Thursday, July 19, 2007

Crack Jihadi Suicide Squad

It was not long ago that al Qaeda held Anbar province and we were fighting tooth and nail to dig them out of cities and villages.

Outside Ramadi, we killed a bunch of the enemy in a fight that started June 30th:

Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces received reports that a significant number of anti-Iraqi forces had gathered on the outskirts of Ramadi to stage a series of large scale attacks. The group, affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq, intended to regain a base of operations in Al Anbar with suicide car and vest bomb attacks.

The battle began at approximately 9:20 p.m. Saturday when Coalition Forces were attacked with small arms fire from two trucks near their position. U.S. Soldiers returned fire and pursued the fleeing attackers with the help of Army AH-64A Apache helicopter gun ships, Marine F-18 Hornet and AV-8B Harrier fighter jets. Helicopters killed at least one insurgent and wounded another, and destroyed the two trucks, later determined to be loaded with weapons, ammunition and explosives.

A detailed search of the area at 5 a.m. Sunday discovered 22 dead insurgents, including seven who were wearing suicide vests, as well as 24 homemade grenades, 20 pressure plate improvised explosive devices, assault rifles and machine guns, military uniforms, suicide vests and backpacks with first aid kits. Most of the enemy were dressed in similar white dishdashas and white running shoes, an outfit often associated with extremist fighters prepared to kill themselves.


They dressed up in their best martyr dishdasha attire (just do it!) and we waxed them. With no apparent casualties on our side.

Now the enemy is desperately trying to pry us out of the cities and towns of Anbar. And they are unlikely to have much more success than they did at Ramadi