these are the inside stories of the Iraq war
told by the men and women living it well below we need to get this
raw
uncocked
real
ok
mosel Iraq 2005 army staff sergeant adam lingo is hunting down an elusive enemy
architects he records his unit as it conducts raids trying to kill or capture
in surges
people want to see that the stereo watered-down version of what's going on
they don't want to cheat to accept the reality that awards and lasting
yeah
this house to house combat is not what America envisioned when the iraq war
began two years earlier
March twentieth two thousand three major marcaine is on a top-secret mission over
Baghdad
as the Sun begins to light the sky he fears that anti-aircraft batteries will
spot his f-117 stealth fighter i said i could see them does this mean they could
see me think about it
black aircraft flying at this guy is a juicy target but he remains undetected
reaching his target and drops to satellite-guided bunker-busting ball
the war has begun
when he lands here it is base he's finally told his target though he
suspected it all along a rocky dictator Saddam Hussein
ok
can't hear anything over the noise of the engines and everything out there but
I could tell that everybody was pretty pumped their happiness is short-lived
a few hours later Saddam appears on Iraqi TV very much alive and ranting
about the US attack
yeah
the next day President George W Bush orders a coalition of ground forces from
the US the United Kingdom and Australia to invade
yeah
the troops plow through defensive berms and tank traps and begin to cross the
border from Kuwait into Iraq
their mission is a quick strike on Baghdad to take down Saddam's regime
which the u.s. accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction 21-year old
Marine corporal Marco Martinez crosses this desolate Iraqi desert in the back
of a cramped assault vehicle the former gang member from New Mexico is itching
for a fight
we just wanted to go in there and just get it on with all these people they
want to fight us
I mean I would have got really disappointed we didn't God been to Matt
Matt we
across-the-board Iraq 10 miles ago
this wave of American tanks trucks and truth speeds towards Baghdad Marine
Staff Sergeant Nick Papaji a veteran of the Gulf War leads his men in a 70-ton
Abrams tank
some guys get nervous you know and there are a little worried about it because it
is an unknown you know and what I would tell them is combats one of those unique
things you know you don't have to have done it before to be good at it going to
war is like the Super Bowl is made it like you're actually perform it
it's like sitting on the bench for a couple years and all the same thing to
play the game Martinez confidence but worries that Saddam's army might use
their WMDs if forced into a corner
yeah
can be biological warfare chemical warfare blood agents nerve agents who
knows what's in there you don't want to come in contact with see just get out
I wouldn't want to be in that area
to reach the capital city these forces must cross over 300 miles through
southern Iraq home to the majority of Iraq Shiite Muslim population Saddam the
Sunni Muslim has brutally oppressed the Shiites for decades and many Iraqis here
are happy to see American forces the first Iraqi I seen was it was a farmer
and he was looking at my tank is I was no mine i was looking at him and I waved
at and he waved back and I thought okay well that's a good sign huh
that night US forces unleashed phase two of the assault
yeah
it's called shocked and awed
yeah
a mirage of airstrikes on government and military targets all over the country
it's designed to convince the Downs 400,000 troops to surrender
yeah
Baghdad residents awake to find parts of their city in ruins
corporal Martinez sees signs that shock and I was working all the way up to bag
it was just littered with green uniforms all over the ground deserters and I my
turn to this guy named Garcia these are my heroes in my fire team said you know
what this is going to turn into a guerrilla war watch after the airstrikes
US tanks annihilate the enemy
yeah
incinerated Iraqi tanks little the roads while us ground forces decimate
remaining pockets of Fighters
these Marines encounter Iraqi army unit eager to surrender to those are your men
to your men have weapons your men have weapons over there unless the head
that's not taught us that they say we leave me talking
oh ok we had an entire battalion surrender to my squad they obviously
knew what they were doing had been trained but they just didn't have the
heart to fight if they actually want to fight you would have taken heavy
casualties remember thinking to myself well we all could've died here
Martinez pushes on
part of an allied operation on its way to becoming one of the fastest armored
assault in history
it kind of became a blur because I mean I'm not being realistic we didn't sleep
