Hunting Down Saddam (9 page)

The Raid on Ayn Sifni

On April 6, at precisely 0600 hours, the raid on the town of Ayn Sifni was launched by 10th SFG (A) A-Teams and a total of one thousand five hundred Peshmerga.

The attack was four-pronged, and used the Observation Posts on Hill 613 to the north/northeast to provide CAS and fire support with a Peshmerga 82mm mortar platoon on Hill 613.

Assaulting elements came from Hill 725, with ODA 056 and three hundred Pesh fighters coming from the west. At the same time, ODA 055, accompanied by a Pesh heavy weapons element, came straight down the road from the north to block a northern Iraqi escape route.

Raid on Ayn Sifni: Operational Map

This is the Operational Map with the results of the raid and the plan of attack used by the combined Green Beret/Kurdish force.
Courtesy:
US Special Forces, 10th Group

It took thirty minutes for a combined element of ODA 051 and a Supay commander (unit commander) with three hundred Pesh to infiltrate in from the east. They reached the objective around 0630.

Ayn Sifni was an Iraqi stronghold. It sat at the crossroads, and was well defended, with a fort and towers, and a body of water on the southern end. A road ran from north to south through Ayn Sifni, and from the town's center, another road shot straight west.

Ayn Sifni was defended by more than three hundred Iraqi soldiers, with five mortar positions, numerous heavy machine guns (7.62mm, 12.7mm, 14.5mm, and 23mm ZSUs), two 37mm ADA (Air Defense Artillery) pieces, two 73mm RRs (Recoilless Rifles), and one 57mm ADA gun.

The OP on Hill 613 called in bomb after bomb, dropped on the enemy's heavy weapons emplacements. Four F-14 Tomcats and four F/A-18 Hornets loosed fifteen 1,000- to 2,000-pound JDAMs and strafed the Iraqi positions with two 20mm gun runs. The Iraqis were overwhelmed. After the main battle, the remaining Iraqis retreated down the road to the south.

There, the fleeing Iraqis were met by an element from ODA 051 and another Pesh 82mm mortar detachment at TAI 2, where the attack continued until every enemy soldier had either been KIA or had laid down their weapons and surrendered.

The raid on Ayn Sifni bolstered the confidence of the Pesh, and got them one step closer to Mosul, a city that had once been their own. The body count from the raid stood at 33 Iraqi KIA, 40–54 WIA, and 230–240 enemy POWs captured (estimates vary slightly, depending on the source).

The Green Berets were again unscathed, but sadly the Pesh suffered the loss of a commander during their charge into the town, and a total of twenty WIA.

The KDP mourned the loss of their commander, but celebrated their liberation of the first major town in northern Iraq. Several Green Berets attended the fallen commander's funeral, which helped to patch any resentment or anger over the KDP's loss of one of their best men.

Gaining Momentum

As the A-Teams and their Pesh fighters gained momentum toward Mosul, they began to witness General Mustafa's sense of honor and morality firsthand. Initially, the Pesh were a well-mannered, disciplined bunch; but as they charged south and began sweeping through Iraqi towns and cities with intoxicating victory and liberation, there was the occasional report of KDP fighters looting or rioting.

When this occurred, it would usually happen in the very front ranks of the advancing Kurds, and when Mustafa arrived in town with his entourage, he would immediately take control of the situation and put a halt to any acts of revenge or pillage. For the Kurds who took part in the looting and rioting, it was revenge and a fair turn for what they had endured at the hands of Saddam and his regime. To Mustafa, it was no way to set an example or to treat others, even if they were the enemy Iraqi.

Mustafa dealt with the infractions severely. He would immediately have the offenders seized, arrested, and jailed. Through his long ordeal as a POW, Mustafa knew that he would not let his people sink down to the levels of the Iraqis who had oppressed them for so many years. He would lead his men by example.

