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In Tikrit, US soldiers hope to get shot at Tikrit
Gulf News, Reuters | 28-11-2003
Scanning the rooftops of the squat buildings that line the main street of Saddam Hussain's hometown, specialist AJ Hayden hopes for just one thing – to get shot at.
Like other US combat soldiers in this hotbed of anti-American sentiment north of Baghdad, Hayden and his buddies on patrol on a foggy Wednesday ni-ght want Iraqi insurgents to fight them.
"We're always try and stir them up. We drive around and try to get them to shoot at us," said Hayden, 22, a humvee driver in the 1-22 Battalion's Charlie Co-mpany and who comes fr-om Grand Rapids, Michigan. Minutes earlier, Hayden's humvee and two others had crept along Tikrit's dimly lit streets and darkened alleys, vehicle lights off, clearly looking for tro-uble. Mist from heavy rain hung over the few functioning street lights, creating an eerie landscape.
Lieutenant Zach Cole sat up front with Hayden. Ser-geant Mark Callihan ma-nned a heavy calibre machine gun mounted on the back of the humvee.
Night vision goggles on, they scrutinised the abandoned or bomb-hit buildings in Tikrit's residential wasteland.
Then intelligence came in about a possible rocket propelled gre-nade ambush in Tikrit's main street. They rushed to the spot. "There might be some guys with RPGs and AK-47s, get ready to fire," said Cole, from Noblesville, Indiana.
The information proved wrong, to Hayden's disappointment, but it was eno-ugh to tempt Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell, commander of the 1-22 Battalion, to swing by. Instead of insurgents, they found an Iraqi man walking home after visiting relatives, well past the nightly curfew of 11pm that was reinstated in Tikrit after insurgents shot down a Blackhawk helicopter early this month, killing six personnel on board.
Russell was unimpressed. "Don't be out after curfew, it's a good way to get shot," he told the Iraqi, who scurried off. Back in the humvee, the three soldiers made clear they did not fear gun battles – with their superior firepower they always seek out areas on patrol they think insurgents might lie in wait.
What frightens them are roadside bombs, the big killer of American troops in Iraq. Insurgents have increasingly turned to what US-occupation forces call improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
They are often made from mortar shells or other ordnance, hidden along a kerb and detonated when convoys pass, usually by remote control from a safe distance.
"That's the one thing I'm nervous about," said Callihan, 24, from Spring, Texas. Charlie Company sometimes finds a few roadside bombs each nightly patrol they make in Tikrit. Tonight they found none. Another patrol over, the company heads for home, in a palace where Saddam used to celebrate his birthday each year.
That occasion has generated one of the most famous images of the former leader, as he fires a shotgun with one hand off the palace balcony while wearing a black hat and three-piece suit.
Before Charlie Company arrived in Iraq, the street running by the palace was adorned with large metal pictures of Saddam firing the gun. The company pulled them down except one. "We beat it with a mallet first but decided to keep it," said a grinning Staff Sergeant Felipe Madrid, from El Paso, Texas.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03. |
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