Word: mortars
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...American Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the main Kurdish political parties. The American commandoes have taken to calling the P.U.K. "the Puck" and the Peshmerga "the Pesh." "We were doing well until that sniper," a Special Forces soldier tells his buddy. "I wanted to drop some mortar on top of him but the pesh were too close." On this day's battle, three American snipers lay behind a rock, patiently waiting to sight their Ansar counterparts far above in the Shram Mountain. "There's a sniper playing with us," says a soldier. The American snipers' high-powered rifles crack...
...this range?" Then came a single heavy caliber shot that cracked over Mitchell's track, followed by another, then a burst. "That's close," said Mitchell. "Somebody's moving up on our right just over the berm." A second round burst in the air, perhaps 50 meters closer. "Mortar rounds, that's what it is," said Mitchell, upright again in his hatch. "They're coming from inside the town." The squad backed up about 30 meters. As two more rounds exploded in the ground 50 meters front and right, the unseen machine gunner somewhere on the right began firing repeated...
...Melendez shouted back: "Sounds like they're trying to flank you guys." Unbeknownst to the enemy, U.S. scouts were now working feverishly to come up with "grid references"- coordinates for Mitchell's squad to start firing at. Two more mortar rounds landed in a cloud of dust about 30 meters out to the right. Over the rattle of Iraqi machine gun fire, the scouts announced they had a grid: "six dash four dash dash two dash six dash seven, niner dash two dash three dash three dash five...
...dancing," exclaimed one of the young peshmerga. The Iraqis had formed a small, tight circle and were kicking their legs and bouncing about. Laughter passed from one peshmerga to another until the lower voice of a veteran fighter said, "They're not dancing". Moments later the flash of a mortar firing came from the midst of the Iraqis. The peshmerga scrambled for cover. Seconds later the round detonated nearby...
...heavy machinegun, a 12.7mm DSHK chattered short bursts. Then another flash from the freshly-placed mortar pit and a second round came soaring in. This time it detonated above the ground in a filthy black cloud. Villagers and onlookers scattered and ran to their homes...