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Third infantry stops drive { March 28 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38788-2003Mar27.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38788-2003Mar27.html
3rd Infantry Division Temporarily Stops Drive to Baghdad
By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 28, 2003; 6:30 PM
WITH U.S. FORCES IN CENTRAL IRAQ, March 27 -- As dawn broke over the arid landscape and three days of sandstorms gave way to a crisp clear day, the sound of explosions broke the stillness. Soon, plumes of black smoke were rising to the east and north.
It had been a calm night on the perimeter of this U.S. Army encampment southwest of Baghdad, but now Iraqi armored vehicles were probing the lines. It was an attempt, officers of the 3rd Infantry Division figured, to discern where the U.S. force was so that Iraqi gunners could try to shell the tanks, armored personnel carriers and support vehicles spread out across the desert.
Spotted by M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles stationed along the perimeter of what the division's 3rd Battalion, 15th Regiment called Tactical Assembling Area China 4, the two Soviet-era T-55 tanks and two armored personnel carriers came under attack from Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II tank-killing planes and were quickly destroyed, U.S. officers said.
"They were trying to do reconnaissance on our positions so that they could call in artillery on us," said Maj. Roger Shuck, the battalion's operations officer.
For now, the army division spearheading the U.S. invasion of Iraq has stopped its drive toward Baghdad, taking time to bring up supplies, repair vehicles and rebuild combat power before resuming its campaign. That makes the units more vulnerable, and commanders are warning the troops to be especially vigilant.
"Several enemy vehicles tried to probe our lines," Lt. Col. Stephen Twitty, the 3rd Battalion commander, told his troops today. "Make sure we do not become complacent as we sit in a defensive posture."
He ordered the troops to dig defensive positions and to move about the assembly area with at least two vehicles at a time. He stressed the need for "defensive security" to avoid casualties. As of this afternoon, only one soldier in the division had died in combat, the victim of a sniper as a column was passing southwest of Najaf earlier this week, Shuck said.
But even while key combat units of the division have been holding ground, they have continued to engage Iraqi forces, mainly militias loyal to President Saddam Hussein, and to call in airstrikes against them. In one of the latest actions, U.S. planes bombed the headquarters in Najaf of Hussein's ruling Baath Party and other targets in the city, resulting in 200 Iraqis killed, according to a 3rd Battalion military intelligence report issued tonight.
The intelligence report said the Iraqis appeared determined to take back at least one of the four bridges across the Euphrates River that the 3rd Infantry Division now controls in the Najaf area.
Officers said that appeared to be the objective of a large convoy -- consisting of civilian pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles -- that was reported bombed by a B-52 Wednesday after it left Baghdad heading south and made its way toward one of the bridges. In addition to militiamen, the convoy contained members of the Special Republican Guard, the elite unit responsible for protecting Hussein, the latest intelligence report said.
The report said a bomb damage assessment was not yet completed.
Officers said they were surprised by the tenacity of the militiamen, the main opponents of U.S. forces so far, but stressed that they have not posed much of a challenge to date.
"I really don't know what their thinking is, because they're not using any kind of tactics at all," Shuck said. For the most part they just drive their pickups straight at M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles in "direct frontal assaults" aimed at getting close enough to fire a rocket propelled grenade. They rarely succeed, usually getting picked off well before they get in range.
Shuck called the long convoy, estimated at up to 1,000 vehicles, practically "suicidal," given U.S. air power. "There's no way you have one thousand vehicles in a column. They must have thought that because of the bad weather and high winds we wouldn't be able to see them. So they figured they could reposition."
But the Air Force's JSTARS (Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System) quickly spotted the convoy despite the sandstorm, and air strikes were called in.
After the foiled attempt to probe the U.S. lines and occasional barrages of 3rd division artillery fire during the morning, tactical assembly area China 4 remained calm the rest of the day.
For the first time since the U.S. force arrived, the arid plain was clear of flying sand. From the Bradley of Capt. Ronny Johnson, 37, of Dallas, Tex., the other groupings of army vehicles looked like miniature cities in the distance. Despite the relative quiet, before day's end Johnson's Bravo company picked up and moved again, trying to stay one step ahead of any hostile forces that may be out there.
Trouble was, the order to move came after the men had already dug their foxholes. "They aren't happy campers right now," Johnson said.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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