Al Jazeera reports that the friendlies now number 20,000, and that the major engagement has begun.
Lieutenant Colonel Gareth Brandl is already a mental casualty, he thinks Belzebub's running the opfors. You don't usually find that kind of insanity in a field commander at the Lt.Col level.
Updates as they come in.
11pm EST, local affiliates of the big 3 broadcast networks (US) confirm that the major engagement has begun. CENTCOM claims substantial territorial gains. Two US KIA. They managed to drive a bulldozer into the Euphrates, where they drowned. Paper, Scissors, Rock. Water sinks Armor.
Participating in the American attack is the "36th Commando Battalion, formed of former militiamen of the pro-Western parties governing in the interim Iraqi Government." That gives pause.
The greatest single operational risk factor that the US command faces and has control over is Blue-on-Blue fire events. The enormous work of real-time tracking of units, of putting ID sensor beacons on forward deployed vehicles and individual soldiers, isn't simply to allow indirect fire to not engage friendlies, its also to prevent direct fire from engaging friendlies. The greatest single operational advantage that the US command has is combined arms.
Kurdistan Democratic Party (DKP), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Supreme Counsel of the Islamic Revolution in the Iraqi/Badr Organization, the Iraqi National Accord (INA), the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the Iraqi Hezbollah, the Iraqi Communist Party and Da'wa. The nine militias of these parties were "disbanded" only three months ago. Is the training of the Iraqi units technically sufficient to incorporate them into a sophisticated, combined arms operation against determined forces? If they "flip", like a substantial number of previously trained and armed police and military units have, won't that effect a unit-level technology transfer to the opfors? Since most of the "friendlies" now under arms, were under arms during the Ba'ath period, in exile in Iran or internally but with connections to Iran, or in Kurdistan, which needs Iran more than it needs to be subordinated to a unified Iraqi State and the NATO member Turkish State, who really ends up with the IFF goodie bag?
The Sunday Mail (London) has some rawish information from the UK unit tasked with isolating the defenders. The Telegraph has some writing oddly absent fro the US press on the same general fact pattern:
The men, both bomb disposal experts from the Black Watch battle group, were in the back of an armoured Warrior combat vehicle when a suicide car bomber ploughed into them.The explosion, within earshot of Camp Dogwood, blew the legs off one of the men and caused horrific limb injuries to the other. It is believed their lives were saved by a doctor at the scene.
The top soldier who questioned the decision to use Black Watch troops to replace US marines was last night revealed as their commanding officer in Iraq. Lieutenant Colonel James Cowan also had concerns about the effect the mission to Camp Dogwood would have on soldiersÕ families in a series of emails. In one, Lt-Col Cowan Ð who lives near Edinburgh with his wife Minnie Ð said he expected Òevery lunatic terrorist from miles around to descend on us like bees to honeyÓ. He also said: ÒI hope the Government knows what it has got itself into. I am not sure they fully appreciate the risks. ÒThe marines we have taken over from have taken nine dead and 197 wounded since July. I hope we do better. ÒThe task looks quite challenging Ð a 500-mile line of communications to sustain 800 men and over 100 armoured vehicles largely from the air.Ó The emails were sent from Iraq to Britain shortly before three Black Watch soldiers Ð Private Paul Lowe, 19, Private Stuart McArdle, 22, and Sergeant Stuart Gray, 31, all from Fife Ð were killed by a suicide bomber on Thursday. At the Black WatchÕs Camp Dogwood base south-west of Baghdad, Lt-Col Cowan refused to comment yesterday. The Ministry of Defence in London said they did not comment on the content of leaked documents and emails. Roseanna Cunningham, SNP MSP for Perth, home to the Black Watch, said: ÒI hope these comments serve as a reminder to the Prime Minister about the position he has placed our boys in.ÓPosted by EBW at November 7, 2004 06:37 PM | TrackBack