I wondered about a fight recently where we killed a whole bunch of the enemy:
In ten days of operations, we took down 150 of them?
They didn't scatter and run? Blend in with the population?
What happened here?
Strategypage explains:
For example, a battalion of troops from the U.S. 82nd Airborne division spent nine days last month (January 4-9), in a Sunni area about 70 kilometers northeast of Baghdad. The U.S. troops worked their way through several small villages, that turned out to be a base area for one of the Sunni terrorist organizations. The terrorists thought the area worth fighting for, and a hundred of them were killed, including six known terrorist leaders. Another 54 terrorist suspected were arrested. Found in the area were 1,100 107mm rockets, 1,500 RPG rockets, 500 mortar shells and lots of bomb making materials. Two American soldiers were killed in the fighting, and over a dozen were wounded.
They decided to defend a base. And they got pasted for their troubles, pretty much. For an insurgency nearly four years old, that's a rookie mistake.
Why did these insurgents stand and fight? I think it is important to know why. Are they new? If so, are they an additional group separate from the older and more experienced groups? Or are they replacements for experienced insurgents who have been killed, fled, or quit?
