Active Unit News

U.S. Troops Fight Invisible Enemy in Iraq
Fri Jul 25, 3:28 AM ET
By D'ARCY DORAN, Associated Press Writer
AMBUSH ALLEY, Iraq - A flash shattered the darkness and a bomb blew up in front of Sgt. First Class Mike Mizell's tank. Within seconds, a rocket-propelled grenade whistled overhead.
"Driver, stop! Gunner, reverse to the left!" the 35-year-old tank commander from Orangeburg, S.C., shouted into his radio.
For commanders like Mizell, the attack along the dangerous Highway 1, dubbed "Ambush Alley," wasn't unexpected. The goal on this patrol, like many others, was to bait the enemy into attacking armored infantry units and draw them away from more vulnerable targets.
"It's as dangerous as hell," 68th Armored's commander Lt. Col. Aubrey Garner, 39, said. "But soldiers are willing to put themselves in danger to kill the enemy."
The gunners sprayed machine gun tracer fire a line of palm and eucalyptus trees where the attacker took cover to fire the RPG. Two Apache helicopter gunships clattered in to chase down anyone running away. The other pair of tanks in Mizell's patrol fired their machine guns toward the spot, guided by the initial tracer rounds. It was impossible to tell if any Iraqi fighters were killed or wounded.
Daily guerrilla ambushes have pushed the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action in Iraq (news - web sites) to near 160, and troops said they expected Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) loyalists to step up attacks after the Tuesday killing of his sons Odai and Qusai. On top of that, an Arab satellite broadcaster aired an audiotape Wednesday thought to have been the voice of Saddam calling his former soldiers to rise up against the Americans.
The brothers' death didn't stop attacks on "Ambush Alley." The road links the capital, Baghdad, with the volatile area to the north and west known as the "Sunni Triangle" where support for Saddam runs strong.
The high number of attacks on the road forced the Army to move the 4th Infantry's Third Brigade into the Balad area about 30 miles north of Baghdad in June.
The moon, in its last quarter, doesn't rise until well after midnight, making Ambush Alley even darker and more dangerous.
"Every night, it's knock on steel," said Staff Sgt. David Gonzalez, 33, master gunner for the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment. Despite a month of regular enemy contact and a few close calls, no 3rd Brigade soldier has been killed by hostile fire.
The attacks came earlier than usual this Wednesday night, about 11:20 p.m., just minutes after the tanks rolled onto the highway. After taking hits but no damage from homemade explosives and RPG fire, they circled back, hoping to draw the enemy out to attack them again.
Mizell's tank was hit again less than an hour later.
"Contact! Contact!" Mizell called into his radio. "Engaging with direct fire! Yee ha!"
The Apaches overhead spotted two or three people running away, about two miles from the site of the initial attack. The attackers had rigged artillery shells to fire at the lead tank from the sides of the road.
Mizell's tank drove off the road to chase the attackers into the trees, but lost their trail. They were picked up again by the Apache pilots.
The tanks sped off to the depot, but a room-to-room search yielded nothing. Before returning to base, the patrol blew up a stash of enemy artillery rounds spotted through night vision scopes.
Fifteen soldiers raided the depot again later Thursday looking for possible escape routes and found an anti-aircraft gun, sights for mortar launchers, three AK-47s and more than 1,300 rounds of ammunition buried in the area, said Lt. Phil Blanchard, from Pittsfield, Mass., who led the raid. The army also detained 10 men for questioning, he said.
Despite the dangers, many 68th Armored soldiers said more frequent attacks wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, because it would force the enemy out of their hiding places.
"I always tell my wife, 'The more we get attacked the closer we are to getting home,'" Gonzalez said.

Back to Active Unit Main News Page