According to the operators on the ground, the KDP treated their Iraqi prisoners very well, even as “brothers in arms,” to quote one Green Beret. The Kurds were observed being civil and even friendly to the captured Iraqi soldiers. Any Iraqi who came under arrest was treated with the same respect the Kurds felt they deserved, had the situation been reversed. The Kurds realized that many of Saddam's soldiers were there only because they had no choice—they did not necessarily want to be there, and many wanted to be liberated from Saddam just as badly as the KDP wanted to be liberated. Camaraderie quickly developed, and it was a “good scene” to witness, according to some of the Green Berets who watched it unfold.

After taking the Debecka Gap, the Aski Kalak Bridge, and Ayn Sifni, 10th SFG and General Mustafa headed due south and liberated Mahkmur. According to SGM Tim Strong, the Iraqi Army was caught so off guard that pots of tea were still hot and steeping on their stoves when the Special Forces rolled into Mahkmur.

On April 8, the Green Berets moved again, this time to Altun Kupri and Dibs on the east, across the Great Zab river. The Green Berets pushed west, east, and south, taking one objective after another.

According to one Special Forces commander, seven to nine cities were liberated with General Mustafa over the course of one single day, April 9.

The usual tactic was the Green Berets' fire support for the Pesh in the form of CAS and Javelin missiles. The Pesh would follow this up with an on-line infantry assault across the objective. The three 3rd SFG “Mobility ODAs” assigned to work with Task Force VIKING were outfitted with mounted, belt-fed MK-19 automatic 40mm grenade launchers, M-60 7.62mm GPMGs (General Purpose Machine Guns), and .50 caliber M2HB machine guns. These fast, armored weapons platforms quickly swept across the objectives and aided the combined Green Beret/Pesh forces with valuable fire support. These efforts, in no small way, contributed to a swift and purposeful war.

Apocalypse Now

Mosul, a city of over one million people, was liberated by a single Special Forces battalion. Their first nighttime drive into the chaos was later described by one SF leader who was there: “It was worse than
Apocalypse Now,
driving up the Mekong, with all the burning buildings and people. The city was on fire, there was looting … it was out of control.”

And chaos it was. There were firefights between property owners and looters on every street. An AC-130 Spectre gunship loomed overhead, able to provide precise and devastating fire support to the ODAs in downtown Mosul in literally an instant. The SF teams patrolled the city in what is known as “Force Projection,” showing the Iraqis that they were now in control.

While the scene may have appeared to be like
Apocalypse Now
to the U.S. troops, chaos was not at all new to Mosul. This third largest city in Iraq has been a center for twentieth-century revolt: major upheavals happened in 1920, 1963, and again in 1968. Crude oil was discovered after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and its post–World War I division, and there has been much strife and controversy there ever since. Mosul is strategic economically, with significant oil storage and refinery facilities. It is also the major economic hub for northern Iraq.

Saddam Hussein's “Arabization” Project had displaced large numbers of ethnic Kurds and Turkomen from their homes in Mosul, paying Arabs to move into the Kurds' homes and take over their businesses while the rightful residents were herded and chased into refugee camps in the mountains. Although Mosul is not generally regarded by the Kurds as within their claimed areas, it is within close proximity to the green line, and rests just south of the 1970 Kurdish maximal demands.

This close proximity, according to military sources, has led to the Turkish rhetoric of “playing up” the Kurdish intent to occupy Mosul, an attempt by Turkey to keep Iraqi pressure on the Kurds. Turkey has long been fearful of an independent Kurd nation; Turkey is the nation with the most land to lose should the Kurds gain their independence.

10th SFG drove through Mosul, arriving at the city's airfield at approximately 0100 hours. The next day the city was broken down into sectors by 10th Group's battalion commander. Each ODA had its own sector, and they proceeded to tear down roadblocks, establish some peace, law, and order, and let the citizens of Mosul know that the Americans were there and the people of Mosul were now free.

On April 12, ODA 065 discovered a huge ASP (Ammo Storage Point), and determined that an eight-kilometer-square section of the city needed to be secured by them immediately, until follow-on units could arrive to replace them. They held security on the area until the next morning.

