Active Unit News

U.S. Soldiers' Snap Decisions In Conflicts
By Dionne Searcey
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
April 23, 2003
Tikrit, Iraq -- In the broader scheme of the war with Iraq, it was a minor battle. After all, most of the fighting here is finished, and the U.S. military is preparing to shift into peacekeeping mode. But military scouts of the Army's First Battalion, 22nd Infantry, described an encounter on Sunday between them and a group of Tikriti men that offers a glimpse into the awkward no-man's land between war and peace. In the end, at least 16 Iraqis found at a former military compound were dead, the military said, and 12 may have been civilians. No U.S. soldiers were injured, though one's helmet had been blown off his head. This type of scenario is repeating itself throughout Iraq as U.S. soldiers are confronted with Iraqis who may be Fedayeen fighters or Republican Guard members out of uniform - or who may be civilians caught in the wrong place amid anxious American fighters. "We're in between being a soldier and a cop," said Capt. Mark Stouffer, whose infantry unit is patrolling unstable pockets of northern Iraq. "We have to make quick judgment calls on our own. It's difficult." On Sunday, the scouts of Headquarters Company said they received their first mission of the war: Soldiers were to secure a former Republican Guard military base north of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. Air Force units had bombed the area weeks ago, scaring off enemy soldiers. But when the infantry arrived, a sniper greeted them from the two-story headquarters building in the complex. Army units returned fire with a Mark 19, high-explosive grenade weapon, blasting bricks and plaster from the east wall into the elaborate courtyard. The scouts then went from building to building, searching for enemy fighters and booby traps. They saw a pickup truck and 12 men leaving an ammunition bunker - civilian looters, they figured, as their grips tightened on their machine guns. Suddenly, according to the scouts, the Iraqis shot at them, and the soldiers returned fire with M-16s, gunning down four of the men. The other eight fled, and the scouts lost track of them and went about their mission, securing the rest of the complex. Several hours later, in the still darkness, the scouts returned to the bunker, this time with Bradley fighting vehicles and night vision goggles. They found more men, some of whom they said they had spotted at the first fight. The Iraqis were picking up the bodies of their dead. But they had AK-47 weapons, so the scouts opened fire. Twelve more Iraqis were killed, according to the military account. "All you could see was them falling down," said Sgt. Jesus Bocanegra, whose helmet was blown off. "We thought everything was over by now. I thought we'd come out here [to Tikrit] and chill." Instead, army commanders say, U.S. soldiers throughout the country are deciding whom to shoot, whom to detain and whom to set free based on a set of rules that can't possibly cover every situation as the military moves into cities and gets closer to civilians. They are told to shoot if fired upon and to seize all weapons. They must use their own judgment for perceived threats. "This type of conflict is where you get the Mogadishus and the Bosnias. It's dangerous, random stuff. Not stuff you expect. Like Vietnam and the booby traps along the trail," said Army Lt. Douglas Franklin. "That's the stuff that drove those guys nuts." One frail, elderly man captured Saturday shivered as soldiers shone a flashlight on his face. He had walked too close to their vehicles, they said, so they used plastic zip ties to bind his hands behind his back. They didn't have an interpreter so they fetched their colonel, and the group tried in vain for 20 minutes to communicate. Finally, the man pointed to his mangled foot. Apparently, he wanted a doctor. He was released after medics determined they did not have the facilities to treat him. Army officials said they felt judgment calls by the Marines during several recent perceived threats in Mosul nearly turned the city against U.S. forces. Two days in a row last week, Marines opened fire in the city's main square, killing 17 Iraqis and injuring 39. Among the injured were a 12-year-old boy and a 61-year-old man shot when an Iraqi policeman fired a round to disperse looters at a bank. Marines mistakenly thought they themselves were under attack and shot into the crowd. The city has quickly become the most unstable area in Iraq. Yesterday, Marines were pulling out of Mosul, turning over operations to the Army's 101st Airborne and elements of the Army's Fourth Infantry Division. The replacements complained that the Marines had left behind a hostile population and even had failed to secure a perimeter around their temporary camp. Monday night, a soldier patrolling the camp's border was shot in the arm. All day yesterday, armored tanks and Bradleys roamed the perimeter and rolled through town. A show of force, said tank commander Lt. Col. Ryan Gonsalves, should help calm things down. Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.