- The attack was as brazen as it was meticulously-planned.
Under the gaze of an old Iraqi general wearing a Saddam Hussein-era olive-green
uniform, a disciplined force of former soldiers unleashed a 90-minute mortar
barrage on a United States base on the edge of Samarra.
-
- The onslaught, witnessed last week by The Sunday Telegraph,
claimed the lives of five American troops and six Iraqis in the most daring
raid yet launched by Saddam loyalists in the shrine city 60 miles north
of Baghdad.
-
- For almost a fortnight, Samarra - like Fallujah - has
been an outlaw town and a no-go area for the American-led Multi-National
Force.
-
- Last Thursday, the insurgents, Sunni loyalists turfed
from power along with Saddam, demonstrated a new capability to kill Americans
in a sophisticated military operation rather than a hit-and-run ambush.
-
- The synchronised attack began when a car bomb devastated
the headquarters of the local Iraqi National Guard. In the chaotic aftermath,
several guards rushed to the still intact locker room, throwing off their
uniforms in the hope that they could flee without being noticed.
-
- A five-minute drive away, the former general was overseeing
the next phase of the operation as his men set up mortar positions at a
crossroads in the al-Sina'ai district.
-
- A Bakelite two-way radio in the general's hand crackled
with reports from rooftop positions overlooking the town. Then at midday
precisely, he barked a one-word order: "Start."
-
- With a sharp crack and rush of air, the barrage of mortars
arced into the clear blue sky towards an American army base on the outskirts
of the city.
-
- Professional soldiers who knew how to gauge and range
an artillery piece were in charge, an alarming development for the Americans
who have endured deadly but mostly scattered showers of "iron rain"
during the year-old uprising.
-
- The attackers were not talkative but did not appear suspicious
of outside scrutiny. "Welcome," said the general, who declined
to give his name. "I will not say anything, but watch the Iraqi army
in action."
-
- A spokesman for the 1st Infantry division of the American
army's Task Force Danger, Major Neal O'Brien, said five soldiers and two
National Guard were killed in the onslaught.
-
- Thirty-eight mortars struck in four bombardments before
US forces quelled the attack in mid-afternoon using Apache helicopters,
firing Hellfire missiles, and fighter jets. Missiles were fired at the
rooftop positions of the lookouts and commanders directing the assault.
-
- In the most spectacular strike, they demolished the third
and fourth floors of the Al Medhi hotel. As eight helicopters landed to
evacuate the American troops from bunkers in the camp, the first looters
start to spill on to the site before they were driven back by machine-gun
fire.
-
- Within an hour, the city had been sealed off and American
tanks and armoured vehicles moved into its centre, which also boasts one
of the Shia sect's holiest shrines. It was the US army's first deployment
inside Samarra for more than 10 days. In that time the resistance, in the
uniforms of Saddam's state, had gained control of the streets.
-
- Indeed, shortly before the morning's car bomb, The Sunday
Telegraph met seven former soldiers led by a man wearing captain's epaulettes
manning a checkpoint at the edge of the city centre. He said that the National
Guard was afraid to puncture his cordon: "The National Guard are traitors,
they work with the Americans but are afraid to come in here. We control
Samarra now."
-
- He boasted that they had begun to drive out the city's
Kurdish population, claiming that they were a pro-American fifth column.
The potential for internecine Iraqi conflict is greater in Samarra because
a substantial Shia population also lives in the city.
-
- American commanders know that even if their firepower
proves too strong for now, their foes can melt back into farms and safe
houses and plan their return.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/11
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