Mission Overview | Mission Detail | Chronology Satellite Imagery | Forces | Tactical | Weapons Multimedia | News Coverage | Discuss

Mission 9 - Tactical Considerations
Fallujah Abizaid Attack

When ambushing a convoy, the enemy will try to take out the lead vehicle and the rear vehicle. That makes it so the middle guys can't move forward, and they can't escape. The convoy involving General Abizaid is most likely made up of HMMWVs and M1A1s, which will lead the pack and bring up the rear. The M1A1 is impervious to an RPG attack because its armor is a ceramic composite mixed with heavy armor and depleted uranium, not the reactive armor the RPG's tandem warheads were designed to defeat.

The insurgents are basing their calculations of the RPG on past successes with Soviet vehicles used in Afghanistan. All Soviet tanks are susceptible to RPG fire, but no M1A1 is. A more viable target for an RPG round is the HMMWV. Even up-armored HMMWVs, designed to deflect landmines, will fall to a rocket-propelled grenade. But the speed of a HMMWV and the difficulty in accurately hitting a moving target with an RPG can be a lifesaving combination.

Since one in four Iraqi insurgents is armed with a rocket-propelled grenade, the attacks are plentiful. The rebel RPG operator will choose to fire from either a basement level or a second story or higher. Tanks fire most effectively at a midlevel point, so either going high or laying low is the enemy's best bet for avoiding heavy return fire. Once in position, the rebel knows he will need to either compromise the rear or the top of the turret or blind the driver's vision from the front to be effective. The RPG gunner will be looking for the closest range possible: a position that will offer a 30-50 meter shot against his target for a kill.

RPGs are notable for the grey-blue smoke they trail behind. As a soldier, you see that initially, and you know it's an RPG attack. So when insurgents launched RPGs from the second story of an adjacent building, the troops moved to quickly get General Abizaid, a high-value target, out of harm's way. Left behind were troops to assault the ambush. American soldiers are trained to run directly into the field of fire. When the Americans did, the enemy was gone. Not surprising. If the insurgent is a seasoned attacker with an RPG, he knows staying put is deadly. Instead, he'll fire and run and then reposition himself. It may sound like cowardice, but it's actually a good fighting technique with an RPG.

Shooting from the mosque gave the attacker a slight advantage. There's a level the Americans have to overcome to shoot into a mosque because soldiers have been briefed over and over again about not shooting in, around, or anywhere near a mosque. But the insurgent probably didn't bear this in mind when he chose to fire from the rooftop. It was nothing more than a good vantage point for him to fire from, and not a sophisticated choice. After all, firing away at a target doesn't take much calculation, just fervor.

From an interview with US Army Staff Sergeant Dan Snyder