Eerie Ghost Town Greets Troops Amid The Grisly Debris Of Battle

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.nypost.com/commentary/72122.htm
EERIE GHOST TOWN GREETS TROOPS AMID THE GRISLY DEBRIS OF BATTLE

By JONATHAN FOREMAN
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STRANGE HINT OF HOME:
The Post?s Jonathan Foreman finds a view of the pre-9/11 New York skyline, with palm trees, in an abandoned Iraqi barbershop.
- Mario De Carvalho

March 28, 2003 -- With the 54th Engineers in Al Kifl 80 miles from Baghdad
THINGS are strangely still, here in Al Kifl, a town on the east bank of the Euphrates taken yesterday by the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division - a town whose outskirts mark the deepest point of the American advance to Baghdad.

Corpses of Iraqi troops lie in strange twisted positions along the sagging bridge leading into the town. And burned-out "civilian" pickup trucks, one of them still containing Iraqi mortar rounds and rifles, litter the western approach to the bridge.

Members of the 54th Engineer Battalion have been busy checking to see if the bridge can bear the weight of 60-ton tanks.

The clear, green waters of the Euphrates flow quietly under the bridge, reflecting the palm trees along both banks. The town, with elegant villas along its main street, is now an empty wreck.

"It looks like Mogadishu, or something out of a movie," said one GI.

U.S. forces now control the highways that lead through the town down to An Najaf, which continues to be the scene of fierce fighting.

Tanks from the 3rd Infantry first crossed the bridge two days ago to stop incursions by Iraqi forces.

According to Lt. Cmdr. Jeffrey Sanderson, the Iraqis "used the town as a staging area" for sniper and rocket-propelled grenade attacks on U.S. forces in the desert - forces like the 54th Engineers.

The Iraqis tried to blow the bridge during the U.S. crossing, but only damaged a section on the west bank. The bridge is still usable, despite an obvious sag.

Subsequent attempts to finish the destruction job were stopped by tight security, as can be seen by the body at the base of the bridge - of an Iraqi soldier with a satchel charge in his hand and a bullet hole in his head.

On Wednesday night, in the midst of a raging sandstorm, tanks of the 2nd Battalion of the 69th Armored Regiment took the town.

Before making a "thunder run" down the main street, one of the tanks in the lead squadron fired a round from its main gun.

"It creates an overpressure that sucks everyone and everything into the center of the street," explained the captain who led the assault.

"Then it was a recon by fire."

In other words, the tankers figured out where the Iraqis were - despite the low visibility - by firing and watching to see where the return fire came from.

Most buildings were still standing this morning, although burned-out cars littered the sidewalks and store windows were broken. One store, the "Adam" barbershop, bizarrely sported a large poster of New York City with the Twin Towers in the background and a palm tree-girded New Jersey in the foreground.

Col. William Grimsley, who commands the 1st Brigade Combat Team spearheading the left prong of the Allied advance northwards, led journalists on a quick tour through town to an intersection north of the city, while Bradley fighting vehicles, M1 Abrams tanks and infantrymen kept guard.

As the tour began, machine-gun fire broke out on the west bank, a few hundred yards to our left. After five minutes of steady .50-caliber and 25mm cannon fire from U.S. vehicles on the bridge, a plume of smoke rose from among the palm trees.

When Grimsley?s column stopped not far out of town, he met up with Sanderson and his armored battalion, which it turned out had been attacked during the night. The unit was now facing down Iraqi forces using an old factory as a staging area.

A psychological operations team in a Humvee with roof-mounted loudspeakers called on Iraqi troops to surrender and urged civilians to remain in their homes. When there was no response, an airstrike was authorized.

"As soon as you give the order we?re going to blow the f- - - out of that thing," Grimsley said to Sanderson.

About 15 minutes later there was an astonishingly loud series of explosions - but no sign of any plane - and a gray cloud billowed to the left of the factory. The high-flying Air Force pilots had missed.

Ten minutes later they returned and dropped a second round of guided munitions. Again, no bull?s-eye, but smoke started to pour out of one of the factory?s two chimneys.

It wasn?t the first airstrike to be called on Iraqi forces in the vicinity. A-10 ground attack planes and B-52 bombers, as well as rocket and gun artillery, have been called in both to crater the highways and to root out Iraqi troops.

"I ain?t gonna clear that village with American infantry - just key buildings," explained Sanderson.