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| Iraq | |
| U.S. Army Battles in Streets of Hindiyah | |
| 2003-03-31 | |
| Trading fire with Iraqis hidden behind brick walls and hedges, U.S. Army forces spearheading the drive on Baghdad battled their way into Hindiyah, 50 miles from the capital Monday and captured dozens of members of Saddam Hussein's vaunted Republican Guard. The street-by-street fighting at the key Euphrates River crossing was the war's closest known battle to Baghdad. At least 35 Iraqi troops were reported killed and dozens captured in the fighting. The prisoners told the Americans they belonged to the guard's Nebuchadnezzar Brigade, based in Saddam's home area of Tikrit, and they had the guard's triangular insignia. One U.S. soldier was wounded in the leg. An armored unit of the 3rd Infantry Division rolled into the town of 80,000 at dawn and was met quickly by small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades from Iraqis hiding behind hedges and brick walls. On the southeast side of a 200-yard concrete and steel bridge across the dark-green Euphrates, the U.S. soldiers took up positions in abandoned bunkers and sandbags and traded fire with Iraqis on the other side. As the Americans began to cross the bridge, Iraqi troops tried to block it with civilian cars. A dark blue car attempted to race across the bridge toward U.S. forces but was hit with heavy machine gun fire, which stopped it in the middle. Iraqi forces in civilian clothes with blue or red kaffiyahs wrapped around their heads and faces scrambled between buildings, trying to sneak up on U.S. troops. Americans in tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles fired back with heavy machine guns and 25mm cannon. Leading to the bridge was a broad boulevard with wide sidewalks dotted with cafes. Portraits of Saddam had been erected along the street every 100 yards. "This must have been important to him (Saddam) to send down one of his Republican Guard brigades," said U.S. brigade commander Col. David Perkins. Looking across the river, he noted that Iraqis were firing rocket-propelled grenades from the reeds, and told a company commander: "Let's put some artillery in there." Within minutes, 155mm artillery shells whistled overhead, falling along the far side of the river, sending plumes of water into the air. In another part of the city, a tank company attacked a bunker and killed 20 Iraqi troops and captured a dozen more in a different part of the city, according to reports from the field. At the Hindiyah police station, U.S. soldiers used shotguns to open a locked door and stormed the building. Intelligence officers rifled through the desks. Troops found maps with fighting positions marked out and organizational charts. Three Iraqi men were in the station's jail cells. They told U.S. soldiers they had not eaten for three days. A company commander gave them field rations, and the soldiers looked for the keys to the cells. At one point, U.S. soldiers spotted an elderly woman in black chador, lying wounded in the middle of the bridge. Using his Bradley fighting vehicle for cover, company commander Capt. Chris Carter of Watkinsville, Ga., ran out to center of the bridge, saw that she needed urgent help and called for an armored ambulance to take her to an aid station. He used his M-16 rifle to provide cover while the medics put her on a stretcher. Carter then returned to the U.S. side of the bridge.
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| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Capt. Chris Carter. Hero. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-04-01 07:14:21 |