Stryker Brigade News

It wasn’t long before the Stryker soldiers heard the radio call of a KIA – killed in action – behind them, where their Iraqi protégés were supposed to be blocking traffic.

A passenger in a white Toyota pickup truck was dead, shot in the head by an Iraqi soldier whose marksmanship was exemplary but whose judgment was not.

“These guys can get skitchy on the trigger finger,” said Spc. Chris Reed, who took photos and collected other evidence at the scene. “It’s our standard operating procedure to fire two or three shots at the ground, but they don’t seem to get it.” [...]

Mosul was on high alert for potential suicide bombers Thursday, but Stryker forces didn’t encounter any in what turned out to be the fourth consecutive day of fewer-than-average enemy attacks.

Still, there’s a constant recognition that things could change overnight and northern Iraq could begin to resemble Baghdad, which was struck by two suicide attacks and two other bombings Thursday. The worst killed at least 12 Iraqis and wounded more than 56 near a market and a cinema.

The Fort Lewis soldiers with 3rd Platoon are all too familiar with the dangers of VBIEDs. On May 4, one of their Strykers was knocked out of service – and their platoon sergeant was sent home with face and hand injuries – when a suicide bomber smashed into the right front side. The force of the impact knocked all the radios off their mounts and blew open the rear hatch.

But Thursday, as the soldiers prepared to return to base from the Al Bareed neighborhood, there was a sense of the routine in the midst of the unpredictable. The roadside bomb had been safely disposed of, and an ambulance was en route to pick up the dead civilian.