Apr
02
2007
|
The Welcome Suicide Truck Bombers |
|
|
|
Written by JD Johannes
|
|
Tuesday, 03 April 2007 |
|
2300 Saturday March 24th, Arrive Camp Fallujah, Iraq
2230 Sunday March 25th, Arrive OP Omar, Karmah, Iraq to embed with Blackfoot 1-501 Airborne
1405 Monday March 26th, AQI attacks OP Omar
The last time I was in Karmah, the convoy I was riding in was hit with a 155mm IED.
This time AQI pulled out all the stops--a complex attack featuring heavy machine guns, RPGs, mortar fire and two suicide truck bombers.
 |
(Click the picture to play Windows Media video)
|
|
When the sharpshooters headed to the roof, I knew that was where I wanted to be. As SPC Hegland and I crested the roof line, the enemy shifted their fire to us. We became targets of opportunity. This is what it looks like to take fire from while holding a camera in one hand. If I had paused to frame up a shot, I wouldn’t be writing this.
|
 |
(Click the picture to play
Windows Media video)
|
|
Inside the tower, two of the sharpshooters, Lynch with an M-14 and Knipper with a scoped M-4 scanned for targets as the lower towers fired AT-4s at the buildings the enemy were hiding in.
|
 |
|
SPC Lynch searches for targets.
|
 |
|
SPC Knipper was asleep in his bunk when the first suicide truck bomb hit. When things go down in a hurry, Soldiers come to the fight as they are. Knipper put on his boots and body armor, but forgot his shirt.
|
 |
|
The first suicide truck bomb had about 1,000 pounds of explosives. The second one had about 2,000 pounds of explosives. The second one exploded in the crater of the first. I walked past the crater a few nights later. It was 70 feet in diameter and more than 25 feet deep.
The internets move pretty slow in Anbar so the video files are pretty small. In full 1080i HDV I shoot in, they show just how ugly and stunning a shoot out can be.
Support independent filmmaking in Iraq, buy a DVD!
|
|
|