for the first three days straight we didn't sleep but the sheer speed of the
run-up country presents daunting challenges vital supply units in the
rear can't keep up with the combat units leading the way sometimes around food
ran out of water just supply can keep up with us because we were going that fast
debate it one of those supply convoys falling behind is the Army's 507
maintenance company somehow our vehicles are company vehicles just kept breaking
down and people getting stuck in sand it was just kind of one thing after another
nightmare
nineteen-year-old private Jessica Lynch from rural West Virginia sits nervously
in the back of a humvee with two others in our units most of us for you know 19
20 years old this was our first war straight out of high school we weren't
really sure what to expect
the 33 soldiers in the non combat unit are trained and equipped with only the
most basic weapon ring
early on the morning of $MONTH march $MONTH twenty-third Lynch and her
comrades lose sight of the Patriot anti-missile convoy they're supposed to
be following when you look around you and you see a thousand other trucks
beside you and then the next time you look around and there's nothing I mean
there's sand as far as you can see we weren't even on a road
they've been on the move for two straight days exhausted and disoriented
the company makes a fatal mistake instead of going around the city of
Masseria as planned
they had straight into its unsecured center
first it's quiet then suddenly Lynch here's a shot
we knew that we were in trouble and then as we were going along I mean it was
just constant fire from both ends they attempt to retreat but they can't
maneuver their 18 vehicle convoy quickly
Lynch's trapped in a hail of gunfire she desperately tries to get her weapon
working there was so much things jammed up inside of it it wasn't working plus
you're shaking so bad where it was just nerves and it was just so kind of a well
this is it let's pray and hope we make it through it
just then a rocket-propelled grenade it's Lynch's Humvee slam into another
army truck
and then the next thing I knew I woke up inside of Iraqi hospital i knew that i
was in the hands of our enemies are they gonna kill me are they going to torture
me what is going to happen to me
the attack kills 11 soldiers in Lynch's convoy including her best friend and
roommate Lori piestewa Iraqis take five others prisoner soon after survivors for
lunches unit alert marine commanders of the ambush the Marines had been planning
a deliberate assault on Masseria now they rush in to rescue soldiers of the
507 and secure the city one of them is 21 year-old private Alex nickel from
Humboldt County California nickel and his unit had been in country for days
and still haven't fired their weapons as their assault vehicle tracks into the
city a sense that's about to change as a good buddy
he just looked down and like he could see it in his eyes he just said he just
shot somebody that was kind of the first since like we're taking rounds his
vehicle stops and nickel gears up and I could think of with the saving private
ryan when they just get lit up and then you both
community just run out we start shooting whatever moves at that point no rules of
engagement selling dogs chickens everything got shot then nickel and his
fellow Marines confront Iraqis both in and out of uniform
yeah
it's the first major battle of the war and the first large us death toll 18
Marines die
that same day 30 year old army pilot David Williams flies his Apache attack
helicopter toward karbala a key access point to Baghdad it's protected by an
entire tank division of the Iraqi Republican Guard Saddam's best-trained
best-equipped troops i was a little intense a little nervous because we've
never gone up a force this large and knowing that over Kabbalah Baghdad yeah
right he still had quite a bit of the air defense units there 25 miles from
their target zone when Williams and his gunner Ron young fly over the town of
hilla they're startled by what they see below there's a lot of people walking on
the streets with rifles and here it is we're going beyond midnight and we don't
ourselves as kind of hard and all these people would be out and all hell broke
loose at that point the entire town just lit up with any aircraft fire
Williams attempts two base of action
it is the patch is riddled with bullets ron was screaming turn left turn right
and at that point I knew that we're going down he fights the controls and
manages to crash land in a rice paddy with sunrise approaching they scramble
from the wreckage and flee Ron and I abated for about an hour and a half in
between the rice paddies they have these irrigation canals and Ron and I had
gotten to the water with just her nose above the water but the Iraqis scour the
area and eventually discovered them i was struck in the head with the stock of
