Word: mortars
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...about 2:45 p.m. Saturday in the Kurdish city of Gerdigo, in northern Iraq, I heard the thump of a mortar firing. It was coming from the battle line held by Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish fundamentalist Islamic group that's allied with al-Qaeda, with some support from Saddam Hussein. The round landed in front of a forward emplacement held by the Kurdish 61st Uprising Battalion, part of the anti-Saddam Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Moments later, a second round landed even closer. The soldiers scurried into their foxholes, me along with them, before they popped back...
...mortar attack had been a diversion. The taxi had detonated near a Kurdish checkpoint where Moran had been filming some soldiers. The blast loosed a fireball, charred the asphalt and left the taxi a smoking hulk. A roadside stall was set alight. Paul died instantly. Two Kurdish soldiers were also killed and five more seriously wounded...
...missiles silenced the Ansar mortar batteries. One impudent mortar that opened up a few hours later was taken out by a U.S. warplane. The peshmerga cheered the missiles and spent the day sunning themselves on the grass. Translated literally, their name means "those who face death." Tragically, I learned this applies to journalists...
...Even before daylight, one of Colonel Hodges's other units, 1st Battalion, had moved out on a separate mission to assault a large infantry training complex being used as a rallying point for paramilitary forces. After quick initial gains the battalion came under heavy automatic weapons, RPG and mortar fire. By dusk, the battalion had killed 44 Iraqi paramilitary soldiers and captured a storehouse filled with weapons...
...plans and issued all of the appropriate orders. Driving back to Checkpoint Charlie he joined a small group of vehicles that made up his Operations Center for the upcoming attack. Checkpoint Charlie, at night was a dismal place. It was bitter cold, fly infested and the sporadic incoming mortar round made it hard for those so inclined to sleep. Two dead Iraqi soldiers were only 20 yards from the position and Hodges ordered them removed immediately, but not before wild dogs had already gorged on them...