Two days later, 065 found an area in the Mosul Polymer/Carbon Production plant that may have been a BIO/CHEM/missile production facility. The plant was stocked with chemical suits and protective gear; one building reeked of ammonia, with various chemicals spilled on the floor.

The next day, a room with several dead pigeons on the floor was discovered in Mosul's prison complex. Every situation had to be treated as contaminated; Coalition forces could not be too careful. This time, there was no evidence to substantiate the cause for concern. The pigeons probably didn't die from exposure to or testing of a poisonous agent, but dead birds will always spark some anxiety. After all, canaries have been used by miners to detect carbon monoxide, and other natural gases, and are much more sensitive to the toxic effects of chemicals and gases.

Within four days, the 101st Airborne Division arrived in Mosul. The city was turned over to the Screaming Eagles on April 19, 2003, without the loss of a single Special Operator. “We were so lucky we didn't lose anybody, and that's what's so amazing. We didn't lose one single American. I mean, it's not the jungles of Vietnam that you [Robin Moore] wrote about, but … war is war, and it doesn't matter where you're at,” recalled SGM Tim Strong.

“We were in our Range Rovers, we always had our ballistic armor on, and we basically took no shit. People got in our way; we got 'em off the road. Anything that was considered a threat, we neutralized. We didn't fuck around.”

THE SCREAMING EAGLES

Hearts and Minds: An Author's Note

On an early October morning, I climbed into a waiting Black Hawk helicopter for the two-and-a-half-hour flight from Baghdad to Mosul. I was with my long-time Green Beret friend and Iraq traveling companion, Russell Cummings, on our way to the headquarters of COL Joe Anderson and his “Screaming Eagles,” the 101st Airborne.

The Baghdad outskirts flashed below me, miles and miles of crops and date palms growing in the Euphrates and Tigris fertile valley, helped along by a huge irrigation program. An hour out of Baghdad, we passed over Tikrit. Below us, we could see the palaces in the city of Saddam Hussein's youth.

Huge rocks and endless sand covered the ground below—a veritable no-man's-land of desolation. I thought of the Green Berets of the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) who, a few months earlier, had landed in Bashir. They must have been discouraged at best, with their shot-up airplanes flying over such desolate territory.

I was certainly happy to be in a functional Black Hawk as we approached our landing at the helipad, owned presently by the 101st Airborne Division. You had to be a tiger in the air to survive this area, surrounded as it was by such inhospitable wasteland. Yet, as we settled into the helipad, I could see the grand palaces that defied the hardscrabble city surrounding them.

We landed in Mosul and were met by a delegation from the Strike Brigade and “Strike Six,” COL Joe Anderson. We were quickly whisked away with our impedimenta, and taken to the HQ of the 101st Airborne Division, a palace complex that had been looted by the Iraqis, and then made functional again by the 101st. Our first stop was the palace that had been acquired by the officers in charge of the Air Force contingent.

The usual group of Public Affairs Officers (PAOs) greeted us. They had managed to set up their offices in the finest areas of the most luxurious palace available. We were introduced to the various commanders of the Mosul units, after which we were taken by MG (Major General) David Petraeus to a briefing on the Screaming Eagles and their activities as they tried to create order from a greatly disordered city. I'm afraid that I, having Parkinson's and the dry irritable eyes that accompany this affliction, had to close my eyes for a few minutes of the briefing. I assure the reader (and the general) that I not only absorbed every word of the briefing, but made sure to include them in the following pages.

After his presentation, we took our leave of the general, and walked to the HQ palace where COL Joe Anderson was waiting for us. I immediately felt a kinship with the colonel. We discussed some of his group's exploits over the past three months since the Screaming Eagles had invaded Iraq from Kuwait via the outskirts of Basra.

The most recent newsworthy event of the war at that time was claimed by Anderson's brigade, when only months before, they had located and dispatched the two sons and a grandson of Saddam Hussein in Mosul.