the ak-47 Ron took one to the back of the head and at that point they bound
her hands behind her back
the next day the day's soldiers appear in this video on the Arab TV network
al-jazeera I can't believe this is happening
I don't want to die in this country knowing how the Iraqi street the
prisoners and all the while I thought about my little girl my little boy their
captors ask them questions about their mission with a three-way involved
Williams stone walls and I well I well before I'm not dying like private
jessica lynch Williams and young are at the mercy of a regime known for brutally
torturing its enemies for the first time they had somebody that they can punish I
was very concerned when they would do
it's less than a week after the invasion of Iraq army captain Carter price from
West Virginia commands the company of 14 tanks in route to Baghdad
price thinks his men are ready for anything that comes their way
until he sees this a massive sandstorm
look like you were on Mars
yeah
a photographer with prices unit captures this picture that's real that's not a
camera effect because of the way the light hits it it turns everything red or
orange
the storm stalls the invasion for two days
it gets in everything that's you can see you put your hand in front like this and
you can't see it it's it's under it's unbelievable my battalion commander when
that sandstone lifted he looked over at his wingman status so what's next locust
when it clears Army and Marine units mount up and keep pushing north
for a week now nineteen-year-old private jessica lynch has languished in Iraqi
hospital bed terrified and severely injured prisoner of war there was a
point where I thought I would never be found this was how I was gonna die
you know not getting help not you ever seen my family again in April first
she thinks she hears a helicopter and then shouting right outside the room I
wasn't sure who was standing on the other side of that door and what they
wanted that was kind of the moment of truth for me are you general those
windows got to
showcase in it as the minutes rolled by and you know they started talking to me
one even ripped off the American flag office uniform and handed it to me
so the more they kind of talk to more comfortable that I got they rush Lynch
to the waiting helicopter make sure we get a good characterization and her
nightmare ends just got here
anyone home okay welcome back just realized oh my gosh i get to go home I
get to see my family and I get to eat a turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and
applesauce Lynch's rescue isn't the only good news for US forces Saddam's army is
rapidly disintegrating and still hasn't used weapons of mass destruction as time
progressed the issue of WMD kind of went to the back burner
they were more concerned with with fighting these these different factions
that were found within Iraq but with the Iraqi army all but defeated US troops
immediately faced a new and deadly problem they can't distinguish friend
from foe
this is one woman and they're smiling the next minute they're trying to kill
you just as hard to find a word that 80 miles southeast of baghdad these Marines
set up a checkpoint they're trying to identify Iraqis who may join a growing
guerrilla force ready and willing to kill Americans certain indicators to
look for the haircut boots shoes how well they are dressed how much money
they are carrion
they have this 20-year old walking along a road from Baghdad he has a book
containing note supporting Saddam's regime right here and up the Baghdad and
then he came back down south and the whole time you kept this book
you know if we found this book he's gonna get in trouble he claims the
notebook isn't his but his story doesn't add up
so why the most is my cousin was lighting i'm just going to do with the
back to tell if he's lying he's gonna get himself in more trouble
the interrogation on covers no solid evidence and I think this kids confused
amazon so they let the young man go not knowing if they made the right call
almost three weeks into the invasion US soldiers and Marines continue tightening
the noose around Baghdad and British soldiers are securing the cities of whom
concert and Basra
yeah
Marine Staff Sergeant Nick Papaji his tank company are among the first
Americans to enter the Iraqi capital
they make their way past burned-out buildings to firdos square and central
Baghdad
they circle this statue of Saddam is the crowd gasps they saw this image of
Saddam which is something i've always been conditioned to be fearful of to be
oppressed by and also being surrounded by american tanks and they say wait a
minute maybe we don't be scared of no more than before you know I mean there's
hundreds i'm out there and then it starts turning celebration
then an Iraqi child approaches a u.s. Marine with a proposition and he goes up
to the vehicle commander honey lamb Bernice's mister mister can you help us
