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'About Five Minutes Into It, We Had to Take Over'
U.S. soldiers with the 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division are accompanied by Iraqi children as they patrol the Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Shulah in Baghdad.
(Photos By Chris Hondros -- Getty Images)
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While some Iraqis froze in indecision, others fired wildly as they ran across streets. Hollywood heroics, one soldier called it.
"I'm just thinking to myself, oh God, get me out of this because these guys are going to get me killed if we stay here," Baxter said.
The Americans called in helicopters to shoot at the snipers, but it was too chaotic of a scene for the aircraft to make clear shots, they said.
Still pinned against the wall underneath the covered sidewalk, McQueen decided it was time to make a run for his Humvee, he recalled. In Arabic, he told the Iraqis to go.
They gave him a puzzled look. Follow me, he told them. This time they complied.
McQueen got into the Humvee first, then opened the back door. Bullets whizzed by. He pulled the soldiers inside as the Humvee drove away. They squeezed in under the gunner. They jumped on top of one another. "It looked like Twister," McQueen said.
Top Iraqi leaders at the base said the mission proved that they can someday secure their own country without interference from American forces. What they lack is not training, not motivation, not confidence, but equipment, they said. They need better tanks and spare parts, Iraqi officials said. And they really need aircraft.
"Give us the aviation and leave us alone," Brig. Gen. Kasim Maliki, a 25-year veteran of the army, said through an interpreter.
Friday's operation was planned over the course of 48 hours, in consultation with the Defense Ministry, Maliki said.
He scoffed at the idea that the Iraqi army needs better training to carry out such missions. "We have been through wars," he said over a cup of sweet tea.
Lt. Col. Bassim Mohammed, who joined the Iraqi army in 1987, said he did not believe his men were prepared for Friday's operation because they had so little notice. He said he found out about the mission at midnight, and they left at 3:30 a.m. That was not enough time to secure the perimeter, he said.
They encountered more than 100 insurgents, he said, and killed or wounded about 20 of them. He said he believes his soldiers could have better handled so many insurgents with more notice.
"We've never suffered the way we did yesterday," he said.
