Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
April 21, 2008
Pg. 6
By Michael R. Gordon
BAGHDAD — Ayman, bleeding profusely from his arm, was rushed to Company B’s stronghold in Sadr City late Sunday afternoon.
A bullet had carved a bloody groove near his left elbow as he was going to fetch some bread from a market.
Seven children had been struck by a burst of gunfire from militia fighters who have been roaming through the streets near the American positions, his distraught father said.
But Ayman, 11, was one of the lucky ones. Four of the children, his father said, were dead.
With no functioning police force and the streets a battle zone, it could not be determined if the children had been caught in cross-fire or had been deliberately shot at by militia fighters, as Ayman’s father suggested.
The militias have concentrated their fire on Iraqi and American forces and generally avoided shooting at civilians, whom they have sought to use as their power base. But as the fighting has intensified, civilian casualties have increased.
Sgt. Kevin Stine, the senior medic for the company, which is part of the First Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, cleaned and bandaged the boy’s wound before telling the father to take him to a hospital for further treatment.
Capt. Logan Veath, the company commander, tried to give the boy a packet of M&Ms, but Ayman turned it down. He wanted a soccer ball. The medic rummaged through the Stryker vehicle until he found one.
In a neighborhood in which gun battles are a daily occurrence, Sunday was just another day. A threat by the cleric Moktada al-Sadr to wage “open war” on the Iraqi government unless it promised not to crack down on his followers heightened tensions. But fighting has raged through this impoverished section of Sadr City for almost a month.
At Company B’s headquarters, the sounds of battle were close at hand. A team of heavily armored American “route clearance” vehicles that was searching for roadside bombs struck two on a nearby street and was then attacked by militia fighters equipped with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. None of the Americans were killed or seriously wounded, but one of the vehicles had to be towed away.
Militant fighters attacked an Iraqi police station on the same street, prompting an appeal for Iraqi T-72 tanks. Two rockets whooshed as they were fired into the Green Zone. A large mortar blast and other mysterious explosions resounded through the neighborhood.
Company B’s medics were kept busy through the day. Two Iraqi soldiers were brought in the morning after being wounded by the backblast of one of their own rocket-propelled grenades. A third was wounded by a round from an M-16, a weapon recently provided to Iraqi troops.
An hour after the medics treated Ayman, the violence crept closer to Company B’s base. A militia fighter heaved a grenade over the wall into the parking area for the Strykers. The explosion reverberated through the structure, raising a cloud of dust but causing no casualties.
“There were a few rounds, like there is all the time, and then an explosion,” said Staff Sgt. Austin Boots, with the company’s Second Platoon. “You could see the smoke billowing up right in a corner of the compound.”
The platoon ran into the street, only to find that the assailants had vanished.
Civilians who witnessed the episode described how two men had sneaked into an alley. While one threw the grenade, the other one, armed with a pistol, approached a group of people who live nearby.
According to an American military interpreter who spoke to them afterward, the assailant’s warning was direct.
“You did not hear anything,” he told them. “If you talk to coalition forces, we will kill you.”
April 21, 2008
Pg. 6
By Michael R. Gordon
BAGHDAD — Ayman, bleeding profusely from his arm, was rushed to Company B’s stronghold in Sadr City late Sunday afternoon.
A bullet had carved a bloody groove near his left elbow as he was going to fetch some bread from a market.
Seven children had been struck by a burst of gunfire from militia fighters who have been roaming through the streets near the American positions, his distraught father said.
But Ayman, 11, was one of the lucky ones. Four of the children, his father said, were dead.
With no functioning police force and the streets a battle zone, it could not be determined if the children had been caught in cross-fire or had been deliberately shot at by militia fighters, as Ayman’s father suggested.
The militias have concentrated their fire on Iraqi and American forces and generally avoided shooting at civilians, whom they have sought to use as their power base. But as the fighting has intensified, civilian casualties have increased.
Sgt. Kevin Stine, the senior medic for the company, which is part of the First Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, cleaned and bandaged the boy’s wound before telling the father to take him to a hospital for further treatment.
Capt. Logan Veath, the company commander, tried to give the boy a packet of M&Ms, but Ayman turned it down. He wanted a soccer ball. The medic rummaged through the Stryker vehicle until he found one.
In a neighborhood in which gun battles are a daily occurrence, Sunday was just another day. A threat by the cleric Moktada al-Sadr to wage “open war” on the Iraqi government unless it promised not to crack down on his followers heightened tensions. But fighting has raged through this impoverished section of Sadr City for almost a month.
At Company B’s headquarters, the sounds of battle were close at hand. A team of heavily armored American “route clearance” vehicles that was searching for roadside bombs struck two on a nearby street and was then attacked by militia fighters equipped with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. None of the Americans were killed or seriously wounded, but one of the vehicles had to be towed away.
Militant fighters attacked an Iraqi police station on the same street, prompting an appeal for Iraqi T-72 tanks. Two rockets whooshed as they were fired into the Green Zone. A large mortar blast and other mysterious explosions resounded through the neighborhood.
Company B’s medics were kept busy through the day. Two Iraqi soldiers were brought in the morning after being wounded by the backblast of one of their own rocket-propelled grenades. A third was wounded by a round from an M-16, a weapon recently provided to Iraqi troops.
An hour after the medics treated Ayman, the violence crept closer to Company B’s base. A militia fighter heaved a grenade over the wall into the parking area for the Strykers. The explosion reverberated through the structure, raising a cloud of dust but causing no casualties.
“There were a few rounds, like there is all the time, and then an explosion,” said Staff Sgt. Austin Boots, with the company’s Second Platoon. “You could see the smoke billowing up right in a corner of the compound.”
The platoon ran into the street, only to find that the assailants had vanished.
Civilians who witnessed the episode described how two men had sneaked into an alley. While one threw the grenade, the other one, armed with a pistol, approached a group of people who live nearby.
According to an American military interpreter who spoke to them afterward, the assailant’s warning was direct.
“You did not hear anything,” he told them. “If you talk to coalition forces, we will kill you.”