pull down the statute was just a kid some kids idea
yeah
but not all american forces get this kind of welcome two miles away a convoy
of Marines comes under heavy fire driving past Baghdad university
take cover and organize a counter-attack
yeah
the Marines use an armored personnel carrier ran the university's outer wall
they split into small units and methodically take out their targets
soon troops all over the city see resistance come to a stop
you don't have everyone was great as with flowers
ya know people kissing us the stuff with that and it was just a really warm
reception and it's not really good at that . nearly a young doing something
great
twenty-eight-year-old marine lieutenant Brian Tosh looks at the scene in Baghdad
and believes the job is done now Saddam is still missing
John Tosh feels it won't be long before US forces track him down
we thought that was the end state we're in Baghdad now we did it like horses
family soon as he gets captured like going to the palace captured in putting
handcuffs and we're done let's get back on the plane and go back to the states
60 miles north of baghdad in Samarra Rockies still hold Apache pilot David
Williams and his gunner Ron young prisoner
it's been three weeks since their helicopter was shot down the Iraqis have
tortured them Williams has begun to give up hope the idea of losing your
family is a separation that you had to make during captivity to let him go
yeah
suddenly he hears a commotion outside his cell
I mean just all the sudden in an instant and the door was kicked open and these
marine started running through the building and they were screaming get out
get out get out
Marines rescue Williams and young along with the remaining captured soldiers
from jessica lynch is unit
I mean just the sheer joy you know you don't know whether to cry or you know i
mean it was so hard to control your emotion it was just incredible
within days Williams and young are reunited with their families
and I was just incredible different than be able to hold my wife in my arms again
back in Iraq taking the lid off 24 years of Saddam's oppressive rule is having
unanticipated consequences
US forces in Baghdad stand by helplessly as a narky takes hold the rocky
state-run organizations that keep good order and discipline in the city of
Baghdad are now gone there now eliminated and so there was a period of
euphoria for a couple days and then looting began was like Delhi riots x 20
that it was just a free-for-all
they've got that in America the way America was just do what you want when
you want you would go to a building and the door frames were gone the hinges
were gone the wiring in the building was going if it had any value at all or at
ability to be taken from that building it was gone
the iraq war is only six weeks old in $YEAR president bush declares major
combat operations are over the United States and our allies have prevailed
these sailors are finishing a 10 month deployment with thousands of other
troops including army captain Ryan howl are just beginning there's how arrives
the first week of May in the vast and bar province home to many Saddam
loyalists immediately feels uneasy it was a feeling of two peoples almost like
we're on one side street there on the other side street or standard staring
each other it was like a that uncomfortable high school dance moment
where you don't know if you're gonna go and talk to the girl asked her to dance
or not it was kind of having to make this up as we go along initially
twenty-eight-year-old how and his unit conduct daily patrols from a Forward
Operating Base or fob these bases are set up outside cities and towns all over
the country they're designed to keep us troop separate and safe from the native
population
wen Hao leaves his Bob he patrols crowded markets and can feel the
resentence imagine being surrounded by this hundreds and hundreds of people
just walking around you're just sitting in the middle of the one okay
whether or not I'm welcome here or not I don't feel right being here in june
Philadelphia native Gary bishop is on his way to Iraq for the first time I
remember flying into Baghdad me by myself with a bunch of pink parts and I
wondering what am I getting myself into
have I been trained to do this am i capable of doing this
what if I can't do this the lieutenant Colonel's job is to restore basic
institutions and services like schools and electricity
that job gets a lot harder when the u.s. completely dismantled Iraq's Sunni
government firing tens of thousands of members of Saddam's rolling bath party
with a deep application a lot of the Civil apparatus everything from the
trash pickup to the power station to the radio all the things again that we take
for granted as far as Public Works it's pretty much abandoned as Bishop tries to
pick up the pieces the u.s. sets up an Iraqi governing council dominated by the
