“I opened a window because I heard voices and I thought it was Americans,” said Corporal Koreyan Calloway. “There was a guy in a headscarf with an AK47 standing there looking at me, so I shot him.”
The attackers were darting down narrow alleyways beside the house, and lobbing grenades from neighbouring rooftops.
“They were running across our line of fire like we weren’t even shooting at them,” the corporal said.
“It was just like a range, we were just shooting them down,” said Corporal Jacob Palofax.
In the midst of the firefight, with the armoured vehicle’s munitions blowing up, an ambulance pulled up. The Marines thought they were being rescued. Instead, 15 men with RPGs jumped out and started firing.
The Americans were almost out of bullets. An Iraqi round hit a kitchen pipe and gas started whistling out as RPGs slammed into the building.
A guerrilla burst through the gate with an RPG and was shot dead. Another tried to follow and was wounded.
*In the midst of the firefight, with the armoured vehicle’s munitions blowing up, an ambulance pulled up. The Marines thought they were being rescued. Instead, 15 men with RPGs jumped out and started firing. *
Please do not ever again post some whiney report from Al-Jazeera about Americans shooting ambulances!
The Marines who have military training and are meant to be the cream of the crop of US soldiers take on civilians with no military training with AK 47's who used to most probably run 'cornershops'.
Yes. Real heroes, proud and brave.
'I had one bullet left, and was able to drop 26 insurgents with it'. I'm a bullsh...er, ....... I mean I'm a Marine.
As sholay mentioned, US marines are highly trained soldiers. I know that the selection procedure for the Marine Corps is extremely rigourous, with many drop-outs throughout the training process. They're a highly trained, highly skilled group of men, with the very high morale that comes from knowing they are amongst the best soldiers in the world. They're trained to do the toughest military role in existence - amphibious assault into fortified enemy coastlines, and survive. They are excellent marksmen, which means that when they can make every round count.
By contrast, the Iraqis have either no military training, or the abismally shoddy training that comes from being a conscript in Saddam's army.
Wars throughout history have shown that numbers are not everything in battle. The training of your soldiers plays a critical role, and in this respect the Americans had a huge advantage over the Iraqis. Together with the fact the the American unit managed to fortify themselves in a house, forcing the Iraqis to have to assault a position with limited numbers of entry points, made the American position much more favourable than you may imagine.
At the end of the day, you have some of a nations's best soldiers holding a defensive position, being attacked by men who 7 days ago were civilians, men with little combat skill or ability, who can barely handle a gun (I'd bet you $10 they were firing their AK-47s on the visually impressive but utterly inaccurate fully-automatic mode, rather than picking their shots carefully on semi-automatic mode).
Not much of a victory to celebrate - more like a turkey shoot. The Iraqis were trying to assault a defensive position with forces insufficient to the task.
That's my point exactly. These two bit iraqi thugs can't beat the marines. They should just give up now, before more of them are killed in the thousands. American training and equipment is superior to the terrorist forces. Always has been. Their jihadi fanaticism won't save them.
Stranded marines fight to last bullet don`t make me laugh in reality marines with there last bullets would run like headless chickens looking for mommy.
Anyone remember that so called heroic ** Lt Jessica Lynch ** who was alleged to have fought like a lion killing 8 iraqis figthing to last bullet and even managing to fight with her Rambo knife untill allegedly being captured and then being tortured and mistreated by iraqi torturers!
Guess what the outcome of that little fairytale was!** Truth was her unit could`nt drive a tank to save thier lives and crashed it and her injuries where a result of a road accident** as for alleged torturers the only torture she suffered was a few stitches iraqi doctors where stitching her together because of that very same road accident!
Yup you guessed it any news of the so called brave amerikkkans take with pinch of salt they have more made in Hollywood stamped on them and are straight out the Pentagon propoganda machine!
Let us not mistake "souped up on jihad" for real combat tactics. Fallujah probably has the greatest percentage of military from Saddam's army of any town in the country. But going up against a full time volunteer professional army face-to-face is a huge mistake. The "insurgents hae no advantages and every disadvantage. The "bravery" you are all touting here may give you some pride, but it is a bad military tacic. If the US can get a group of onehundred insurgent bottled up, they will kill them every time. The insurgents are far more effective in hit and run tactics of 10 to 15 men.
"FALLUJA, Iraq, April 14 — American forces killed more than 100 insurgents on Tuesday in close combat in a small village in central Iraq, Marine commanders said Wednesday.
The battle, classic urban combat that raged for 14 hours, was one of the heaviest engagements since the invasion of Iraq last year. It showed not only the intensity of the resistance but an acute willingness among insurgents to die.
"A lot of these guys were souped up on jihad," said Lt. Col. B. P. McCoy, commander of the Fourth Battalion, Third Marines. "They might as well been suicide fighters.""
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Imdad Ali: *
That's my point exactly. These two bit iraqi thugs can't beat the marines. They should just give up now, before more of them are killed in the thousands. American training and equipment is superior to the terrorist forces. Always has been. Their jihadi fanaticism won't save them.
[/QUOTE]
The only reason the Americans got out of there alive was because they were rescued.
All the training and experience in the world won't help you if you're attacked by more men than you have the physical capability to kill. Those marines were just a few hours away from being wiped out to the last man.
It's just like how the highly trained, battle-hardened veterans of the Wehrmacht and SS slaughtered hundred os thousands of Russian soldiers in 1943, but ultimately suffered defeat after defeat simply because there were more Russians around than they could kill.
can be defeated, through isolating them from support and attacking with sufficient numbers to overcome their superior training and firepower.
American forces can be defeated if isolated from support and then attacked with sufficient numbers to overcome the Americans' superioir firepower and training.
It's been done before against similar opponents by various military factions, and it can be done again.
A good example is the elimination of Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry just outside Landing Zone ALbany in the Ia Drang Valley in 1965, Vietnam.
Lured into a sense of complacency , Alpha Company was unaware of the presence of a NVA regiment surrounding it. Quickly isolated from the rest of the 2nd Battalion, Alpha Company was almost completely wiped out.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by mAd_ScIeNtIsT: *
American forces can be defeated if isolated from support and then attacked with sufficient numbers to overcome the Americans' superioir firepower and training.
[/QUOTE]
Any force can be defeated if isolated from supply lines long enough. Remember when pakistani generals decided to let their soldiers die in Kargil without food or ammunition resupply?
The Iraqis were running into the firing sight of the americans, when they had enough time before the rescue arrived to finish the americans. American forces have enough resources to support their forces on the ground. That is the bottom line. Personally, I favour just sending B52's and AC130 gunships to attack the area of enemy activity, but maybe american military planners are afraid of the political consequences.
Nine US troops are reported to have been killed in clashes with insurgents in Iraq.
**Five marines died in skirmishes on the Syrian border, according to a reporter at the scene, while four soldiers died in ambushes south and west of Baghdad. **
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Imdad Ali: *
You forgot to mention dozens of iraqi terrorists were also killed.
[/QUOTE]
I find it laughable when people call people who are simply defending their nation "terrorists". Now I know why you're never taken seriously. You've got a lot to learn buddy.
This is funny…their leader found in a rat-hole, the terrorists hiding inside mosques or behind their women and children, the whole of Arab nation is humiliated (HUMILIATED), and you are worried about the Marines? Jazakallah. If jealousy can win the battles, Muslims will be ruling the world. Particularly wanabe Ayrabs.
