Children look at a bakery that was fired upon during recent attacks between U.S. troops and gunmen in Al Fallujah
Attacks on the Rise
Two U.S. soldiers were killed and nine wounded on Tuesday in Iraq. It was the most serious attack since major combat was declared over on May 1. Does this mark a new phase of violence?
By Adam Piore
Newsweek Web Exclusive
May 28 - Sgt. 1/c Alfred Ronneburg heard a loud pop and spun around just in time to watch a fiery projectile zip past his Bradley fighting vehicle and slam into a nearby tire repair shop. The rocket knocked a gaping hole in a metal door and exploded inside the store.
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As the vapor trail hung in the air, the young squad leader opened fire with his semiautomatic, stitching 30 rounds in the direction of the shot. For the next hour, Ronneburg and his troops patrolled the dark streets of the town of Husayba primed for a fight, but the shooters had fled. “It’s going to get exciting,” he said later that night, smiling. “You got people firing RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades].”
For weeks, things have been so calm in the U.S. Army’s Northwest Iraq Area of Operations that some commanders have fretted that complacency and boredom would set in and leave their soldiers vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Few young soldiers enjoy peacekeeping, with its tedious patrols, vague mission and ambiguous rules of engagement (even as their veteran squad mates warn that the death and destruction of true combat is traumatic and horrible). Except for the occasional trouble down in Al Fallujah, most troops in the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment arrived to find their slice of Iraq largely subdued.
But now a new phase may be beginning. Two U.S. soldiers were killed on Tuesday in Al Fallujah, and nine more were injured in that incident. It was just one of several increasingly coordinated and deadly attacks on U.S. troops operating north and west of Baghdad, in a vast area stretching to the Jordanian and Syrian borders. The area was only lightly occupied by U.S. troops during the main fighting last month, and there was little information about what to expect.
Already this week, there have been at least seven attacks involving RPGs and small-arms fire—more than the last three weeks combined. On Monday, 15 men lay in wait beneath an abandoned bridge and ambushed a convoy headed north from Al Asad air base north of Baghdad. A popular senior officer with two children died in the hail of lead, and a second individual broke a leg. Tuesday’s ambush in Al Fallujah was well planned, unlike previous attacks in the area, which had appeared sloppy and haphazard. At a checkpoint, a truck pulled up and the soldiers were searching it when another car arrived. As the soldiers approached the car, men appeared on the side of the road and opened fire, along with the men in the car. U.S. forces killed the two men in the car and discovered undetonated grenades strapped to their bodies.
On Wednesday, the attacks continued. At this writing, a unit near Haditha had experienced small-arms fire, and RPGs and semiautomatic weapons were used against another.
U.S. troops patrol the city of Al Fallujah, where on Tuesday two soldiers were killed
The developments of the last two days add weight to the worries of some senior commanders. U.S. troops have long had intelligence that Saddam Hussein supplied his fedayeen with motorcycles before his regime’s demise. And for weeks, troops operating in the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment’s area of operations have noticed men on motorcycles following them and then breaking off when U.S. troops tried to engage them. “There have been suspicions that they were using the motorcycles to scope out the area and pick out patterns,” said Sgt. 1/c Michael Lindenbusch, an operations sergeant at the First Squadron headquarters. “From the number of motorcycles we’ve seen and the fact that they’re now starting to actually shoot, it appears like they got the picture they wanted and now they’re starting to act on it.”
Others speculate that the United States’ efforts to interdict weapons smuggling and install new governments have finally begun to interfere with the livelihoods of former Baath Party officials and known criminals. Perhaps, the theory goes, they are beginning to push back. Whatever the reason, says Capt. Bill Ray, a squadron intelligence officer, “It’s only going to get worse.”
Up at the forward operating base for the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment’s First Squadron, which has endured several of the attacks in recent days, there’s nothing to do but hunker down and work harder. When word arrived of Monday’s ambush and the first man killed in action within the First Squadron’s area of operations, commanding officer Lt. Col. Bill Dolan, threw down the phone and swore. Then he hopped in a helicopter and moved closer to the action so he could personally direct efforts to find the culprits. In recent days, his men have conducted a series of raids to follow up on intelligence from locals.
In places like Al Qaim and Haditha, they have set up checkpoints and confiscated scores of weapons, including RPGs, mortars, semiautomatic rifles and grenades. Many of the people are brought in for questioning and lead the troops to other weapons caches, known Baath Party sympathizers and others suspected of planning attacks.
There have been some victories. Earlier this week, Dolan’s men raided a house and arrested two men believed responsible for the RPG attack on Ronneburg’s convoy. More than five sources in three separate areas had fingered the men, and they were flown to Baghdad for further questioning. The soldiers are hoping that they can provide some answers that will explain the sudden surge in anti-American activity and help them to break it up before anyone else is killed. But with their mission just beginning, few believe they will be so lucky.