long oppressed Shiites Sunnis are resentful out of working out of power
for the first time in 35 years it start to hide in the shadows and ambush the
ship's units
yeah
for a period of time it paralyzed my unit because it's a faceless enemy they
hit amongst the crowd soldiers hated to go on Patrol Army Major John naugle
immediately recognizes this Sunni rebellion for what it is an insurgency
insurgency strikes and it dissolves away and in the conventional army is left
with nothing to attack nothing to hit nothing to swing up most of the
insurgency is in what's called the Sunni triangle on july twenty third part of
Captain house regimen is in a convoy headed toward Fallujah 60 miles west of
Baghdad
suddenly an explosion rips through a Humvee it kills one soldier and injured
seven more how learns that the explosion was triggered remotely by insurgents
hiding near the road that was the first time we really understood that--okay
there's these these things these roadside bombs these improvised
explosive devices or IEDs are cheap and easy to make and use they soon become
the insurgents weapon of choice
how's unit realizes the Sunni insurgents have caught them flat-footed completely
unequipped for IEDs I'll tell you my Humvee that my my group of soldiers rode
around in it had canvassed doors
it was a normal aluminum Humvee from my own little personal part of my world our
vehicles were not awkward at all
IEDs are made from everyday materials and detonated either by a pressure
sensor or remote control
we saw the evolution of of ids from using vegetable cans packed with c4 and
wires in a plastic cap to a more sophisticated where heidi is encased in
concrete and are built into the road troops jury-rigged their vehicles trying
to protect themselves anyway they can put sandbags in the floorboard we took
old flak vest anything we could we would put out there but it's the people
planting these deadly devices that are the real threat when major nog arrives
in the town of collodion in September he finds a growing insurgency and it's
getting help from foreign fighters and face the homegrown domestic Sunni
insurgency but we also discovered that al-qaeda in Iraq had a substantial
presence in our sector foreign alqaeda fighters are entering Iraq
looking to kill Americans so hatred between Sunnis and Shiites and drive the
us out of the entire region for many insurgents are rallying cry is still
Saddam Hussein interrogator aromatics is with a special operations unit for the
last five months their mission has been defined Saddam and arrest him maddux
interviews over 300 Iraqis trying to figure out where he is finally in
december $YEAR 12 he interrogated a man in Saddam's inner circle
why I brought him in and told him there's only one thing we're going to
talk about and that's the location of Saddam Hussein he said I don't know
where he's at I say you do and you're gonna take us to him after hours of
intense interrogation the man finally breaks said he's in a form just eat the
Tagus River south of Tikrit
special forces unit immediately flies the informant to the farm soldiers spend
hours scouring every inch of the place they find nothing then without saying a
word
the informant kicks a patch of ground soldiers take a closer look and spot a
rope they pull it and find Saddam Hussein hiding in this hole with over
750,000 dollars in cash
there was a ventilation fan a life area we could lay down
obviously I was extremely excited but also realize World War and there's a
hundred thousand US soldiers sailors airmen Marines out there are still
getting after it
in fact Saddam's capture does little to change things for them that same day in
caledonia
yeah
an explosion rips through an Iraqi police station
yeah
major naugle rushes to the scene of carnage when literally picking up pieces
of human flesh and and gathering evidence and talking to to the people on
the scene trying to to get intelligence on what happened in the end he finds 26
Iraqi policemen and two young girls dead december $YEAR 13 2003 for me will
always be the day that al-qaeda attacked the police station with the carbon not
the day that we captured Saddam Hussein t capturing Saddam Hussein did not end
the insurgency did not significantly change my life
the carbon police station did
the bomb throws the town of kala dia into chaos
the riots in the streets it so happened that there had been an American
helicopter flying by at about the time the the car bomb blew up and the Iraqi
people in the sector were convinced it had been a missile strike by the
american helicopter rather than car bomb
despite evidence to the contrary
toggle can't stop the rumors from spreading
and it's not just hear rumors implicating US troops and attacks run
rampant throughout the country
once they were told something that became truth regardless of how
outlandish it may have been it was almost as if we're combatant rumors as
