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GIs in Sadr City caught between warring Iraqi sides

Apr-22-2008 » Filed Under: 2/25 SBCT

Story via FOB Tacoma. Here's the first part - click through to read the whole article.

By Leila Fadel, McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD — Three weeks after U.S. troops were ordered into the sprawling Shiite Muslim slum of Sadr City to stop rockets from raining down on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad's Green Zone, they're caught in crossfire between Shiite militiamen and the mostly Shiite Iraqi army.

American soldiers who try to move around this urban area, even in the U.S. Army's state-of-the-art Stryker armored vehicles, risk being ambushed. The soldiers in a platoon from the 25th Infantry Division quickly learned that holding a position puts them in the line of fire from both the Mahdi Army militia and the U.S.-backed Iraqi forces.

The American soldiers can't go on the offensive from the run-down two-story house they commandeered in south Sadr City, but must hunker down and wait to get shot at.

An Iraqi family evacuated the house just before the fighting started. It has rats and clogged toilets but no electricity or hot water, and no air conditioning or heating. The American soldiers have had one shower and barely a change of clothes since they got here.

Things got a lot worse last weekend, when bullets started flying at the house, targeting soldiers on the rooftop and in the rooms on the second floor.

"Where's it coming from?" the soldiers on the roof shouted to one another.

"I think it's coming from the north and west," one soldier said over the radio. "Is the Iraqi army shooting at us?"

Three times that day, the Iraqi army unit just up the road from the house was told to hold its fire because its erratic shots were hitting the house that its American allies occupied.

Three times, the Iraqis kept right on shooting.

[...]


Comments For "GIs in Sadr City caught between warring Iraqi sides":

I feel sick when I read this. WHY are our soldiers there if they can't fight back. It must be a constant fear - mind game for them that they are just sitting ducks.

Posted by: sgf | April 23, 2008 8:29 AM

This is just crazy. WHY are our SM risking their lives for BS like this???

Posted by: Stryker Driver Mom [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 23, 2008 10:36 AM

We continue to pray for God's great protection upon our soldiers, my son, and the leaders in control. Prayer is powerful, remember to lift up our troops!

Posted by: ColoradoMom [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 23, 2008 10:58 AM

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