Word: 5th
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...easy to forget, because of their low media coverage in the U.S., that the bloodiest and most frequent attacks are not at Iraqi civilians. Attacks such as the early December massacre of eighteen young Shiite men, the January 2nd bombing of a National Guard bus or the January 5th bombing of a police graduation ceremony show that the insurgents do not enjoy the widespread popular support sometimes claimed but rather are resorting to fear-inducing attacks to cow the population into submission. Attacks on Iraqi civilians often yield as many casualties as an entire month’s combat operations...
Full-scale offensives like Fallujah inevitably exact a psychic toll. Yet the punishing strain of fighting a hydra-headed insurgency afflicts U.S. troops even on what passes for a normal day in Iraq. Sergeant Justin Harding of the Ramadi-based 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, can't get one of those October days out of his head. His squad, Reaper 2 of Whiskey Company, was heading back to base along one of Iraq's most dangerous roads. The squad's convoy, towing a vehicle disabled by a roadside bomb, was running at slow speed, making it vulnerable to ambush. Sure enough...
...Battalion, 5th Regiment...
...city that has most bedeviled the U.S. occupation, the hyperbole seemed appropriate. Fallujah is the presumed base of Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, the most potent terrorist in Iraq. And more than 100 suspected insurgents have been arrested in recent weeks in nearby villages. Now the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines along with the Army's Brigade Combat Team 2 and a company from the 2nd Tank Battalion--a combined force exceeding 1,000 troops--were about to launch the biggest move on Fallujah in months. The 3/5 would not enter the city but intended to go right up to the southeastern...
...assault had begun in Ramadi two days earlier, when much of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines joined the élite 36th Battalion of the Iraqi National Guard and their U.S. special- forces advisers to raid seven mosques in the city. As in Fallujah, attempts to prop up a local government in Ramadi have faltered amid violence, kidnappings and assassinations. Military bases in both places are frequently mortared. Unlike in Fallujah, though, in Ramadi the Marines are a regular presence in the streets. And they are hit daily by a mostly invisible enemy, bountifully armed with improvised explosive devices (IEDS), rocket...