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Sadrs people had attacked Spanish and Salvadoran troops outside Najaf earlier Sunday. Now there were reports that his men were going to take over Sadr Citys police stations. The patrol was a mix of veterans from the 1st Armored Division, men finally going home after a year in Iraq, and their replacements from the 1st Cavalry, who had been in the country less than a month. Many wore the all-black dress of Sadrs Al-Mahdi Army, a militia that like all private militias in Iraq is officially outlawed and is supposed to be disbanded. But as the United States soldiers prepared to challenge the men, a hellish gunfire rained down. From facing rooftops of two- and three-story buildings, Sadrs militia fighters unloaded their AK-47s on the United States Humvees and troop carriers. From the alleys, other militiamen fired rocket-propelled grenades. There is nothing more confusing in the entire universe than an ambush, especially one where the road networks are so narrow, because everything echoes, Dempsey said. Youre not exactly certain whether you are being shot at by three people or 33. Dempsey said most casualties typically occur in the first part of a battle, and this one followed form: Half of the dead and many of the American wounded resulted from this ambush. They outnumbered us at that point on the ground, so the patrol leader made the correct decision to move to a better defensive position, Dempsey said. The soldiers scrambled for cover, abandoning their vehicles and taking refuge in a building about 300 yards away. One more group of vehicles would enter Sadr City and come under attack before, with the city in darkness and firefights raging, a column of tanks entered and put the uprising down for the night. If the plan of Sadrs men was sound, it also was easy to arrive upon. There are few paths the Americans could take into Sadr City from their rear bases, and the spots at which to attack were obvious to all.
Beyond that, Dempsey said, the execution of the plan showed that while Sadrs Al-Mahdi may call itself an army, it remains an unprofessional militia. From the rooftops, Sadrs men would raise their automatic rifles over their heads and shoot over the railings, emptying their ammunition clips in one go but barely aiming. Asked what firepower the Americans brought to bear, the general said: Anything we had. But the armored vehicles that responded opened fire with their heavy machine guns and their cannons. Though they took enemy fire, the helicopters did not fire their weapons, Dempsey said. As some militiamen engaged the Americans, others spread out in the neighborhood. They dumped the stalls of a street market into the road in an attempt to blunt the advance of American vehicles. They occupied a district government building and set their sights on the Iraqi police. The Iraqi police retreated from at least two of their stations and consolidated forces in the main station of the neighborhood. We had some who were very courageous and stood with us, and we had some who were very uncourageous and did not stand with us. Sadrs men moved in to take over the deserted police buildings, only to be confronted as the night went on by American forces moving from government building to government building, regaining control. By the time the bloodshed ended, the United States had deployed about a battalion and a half of combat power-more than 1,000 soldiers-to reclaim Sadr City. Some Iraqis helped United States Monday afternoon, American tanks and troops were highly visible in several sections of the neighborhood. They occupied Sadrs headquarters, where the night before they had detained four people suspected of leading the uprising. Some Iraqis had helped the Americans with their wounded during the fight, soldiers told Dempsey. But many of the men in Sadr City expressed admiration Monday for the ability of Al-Mahdi Army to inflict death and destruction on United States forces that had deposed Saddam Hussein news - web sites in less than a month. Our guys is how the people of Sadr City referred to the militiamen. At the site of one ambush there was a festive air as a large group of boys banged away at the burned carcass of an abandoned United States vehicle. He corroborated Dempseys chain of events, saying Sadrs men fired first, but then a crowd gathered and let the young man know to change his story. He was to tell visitors that it was the Americans who started the fight. We came under attack, said a United States Army lieutenant whose forces were among those called in after the first ambush. Behind the officer was a platoon leader whose desert camouflage pants were red with dried blood. Dempsey had talked about some of the heroes of the fight, and he mentioned a couple of wounded platoon leaders who had refused to come off duty.
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