much of the work baton enemy combatants
the iraq war is a year old second lieutenant Neil prakash and his tank
platoon are stationed in baqubah 40 miles north of baghdad they conduct six
patrols a day trying to find IEDs and stop insurgents from planting them but
it's frustrating work when you clear out the space around the tank where you are
that's clear the menu drive away from it and you take your eyes off it
it's not cleared IEDs are the biggest killer of US troops in the war
responsible for more than a hundred of the 379 killed in action so far
on one mission precaution is men are ordered to park their tanks and
formation beside the road it's called route security like out of all the
hundreds of miles of highway in Iraq maybe that was secured right we're
sitting there into the second hour of us in our tanks me and my wingman and my
crew would you know just bull
Heidi blows up behind its 500 behind his I turn around and I guess your desk
ideas blow up on nobody among the soldiers coming to grips with the new
threat of IEDs is twenty-year-old combat medic Kate normally she joined the army
the day after 911
now more than two years later normally is heading into Iraq
she's at the wheel of a Humvee with a gun in her lap as she nears the border
should we come under fire I need to be able to continue driving returned fire
and also make sure that i'm i'm looking for anything suspicious for possible
IEDs and so the second when I was told hey we just crossed the line we're
officially in Iraq and all the sudden was just kind of this freeze
ok I mean is this you know game on all these medical battalion sets up a trauma
center at a US base in Baghdad one day a call comes in an American unit has been
hit by an IED i remember very well seeing a seeing a vehicle pull up that
was a very distinct smell like a burning smell and I could see that one of these
Humvees was just riddled with bullet holes and i thought that i would I
thought that I would freeze
I had I had kind of expected that moment for me freeze and I didn't know how I
was going to react normally falls back on her training and kicks into action
but as she approaches one happy she sees there's nothing she can do for the two
soldiers inside pretty much they were melted down into the seats of their
Humvee and they carry pictures of loved ones with them and when I saw a picture
of of a small child and there was not much left of it but my first thought was
you know I their family doesn't know this and it was a that was and I was
really hard machine gunner Colby puzzle has also seen the damage an IED can do
his striker vehicle is just as fast as a Humvee
that armored like a tank
I was really lucky i mean if I was a if I would have been in a Humvee I would
have been probably be right now you know I mean was every single vehicle in our
platoon got hit by least once by an ID RPG or rocked it or all three puzzle and
his unit kill and capture someone searches have a hard time identifying
their targets
remember this feeling of like where are they wouldn't look like I don't know
where they're at with it you know just that kind of feeling you know up to this
point in the war the one group American troops thought they could trust with the
Shiites who had long been oppressed by Saddam army 2nd lieutenant john caldwell
patrols a vast poor Shiite area of Baghdad called sadr city so far it's
been relatively peaceful by April Caldwell and his men see groups of
mostly young Shiites begin to protest the US invasion
they're called the Mahdi army and they're organized by this man who taught
al-sadr more and more young men where we're joining the the Mahdi army i think
it was something for them to kind of cling onto a cause for them to cling
onto and gave them a sense of identity solder is supported by neighboring Iran
is trying to convince Shiites they should fight to overthrow the
us-supported governing council we were actually within two days of officially
handing over our area of responsibility and then April fourth happened
yeah
in April fourth heavily armed groups of the Mahdi army stormin seize control of
police stations neighborhoods in southern Iraq twenty-eight-year-old Army
Staff Sergeant David Bellavia and his squad fend off the Mahdi assault and
Luke idea
one sniper shoots them from a house so the Americans unload a barrage of
gunfire killing him when Bellavia enters the house he makes a startling discovery
the sniper was shooting from his own child's bedroom the idea that a husband
or a father could use a window that is child is sleeping in to engage our
military is uncommon we could imagine you know but when you react to that
contact you take similar loss and that's that's devastating Bellavia learns
quickly that the enemy has no rules using Iraqi civilians even women and
children as shields are decoys is part of their strategy every one of those
