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http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f...925-983444.php

July 19, 2005

Stryker units again clash with insurgents in western Iraq
Joint mission also involves Marine, Air Force and special operations forces

By Matthew Cox
Times Staff Writer


RAWAH, Iraq – U.S. forces destroyed a suspected terrorist safe house with a 500-pound bomb today after shooting dead two insurgents during a brief gun battle.
This is the third day of violent clashes between insurgents and soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (SBCT), since the U.S. troops set up a camp Sunday outside this remote city in west-central Iraq near the Syrian border.

Insurgents have attacked soldiers here every day, planting roadside bombs and steering explosives-packed cars into U.S. patrols.

today was no exception.

At 9 a.m. this morning, an insurgent detonated his car bomb near a Stryker combat vehicle with B Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment. The explosion punctured two of the Stryker’s eight tires, but no soldiers were hurt.

Thirty minutes later a burnt-out car, packed with explosives, blew up near another Stryker in the same unit but caused no damage.

This city of some 20,000 was quiet for about 90 minutes, until B Company commander Capt. Mark Ivezaj’s Stryker surprised a handful of insurgents sitting in an idling van.

Ivezaj had been patrolling the streets when he saw four men jump out of the van and run.

A fifth man then leaped out of the passenger side and opened fire on the approaching Stryker with a BKC machine gun.

Ivezaj almost fell backwards as he tried to duck down from his position in the front hatch.

“Fire straight ahead!” he told his gunner, Sgt. Todd Usack, pointing toward the target displayed on the video screen inside the Stryker.

Usack fired several bursts from the .50-caliber machine gun at the insurgent machine-gunner, who tried to hide behind a wall.

Ivezaj opened fire with his M4 carbine, hitting the man in the upper body. A burst from Usack’s .50 cal then severed the man’s right leg below the knee.

Ivezaj and three other soldiers dismounted from the back of the Stryker and sprinted the 50 meters to the now dead insurgent.

“Hey we are still looking for four other guys!” Ivezaj shouted to his men securing the area.

First Sgt. Joseph Alexander arrived with a handful of soldiers and they quickly fanned out to hunt for the other insurgents.

Minutes later, Alexander let loose a controlled pair of shots from his M4, killing one of the four men behind a one-story building.

The search party caught the other three inside the house next door. They zip-tied detainee’s hands behind their backs and made them lay face down on the floor.

A woman living in the house told Ivezaj, through an interpreter, that the men had shot at her earlier when she tried to tell them to leave the area.

A search of the Hyundai van revealed a large cache of small arms including two additional BKC machine guns with about 700 rounds of ammunition, an 82mm mortar tube with its tripod and base plate, two dozen 82mm mortar shells, two rocket-propelled grenade launchers with five warheads, two homemade rocket launchers with 17 rockets and three AK47 rifles.

Soldiers also found an SVD sniper rifle inside a silver, Chevrolet Optra that was parked outside the house next to the van.

The suspected safe house consisted of multiple rooms, including a 20-foot by 45-foot meeting-style room. Soldiers also found a 20-foot by 20-foot bunker extending out of the back of the building. The bunker had a concrete slab roof. Three hours after the fighting began, an Air Force jet dropped a Joint Direct Attack Munition bomb on the site, demolishing the bunker and suspected safe house.

This was the second 500-pound bomb U.S. forces dropped on an enemy position inside the city. The first JDAM attack came Sunday after insurgents ambushed a joint patrol of 1-25 soldiers and Iraqi army soldiers with a roadside bomb and rocket-propelled grenades.

On Monday, insurgents attacked elements of 3-21 and 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, with suicide car-bomb attacks. There were no U.S. or Iraqi army soldiers killed in either of the attacks.

B Company, 3-21 and 2-14 are part of a battalion-size task force under 1st Brigade of the 25th, based in Mosul, roughly 230 kilometers north of here.

Elements of the battalion arrived here Saturday around midnight to set up a permanent combat outpost. The move is part of a joint mission by Army, Marine, Air Force and special operations forces to prevent terrorists from crossing the Syrian border into Iraq.

“We are here to project combat power into an area where there hasn’t been much in the past,” said Lt. Col. Mark Davis, commander of 2-14’s task force.

Marines with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, who have clashed with insurgent forces over the past few months, will continue to operate south of the Euphrates.

Davis’ task force will now be responsible for the area north of the Euphrates River along the Syrian Border.

“We believe there is a significant amount of foreign fighters coming through here,” Davis said.

Soldiers have tried to make it clear to the citizens of Rawah that they need their help finding foreign fighters operating here.

Many citizens appear to be leaving the city, though. A Tuesday evening patrol spotted a long line of cars crossing the bridge that leads out of town. They waved white flags at the Stryker patrols.

While the three days of attacks haven’t surprised Ivezaj, they have told him that insurgents here are able to pass information back and forth quickly between attacks.

“I think they’ve got a lot of eyes on us,” he said. “Their network is strong.”