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| Iraq |
| Plugging Insurgents in Al Qaim |
| 2005-10-27 |
| Original Arab News Title: Plugging Leaks in Iraq Border Town Pfeh. Nestled on the roof of a house being built here, a US Marine sniper team scouts for insurgents they say slip across the Syrian border to take pot shots, while the population trickles back into town. Shots ring out and bullets whistle over the US troops shielded by waist-high walls and blankets that mask their movements. A few smack into the house and an officer peering through binoculars points in the direction of the firing, a block of houses with blue doors. Three mortar rounds fired from a few kilometers away slam into the houses, throwing up clouds of white dust, while heavy machine guns from US armored vehicles stationed in the streets pound the target. âThere is a good mix of both insurgents and foreign fighters,â comments Lt. Col. Julian Alford, commander of the 3rd Regiment, 6th Marine Battalion. âThey infiltrate at night and fire at us. They keep on the move.â During an inspection of his troops, Alford points with his cigar toward Syria, about 15 kilometers to the west. âThey come across the border.â Capt. Brendan Heaterman, in charge of Kilo company which overlooks Al-Qaim, says âif they shoot at us, I donât care where they are or coming from â we will kill them.â According to Col. Stephen Davis: âWe kill an average of 10 a day for the last 20 days. But they keep coming and keep doing the same stupid things.â A Marine looks from behind sandbags and through bullet-proof windows at rooftops on the east side of the city, where white flags fly amid laundry that has been hung out to dry. A gutted car lies in the street and an orange and white taxi that was crushed by a tank has been recycled into a barricade, while stray dogs scavenge for something to fill their bony bodies. âWe are seeing people coming back,â Alford says, but only to the eastern side of the city of 100,000 people. The western half closer to the Syrian border is constantly infiltrated. A few cars circulate in the city with white flags attached to their radio antennas. When a US convoy approaches, they pull over to the side of the road. Checkpoints guard the road southeast from Al-Qaim toward the insurgent strongholds of Ramadi and Fallujah, and are manned by Marines, and soldiers of the First Iraqi Brigade. This was via AFP. I'll wager such honest talk will be spun to death by most outlets. |
| Posted by:.com |
| #5 Then change the ROEs. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-10-27 16:51 |
| #4 behind, not under. Get your terms right before trying to be clever. Glad to see it look's like somebody over there knows how to fight a war. Different ROEs. |
| Posted by: lotp 2005-10-27 13:52 |
| #3 blankets that mask their movements? What sort of things are those Marines doing under their blankets? Will Boy Scouts be able to buy them at the Army-Navy store after the war? Can they be put over starships and used as cloaking garments? Enquiring minds want to know. |
| Posted by: Sholutch Glolulet2030 2005-10-27 13:49 |
| #2 I contrast this to yesterday's Lt. Col. who calls in the lawyers when he has a potential target. Glad to see it look's like somebody over there knows how to fight a war. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-10-27 13:09 |
| #1 200 o'er 20 days - good job! As in Vietnam most of these fighters are tragically the poor and uneducated, and being given/fed super-PC Islam-oriented feel-good words like "democracy" and "God" and "unity" and "rights of the people" and "America is [always]the Problem", etc. when what they are really dying for is at best the hated status quo, at worst more militant, bloody Islamist Totalitarianism, Intolerance and Despotism. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2005-10-27 03:21 |