guys with a weapon system every one of those guys fall back to areas that they
knew that they had a cachet the use of civilians the use of children to move
munitions back and forth they played on ours on our moral compass they played on
our Western sensibilities
the Mahdi army eventually folds under the sustained counter-offensive but
second lieutenant call well questions what progress if any the u.s. is making
in Iraq if i go ahead and just shoot up this whole town and then kill everybody
in my sector and the story every building
I've been really accomplished anything that you know we're just playing the
same old game shoot him up and that doesn't lead to anywhere
Marine Gunnery Sergeant Nick Popovich from Indiana has volunteered for a
second tour in Iraq he stationed in Fallujah
coppage patrols the outskirts of the city in his Abrams tank ready for
anything
we heard a lot of bad things about fluids we heard it was the place that
even Saddam couldn't control and he had Iraq even Fallujah stuck their middle
finger up and Saddam this city of 300,000 has become the nerve center of
the Sunni insurgency and headquarters of al-qaeda in Iraq
the first several days of patrols are relatively calm for Popovich
then in late March
for American security contractors need a supply convoy through the city they take
a shortcut and without alerting marine commanders head straight to the heart of
Fallujah
even Marines themselves have steered clear of the area i don't know why they
were driving there I certainly wouldn't describe that area has been militarily
secured at that time now i would advise going through that's for sure
contractors are savagely ambushed shot burn and dragged through the streets
yeah
they hang two of the men from a bridge over the Euphrates River
yeah
this footage is seen around the world and at the US Marine base just outside
Fallujah you know a lot of times on the news you see things that just make you
so violently angry and you just wish you could do something about it that that
was one time in my life that I was actually in a position to do something
about it
Popovich is ready his marine commanders plan a surgical strike to find the
killers the Pentagon intervenes and instead orders a large-scale assault on
the entire city
it's the news 25 year old sergeant josue magana has been waiting for
we got the order that we're gonna put into the city it was it was exciting us
it's kind of like this sigh of relief you know like finally we're gonna go and
you know is what we came here to do
the city streets are eerily quiet
1600 Sunni insurgents are hiding in the labyrinth of concrete buildings and
narrow streets
in April fourth sergeant Popovich does a final check of his Abrams tank
the assault on Fallujah has begun
yeah
ok
three days in Papa deadspots a group of insurgents tucking in and out of
doorways
he goes after them tracking his Abrams down a narrow street it's probably not
the most ideal situation for a tank to be and but everyone I killed today is
one lesson somebody's gotta fight tomorrow so when I have them engaged i'm
not gonna let him get away
then an insurgent fires an RPG
tank absorbs the explosion is Papa Georges readies his 50 caliber machine
gun to return fire a second shooter launches another RPG I've never seen him
and when I went into my machine and I heard us and bam that's when a rocket
hit me right a helmet blew my helmet apart blue a bloom when I out of my head
and I knocked my mother I'd on my sinus cavity so for me what I saw was a real
bright flashlight like I'm like a super intense camera flash and then nothing
just darkness and I could hear this like humming in my ears like if you took a
radio put on the static and then crank the bombs like this are just in my ears
I couldn't hear anything
I news cameramen takes this video of Popovich moments after the attack was
very sleepy like it just need to go to sleep i know that's a good way to die so
don't go to sleep just stay awake
his fellow Marines carry him off the tank and Russian to a medevac site
a doctor tries to repair his right eye and I remember telling the doc I said
look I said I'm gonna I'm gonna try and cooperate with you but I can't guarantee
anything was a good try to pull things out of bottom I I he loses that I and
most of the vision in his left one
yeah
on the streets of Fallujah sergeant josue magana and his infantry company
continued the assault
you bust that door you're just kind of ready for anything that comes your way
you know you're wondering if there is someone looking at cheese or someone
waiting for you
elsewhere in the city
Marines take fire from insurgents hidden around a mosque they respond by
launching a Hellfire missile and a 500-pound laser-guided bomb into a
perimeter wall arab news channel al-jazeera broadcast images of injured
and dead including women and children to channel claims their victims of the u.s.
