The Boston Herald March 24, 2003
'Ghosts of Mogadishu' still haunt troops
By Thomas Caywood
Iraqi militia thugs disguised in civilian clothes and soldiers feinting surrender before springing ambushes gave coalition forces a taste yesterday of the bloody guerrilla war waiting across the Euphrates River, military experts said.
"I think this is a preview of what we can expect to experience when we get to Baghdad," said John Pike, director of the Virginia-based defense think tank Global Security. "I think it will intensify as they get closer to Baghdad."
Guerrilla warfare tactics pose little threat in the wide-open deserts ruled by armor and air power, but they can bedevil convential military forces bunched up in urban areas.
The fighting around As Samawah on the Euphrates River confirmed some of the military's worst fears about fighting in an urban environment. Iraqi troops appeared yesterday to force women and children into a building near a military compound under fire from cavalry troops commanded by Capt. Jeff McCoy.
"I hate city fighting," McCoy told a reporter traveling with the unit.
And for good reason.
"Once you go into that maze of concrete canyons, you give up a lot of the technical advantages you possess," said Gregory J. W. Urwin, a military history scholar at Temple University in Philadelphia. "It's very easy for one guy with a shoulder-fired rocket to pop up on a roof and take out a helicopter."
The mighty U.S. Army that routed Iraqi forces in giant tank battles during the 1991 Gulf War got a painful reminder of that lesson two years later in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu. Eighteen American soldiers were killed and 84 wounded in an overnight firefight there.
"You can be sure the ghosts of Mogadishu are on the minds of American commanders," Urwin said.
While acknowledging a "tough day of fighting," top American and British commanders yesterday said their eventual victory has never been in doubt.
During a briefing, they reported fierce resistance around An Nasiriyah on the banks of the Euphrates River by "irregulars" not in uniform, some driving modified civilian pickup trucks. Commanders also reported ruses where Iraqi soldiers showing surrender suddenly opened fire on U.S. Marines.
Militia enforcers reknowned for their brutality and loyalty to the Iraqi strongman, the Saddam Fedayeen or Saddam's Martyrs, also are reported to be active behind American and British front lines.
"These are the guys who have no future in the post-Saddam regime," Pike said. "These are the people who are implicated in the crimes of the regime."
Pike and Urwin see signs that American commanders expected such tactics. Urwin pointed to several instances where coalition forces cut off and then bypassed urban areas.
Pike cautioned against making too much of the intense firefights between Iraqi guerrillas and the leading edge of the invading American and British forces. While Marines suffered significant casualties near An Nasiriyah in what commanders described as "sharp engagements," Pike doubted scattered ambushes by lightly armed irregulars could repulse the thrust toward Baghdad.
"I have not heard anything surprising today," Pike said.
While Hussein's apparent new strategy isn't likely to turn back the heavily armored 3rd Infantry Division as it closes in on the capital city, the shift isn't something American and British commanders can afford to ignore.
"Even after Baghdad is taken, this could be a problem," Urwin said. "There could be a guerrilla war waged for months."
Caption: COVER UP: U.S. Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit take cover during a battle at the Gulf port of Umm Qasr yesterday. AP photo
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