Word: mortars
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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...
...Iraqi's immediately responded with more machine gun fire and three mortar rounds, again wide and to the left. "It's coming from right over that berm," yelled Micthell, pointing to a ridge 500 meters off to the right. "Shoot that woodline, shoot that woodline." Jones opened fire with his .50 caliber machine gun as up ahead Barbarians 2 and 4 did the same with their same weapons. Hot shell casings fell about Jones' feet inside the track. A few hundred meters ahead three Iraqi's sprinted across the road, firing upon Wallace...
...tenth mortar round landed and Jones poured more .50 cal in to the berm on the right. Rather's Barbarian 4 fired its 120 mm - this one painted, "Baghdad's Nightmare." Again the strike was good. ("I finally busted my cherry," Sgt. Rather would joke later.) Gratified again, this time in the ditches in front of the bungalow -a few seconds later another mortar exploded plum on the road, 40 meters ahead of Barbarian 2. "The Iraqi's have zeroed their distance," said Mitchell, as all three tanks in Micthell's track made a sharp reverse. "Let's show...
...choppers see when they fly over Nasiriyah are civilians shooting Kalashnikovs out of their windows," says Geracci. "The pilots were talking about blowing up houses the next time they went in. They need to know that the civilians are not fighting against them." But the sound of mortar fire in the distance that night makes it clear that there are plenty of Iraqis out there...