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With an Army Convoy

Apr-15-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

Additional confirmation that some Strykers are deployed near Najaf.

[Link to Full Article] (Registration required)
By Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post Staff Writer

ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq -- The nighttime ambush had left one soldier dead, another wounded. When it was over, Sgt. James Amyett calmly lit a cigarette, leaned over, and in a stage whisper drawled, "Don't be alarmed, but somebody here is trying to kill us."

The thousands of troops who moved south to the Najaf area this week didn't need to be told.

In the biggest Army operation in central Iraq since last spring's invasion, dozens of convoys made up of hundreds of tanks and trucks moved into an area where Shiite Muslim militias had battled with occupation troops several times this month. Along the way, nearly every convoy was fired on, weary soldiers said afterward. Iraqi insurgents blew up bridges on the convoy routes, doubling or tripling the duration of trips scheduled to take six to 12 hours. And the U.S. military operation in Iraq began to feel less like a troubled occupation and more like a small war. [...]

At 2:19 a.m. on Monday, the convoy rolled out the front gate of the base near Baqubah. The parade comprised not just tanks, Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles, but many of the more exotic parts of the U.S. Army inventory, such as the new Stryker armored vehicle, huge portable bridges and special trucks for carrying M1 Abrams tanks.

The article is worth registering for and reading in full.

(Thanks to SaraLina77 for the link)

UPDATE: Here's a version of the article that you don't need to register for.


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