NYT: Disguised in Iraqi Uniforms, Rebels Kill a Marine

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/13/international/middleeast/13falluja.html?position=&adxnnl=1&oref=login&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1100322217-1zA33Uy1tD8zy4BwyYZeqQ

The farther south the marines push through this rebellious city, the more often they notice that the men shooting at them are wearing tan uniforms with a smart-looking camouflage pattern that is the color of chocolate chips.

Those are the uniforms of the Iraqi National Guard.

On Friday, after several hours of nonstop gun battles around a mosque in southern Falluja had killed about 100 insurgents, the marines said that those tan uniforms had cost one of their own his life the day before. It happened in what they first called an ambush, but now believe was a case of mistaken identity, combined with quick reflexes by insurgents who are using their wits to deadly effect as they approach their last stand.

The insurgents are also believed to have killed marines in the First Battalion, Eighth Marines, with the help of a network of tunnels gouged beneath Falluja for this fight. And they have apparently found a way to zero in with their mortars on strobes that the marines use to mark their position as a protection against friendly fire - strobes that they thought were invisible to their foe.

"You can tell that the quality of the fighters has improved as we've moved south through the city," said Lt. Steven Berch. "They shoot better, they move better, they cover themselves better."

[Rose Siding]

1. omg, here's an ugly portrait of the ING stuck in this piece...

snip>
The (Iraqi National Guard) soldiers have revealed more of themselves during their limited periods of activity. During the gun battle around the mosque, an Iraqi in civilian clothes who had been seriously wounded in the face appeared on the street waving a white flag. "Don't shoot, don't shoot!" he pleaded in Arabic. "I have a family with me. There are women in the car."

There were no obvious signs of an ambush, but two of the Iraqi soldiers said, "Just shoot him." But for whatever reason, the Americans held off, and the man produced his wife, mother and two children, all struck by gunfire. His daughter had been shot in the back and his mother in the head. Trying their best to avoid stepping on another set of Muslim taboos, Marines attempted to remove the bullet from the man's daughter while she was standing up, with her clothes on. Her fate is unknown, but the man's mother died later.

These seemingly loyal Iraqi soldiers had no direct involvement in the Thursday incident first classified as an ambush. But visual memory being what it is, when members of the First Platoon, B Company, First Battalion, Eighth Regiment of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, turned onto a street on Thursday, they saw the chocolate-chip camouflage pattern and hesitated.

[RamboLiberal]

4. Other tidbits - Marine Platoon had 20% casualties in 1 day

How well it has worked is open to debate, but the 50-man platoon that lost the marine on Thursday had nine other casualties as well - a stunning rate of 20 percent in a single day - all a result of the rebels' skill.

At that rate - where are they going to get replacements. It's getting drafty.

And looks like Iraqis learned the lesson of the VC and NVA with tunnels.

...when marines later discovered a tunnel system under the house, they surmised that the insurgents had entered that way and attacked. "We were briefed that there was a tunnel system under the city," said Sgt. Sam Williams, who saw the tunnels before the entire structure was destroyed .

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. What do they mean "disgused in Iraqi uniforms?" aren't they

Iraqi's too?

and, more than likely, militants by night and NG members by day.

[TacticalPeek]

3. The enemy always gets a vote.

And hope is not a plan.

Which has led us directly to Shrub's Folly.

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As for the insurgents apparently using the American military's strobes - the ones that protect against friendly fire - to guide their nighttime mortar attacks, the marines solved that problem by removing them from the buildings they occupied.

And for a few minutes on Thursday night, as Capt. Read Omohundro and about a dozen other members of B Company sat in the dark on a rooftop, things were quiet. There was only slight concern when Captain Omohundro heard on the radio that a group of about 15 insurgents had been identified somewhere close to his position, and that an airstrike had been called in to destroy them.

Then something clicked in his mind, and he rushed to the radio and called off the airstrike. The captain had been mistaken for an insurgent.

[harpo]

5. didn't even need a computer to get a trojan horse ;)

[Zhade]

6. Yeah, because these could NEVER be Iraqis turning on the U.S.

It HAS to be subterfuge, not Iraqis realizing where their true loyalties lie - with their countrymen, not the invaders of their country.

:eyes: