lined with “pickup trucks that have come under fire by tanks because they keep driving themselves at these barricades that American soldiers have set up.”
Even Saturday, mortar and small arms fire continued.
“All we’ve been hearing since I’ve been in this town here is tank fire, in return of mortar fire, in return of small weapons fire,” Lewis said. “It’s been going on and on.” At one point a mortar shell exploded just 50 feet from his position.
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.
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.
A brigade chaplain, Maj. Mark Nordstrom, told the New York Times that he had spent hours counseling troops returning from Kifl. “We’re in the thousands now that were killed in the last few days,” he said. “Nothing prepares you to kill another human being. Nothing prepares you to use a machine gun to cut someone in two.”
Reuters contributed to this story.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/892606.asp?0cv=CA01
http://www.msnbc.com/news/1843949.jpg
Town becomes horrific battleground
Hundreds of Iraqis reportedly die in ‘chaos you cannot imagine’
TV footage shows a dead Iraqi fighter on a bridge at Al Kifl as a U.S. Army soldier crosses it following heavy fighting.
AL KIFL, Iraq, March 29 — The suicide bombing that killed four U.S. soldiers Saturday happened just outside a dusty town that saw hundreds of Iraqis literally drive themselves into U.S. positions during a four-day battle that started with a swirling sandstorm and ended with nightmarish scenes.
WHEN U.S. tanks from the 3rd Mechanized Infantry first rumbled into this town on the Euphrates river on Wednesday, 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 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 in this town about 80 miles south of Baghdad.
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.
“All you can see is burned out vehicles,” NBC’s Dana Lewis reported after entering the town Saturday with troops from the 101st Airborne Division, which relieved the 3rd Mechanized Infantry.
A U.S. armored vehicle makes its way through Al Kifl, the town where a car bomber killed four U.S. soldiers. Fighting for the town has been intense in the last few days.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/1843780.jpg
‘CHAOS LIKE YOU CANNOT IMAGINE’
In the opening battle, 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 neighbors 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.”
Sgt. Mark Redmond told the New York Times that he wouldn’t call the Iraqi strategy bravery. “I’d call it stupidity,” he said. “We value a soldier’s life so much more than they do. I mean, an AK-47 isn’t going to do nothing against a Bradley (fighting vehicle). I’d love to know what Saddam is telling his people.”
Col. Joe Anderson of the 101st Airborne said he suspected many were forced to fight by Saddam loyalists. “They say do this for us or die,” he said.
In any case, the guerilla strategy might have slowed the U.S. forces, but only at an extremely high cost.
Lewis reported that commanders here say 1,200 Iraqis were killed trying to ram checkpoints or firing at U.S. soldiers.
Officers say just one U.S. soldier has died.
Redmond, who joined the Army three years ago at 23 after moving from job to job in his hometown near Gainesville, Fla., said he didn’t feel like a hero.
“When I go home, people will want to treat me like a hero, but I’m not,” he told the Times. “I’m a Christian man. If I have to kill the other guy, I will, but it doesn’t make me a hero. I just want to go home to my wife and kids.”
The main danger in the area was now posed by an artillery unit about 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 Anderson.
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.
‘IT’S BEEN GOING ON AND ON’
Lewis said the streets are lined with “pickup trucks that have come under fire by tanks because they keep driving themselves at these barricades that American soldiers have set up.”
Even Saturday, mortar and small arms fire continued.
“All we’ve been hearing since I’ve been in this town here is tank fire, in return of mortar fire, in return of small weapons fire,” Lewis said. “It’s been going on and on.” At one point a mortar shell exploded just 50 feet from his position.
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.
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.
A brigade chaplain, Maj. Mark Nordstrom, told the New York Times that he had spent hours counseling troops returning from Kifl. “We’re in the thousands now that were killed in the last few days,” he said. “Nothing prepares you to kill another human being. Nothing prepares you to use a machine gun to cut someone in two.”
Reuters contributed to this story.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/892606.asp?0cv=CA01