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August 04, 2005
Report from the front lines
The quality of reporting available to us via the MainStream Media (MSM) is just awful; you have to surf the web to find the kind of writing pioneered by the late, great Ernie Pyle. Michael Yon is a freelance writer, roaming about Iraq with the U.S. military, providing a front-row seat to the fighting.
When he died at about 7:24 Monday morning, we knew that other known terrorists had been spooked. They were in two other cars at another known location. Within about thirty minutes, we loaded back onto the Strykers and rolled, and soon spotted a car matching the description, with two men in the front seat.
The Strykers blocked in the car, and dropped ramps so the soldiers could dismount and check the suspects. Ramps down is always an interesting moment. One time, in another Stryker Battalion in Mosul, when the ramp dropped, bad guys started shooting into the back of the vehicle.
More devastating, though, are the car bombs. People driving car bombs are known to explode without warning. But this car did not explode; instead, the terrorists tried to run the road block. This required them to squeeze between a Stryker and a building, nearly running over soldiers, who began firing at the fleeing insurgents.
The terrorist were making a run for it. I followed behind with my new camera, and actually shot photos while running.
The lack of power of the American M-4 and M-16 rifles is astonishing. So many people and cars shot-up, but they just keep going and going. For a moment, it appeared the terrorists might get away.
But our guys shot them full of holes, and the terrorists crashed into a small roadside stand. Nobody had to yell, cease fire; These soldiers have fought enough to know when to start shooting, and when to stop. The two terrorists died at 8:04, Monday morning.
The soldiers collected evidence, loaded the corpses into body bags, and were still searching for two other known terrorists. The four had moved into the area to link-up for a police-killing mission.
Click on the photo; you can see the brass flying. You can practically smell the cordite. There are more photos on Yon's site, as he documents the fighting. Trust me, his blog is worth a daily read; bookmark it.
Posted by Mike Lief at August 4, 2005 10:05 PM
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http://punditreview.blogspot.com/2005/08/michael-yon-interview.html
Here is an interview with Michael Yon recorded live from Mosul last evening on Pundit Review Radio.
Posted by: Kevin at August 15, 2005 05:26 PM