Word: 2nd
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...2nd brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division planned to halt west of Najaf, about 100 miles south of Baghdad; it also planned on facing some resistance from local irregulars. What it didn't expect was a rush-hour-like Iraqi attack, the road dense with enemy trucks bearing down on the brigade. "My headquarters had just rolled into the objective area when 10 pickup trucks loaded with men firing machine guns and RPG-7s came racing down the road," recalls Colonel David Perkins, commander of the 2nd Brigade. "My lead tanks blew up the first three vehicles, but the rest...
...hours, the Iraqis continued this furious drag race--floor it and fire--whipping down the road from Najaf into the waiting guns of the 2nd Brigade's M1 Abrams tanks. The M1s obliterated them. Says Perkins: "I didn't expect this many of them, but all that meant was we used up more ammo. And I have plenty of that, especially if it means not fighting these guys in Baghdad...
Iraqi irregulars have tried everything to get at 2nd Brigade soldiers. When two Bradley fighting vehicles got stuck in the mud, dozens of irregulars, armed with a machine gun, tow missiles and a chain-firing cannon, tried to crawl up to them. Another group attempted to paddle across the Euphrates river, shooting RPGs as they approached. Their five boats were blown apart on the water. All of these attacks ended similarly. "It's not a fair fight," says Major Kevin Dunlop. "Trucks with machine guns against tanks and Bradleys can only have one outcome. We are slaughtering them...
...next rush-hour attack came right after dark the next day, but by this time the 2nd Brigade had set up "toll-booths"--heavy armor--on the roads leading from Najaf. "They attacked like morons," says Perkins. "But they kept coming." In one area guarded by two Bradleys, several hundred Iraqis were killed, according to the local battalion headquarters...
...Even before the 1st Battalion had won its battle, Colonel Hodges had departed to oversee the attack of 2nd Battalion. Unable to hit an enemy that was using the Tomb of Ali for sanctuary the battalion commander, LTC Hughes, was trying to impress them with the hopelessness of the situation by using his own version of shock and awe. For two hours he called in artillery and Air Force fire all around the suspected enemy areas, as his troops moved through tough terrain to recon approach routes for tomorrow's full attack...