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3-21 INF Photos & Article

Nov-15-2004 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

The following article describes an AFP reporter's ride through Mosul with the 3-21 INF. Cheryl sent links to accompanying photos (one, two, three).

[Link to Full Article]

MOSUL, Iraq, Nov 15 (AFP) - A US army combat team has started combing the deserted streets of Mosul searching for rebels whom they say have flocked to Iraq's third-largest city after an all-out assault by US-led forces on their stronghold in Fallujah to the south.

Dozens of Stryker armoured vehicles carrying about 350 infantrymen from the 1st and 3rd battalions of the 24th Infantry Division fanned out north and east of Mosul on Sunday.

One of the monitors inside the high-tech armoured vehicles showed an aerial map of the city replete with blue circles tracking the troops' movements. [...]

"Normally all we do is patrol, drive around an area and make sure everybody is doing good, but lately it has been more attacks, way more attacks," said Sergeant Antonio Greene, 28, of the 3rd Battalion's 21st Regiment.

He added that insurgents had tried in recent days to ambush US troops and attack them with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

"That's when we stopped everything and said we need to clear this area and get the weapons off the street," says the Puerto Rico native.

His platoon commander promises a series of operations over the next few days aimed at flushing out the insurgents.

Suddenly the US military vehicles veered off the street and into a cluster of two-storey homes under construction. The doors of the vehicles pushed down and the soldiers ran towards the homes and got down on their knees and pointed their weapons in attack mode.

They had been tipped off that insurgents were using the homes as hideouts or attack bases.

They entered the bare concrete buildings one-by-one.

No one is at home but they find hand grenades, a bag of rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and bomb-making materials.


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