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Driving toward the heart of the enemy

By Matthew McAllester | Staff Correspondent

November 9, 2004

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Night fell and the main attack began.

By 2 a.m. here a column of heavily armored Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles entered Fallujah along the perimeter roads and down some of the main arteries toward the heart of the city. The vehicles crawled past palm trees swaying in the wind and apparently deserted two-story homes, many of them behind walls and metal gates.

Viewed on an infrared screen inside one of the Bradleys, an Abrams tank swiveled its main gun to the east and fired repeatedly at suspected insurgents who were firing Kalashnikov rifles at the Americans.

A bit later, a man was spotted in a doorway looking at the Bradley through binoculars. As the Bradley, carrying a Newsday reporter, approached the doorway, the man stood before the vehicle on the street, pointing a shoulder-held missile launcher directly at the Bradley. The Bradley gunner opened fire with his .25-mm cannon twice, blasting the area where the man stood. It was unclear whether he was hit. The Bradley continued onward.

As the assault on Fallujah began hours earlier, about 8,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops had begun pushing forward into the city after a barrage of artillery scattered burning shrapnel above the heads of insurgents in frontline positions, looking like orange firework bursts and scattering almost certain death on anyone below.

The sky above Fallujah filled with enormous explosions and red flares scythed across the desert night as they slammed into insurgent positions.

Missiles from an AC-130 gunship patrolling the route of the advancing Abrams and Bradley vehicles shattered cars suspected of being driven by suicide bombers.

On the northern edge of the city, Marines from the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment encountered light resistance at the train station and secured it. Engineers moved earth across the railroad tracks to allow passage of armored vehicles, moving south. Abrams tanks fired at a suspected weapons cache in the train station, causing an enormous explosion.

In Abrams tanks and Bradleys, the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry Regiment pushed through clouds of desert dust toward the front row of houses in the northwestern corner of the insurgent-held city. Drawing fire from rebel positions, they let loose with their guns in what was intended as an overwhelming attack.

"The finest fighting force on the face of the earth is right here," Marine Maj. Gen. Rich Natonski, commander of the ground forces in the attack, told the 2nd Battalion in a visit shortly before the assault began. "This is a hell of a team. Iraqi forces are fired up. We're going to kick some butt."

The vehicles proceeded in groups of one or two toward the train station. Lt. Col. Jim Rainey, commander of the 2nd Battalion, said they were moving slowly because of concern about booby traps in the station. "You fight like a Slinky," he said, his jaw puffed with chewing tobacco. "You move. You coil. You move. You coil."

The plan was to destroy at least the first two rows of houses that border the Jolan district. The 2nd Battalion's initial role, commanders said, was to punch the hole into Jolan that will allow the Marines and Iraqi forces to flow into the northwest of the city. Jolan is considered by commanders to be the part of Fallujah most densely populated by insurgents. The goal of the battle, said Marine Lt. Col. Joe L'etoile, 40, operations officer for Natonski, was to turn control of the city of Fallujah from the estimated 3,000 insurgents to the Iraqi people and government.

"It'll be fast, I'll tell you that much," he said before the battle began, gazing toward the frontline of houses.

Throughout the day, American jets, artillery and mortar batteries pounded suspected rebel positions. A military spokesman estimated 42 insurgents were killed across the city in bombardment and skirmishes before the main assault began.

The previous night, two Marines drowned when their bulldozer flipped over into the Euphrates River and a Humvee overturned slightly, injuring four Marines.

In the command tent of the 2nd Battalion, Rainey and intelligence officers watched a computer screen that displayed a live feed from an unmanned drone aircraft flying over the city with powerful cameras and positioning systems.

From the tent, the officers could see four insurgents firing mortars - the white flash showing up in the backyard of a house - and then moving quickly through the streets. Two of the men appeared to be carrying weapons, probably Kalashnikov rifles.

It is this kind of technology that allowed precision targeting from the American forces that sent clouds of smoke erupting throughout the city.

From a few dozen yards away, the 2nd Battalion's mortar team fired into the sky - a loud bang followed by the whizz of the projectile heading toward the city in an arc. Several seconds later, loud booms echoed back across the desert to this forward base.

Earlier in the day, Rainey led a reconnaissance mission of eight Bradleys and five tanks up toward the train station to the north of Jolan, some of them pushing toward the front line.