In August 2004, fighting broke out again between American troops of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the 1st Cavalry Division's 1st Battalion, 5th US Cavalry Regiment and 2nd Battalion, 7th US Cavalry Regiment, 15th Forward Support Battalion and Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. The battle, which was mostly centered around Wādī' as-Salām Cemetery and the southwestern portion of the city, lasted three weeks and ended when senior Iraqi cleric Grand Ayatollah Alī Al-Sīstānī negotiated an end to the fighting. The evening before Al-Sistani arrived in the city, two F-16's, flying out of Balad, dropped four two-thousand pound JDAMs (Joint Direct Attack Munitions) on two hotels in close proximity to the Imam Ali Shrine. The success of this airstrike dealt a devastating blow to the insurgents holed up in the second holiest shrine in the Islamic faith.
6 Comments
schmawysays...Cliffhanger!
Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_x30I0_ibE
siftbotsays...Moving this video to Farhad2000's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.
jwraysays...*promote
They should have just dropped napalm on the cemetary at 4am. Don't let the insurgents' act of hiding in "sacred" targets give them a tactical advantage. Lives are more important than stone monuments. They probably let half the militia get away during that 2 day firefight in addition to wasting the lives of troops.
siftbotsays...Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued - promote requested by jwray.
MrFisksays...I can't wait for the video game!
NordlichReitersays...The sniper was probably a Cossack mercenary. He sounds well trained, and a lot of the terrorist that are well trained seem to be coming from those types of countries. This is the same war for them that they fought during the Russian occupation.
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