Word: ramadi
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WITH EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE ECHOING IN THE distance, the Marines in the observation post in downtown Ramadi know they are at war. They're just not sure who--or where--the enemy is. In restive Iraqi cities like Ramadi, the U.S. campaign to deny sanctuary to the insurgents consists of a daily assortment of hit-and-run exchanges, alleyway gunfights and nighttime raids. "They've taken the fight into the neighborhoods," says Captain Jeffrey Kenney, commander of Golf Company of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. "The hardest thing is to ID where the fire is coming from." The jarheads...
Peril lurks around every corner. Even in Ramadi, a Sunni town that the U.S. military considers under its control, the Marines are ambushed nearly every day by insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades. Convoys passing through the city must navigate a minefield of roadside bombs. The violence has made it impossible to carry out missions to win the hearts and minds of the locals, most of whom have never warmed to the U.S. presence. The Marines in Ramadi don't use tanks and rarely call in air support; instead, they rely on guile, guts and instinct to hunt down the insurgents...
...William Webster, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, which will return to Iraq later this year. It will be the first unit retooled by Schoomaker. "We'll have more brigades, more ground-controlling combat power and more ability to kill and capture the enemy." But as the Marines in Ramadi have learned, there's little room for complacency against such an elusive, shadowy...
...Satellite pictures show that 14 insurgents have moved south and prepared an ambush near Ramadi's soccer stadium. Humvees and trucks ferry troops that way. Upon arrival, they head to the rooftops. An explosion occurs to the west, and the streets cough black smoke into the sky. The town briefly goes quiet save a few isolated shots. Pigeons perch on a rooftop aerial, cooing softly. Bitsui tries to clean the blood from his fingers. "You just hate for that to happen," says Cpl. Edward B. Wiley. "You see a kid like that, it makes you sick. But some of these...
...reported anywhere in the news media the next day. It was simply one more day of bravery and tragedy, one more step in the Marines' ongoing education in the confusion that marks this phase of the war. The momentum of the chaos began long before these Marines arrived in Ramadi, but circumstances are forcing them to learn hard lessons on the fly, while fellow soldiers and Iraqis continue to fight, kill and die. Back at the base, Kenney says the two wounded Marines are being treated for their injuries. There were no other Marine casualties. He says the Iraqi...