bombing the Marines now believe they're within days of securing the entire city
of Fallujah to televised images inflamed Iraqis al-jazeera and many other media
outlets spread a message that the United States was being indiscriminate in the
use of force was killing innocents and that message resonated with the people
of Iraq
fire
yeah
the next day President Bush orders a ceasefire the marines remain in Fallujah
but their orders are to not initiate contact they're upset with the decision
they want to finish the job they started we know it's not coming from our
commanders and I think you know it's coming from a lot higher telling us hey
this is we're going to control you guys from you know a thousand miles away and
this is how we want to do it not the ceasefire makes Marines holding their
ground in the city
easy targets wear them on the roof
hey is that probably sounded all ya got friends on a rope
it was one sided we still got fired at mortar rounds pretty much all we can do
is kind of hunker down and it's not get hit
on April 26 magana and his company get fed up with being sitting ducks they
secured two houses near a mosque the site of frequent insurgents sniper fire
and wait
it isn't long before the enemy comes knocking how started shaking and
explosions and brain started yelling and firing our house started going you know
mines from are certifying back and it was just kind of like holy crap this is
it
moments later the gonna hear screaming coming from Marines on the roof he
instinctively runs to help her pop then remember hitting the flooring I didn't
think this was shot too kind of fooling around my stomach and my finger went
inside of a whole so I kind of look down a bit and the exit will move a finger
when the exit would I guess something I'm my head was telling him you're not
going to pull through this one and I can think of is you know i'm not going to
see my daughter
yeah
magana asks his sergeant to get a letter to his three-year-old daughter I just
wanted to have something with my writing you know something that i read with my
head
this is hello my little baby it's your daddy just wanted to write to these two
little lines
well as you know probably old enough to understand i'm in a better place now
now i know there's no better place than to have you in my arms again at all but
God had other plans for me I just wanted to tell you how much I love you
ghana's comrades carry him on a makeshift stretcher
they get him to safety but he feels deep regret let the Marines down you know I
should have made a better decision and that's what really stuck with me you
really kill me then
after a bloody three-week battle the Marines pull out of Fallujah at the end
of april foreign fighters now flood into the city to perceive us defeat
strengthens al-qaeda's control over the Sunni insurgency soon another televised
scandal does even more to strengthen al-qaeda's power in Iraq media outlets
released photographs of American soldiers abusing iraqi detainees at Abu
Ghraib prison the pictures of that abuse served as incredibly effective
recruiting tools thousands and thousands of jihad ease were created by that abuse
I can't tell you how many guys we buried American soldiers we buried because of
that that was the worst time for that to happen you took a hornet's nest and and
literally threw it on a bonfire in May 2004 al-qaeda in Iraq leader abu musab
al-zarqawi responds to the shocking photos at Abu Ghraib
he beheads American businessman Nicholas Berg and his Fallujah torture studio
the video shows up on the internet i watch that Nicholas Berg be heading over
a hundred times easily every time we went to mission i watch and make my guys
watch it i used to have the time memorize I think it took 27 seconds to
cut his head off 27 seconds i would make sure that everyone said that into the
machine
what we were fighting was was not us
they're not us the insurgents beheading people and we're getting criticized for
you know whatever happened I'm great weather was like the nude photos and the
humiliation Micah humiliation or our murder and execution which ones worse
the insurgency is still growing by the day but the US has over power to an
Iraqi in from government private Colby bustle is told that Iraqis will begin to
take over the fighting as well
remember our commanders telling us that you know our job would basically be in
support role basically we would act like Iraq's big brother you know the younger
brothers getting beat up or picked on would show up and take care of it but
whenever the bullets start flying the new Iraqi forces are nowhere to be found
as the summer comes to an end us commanders decide it's time for a
rematch in fallujah in April on remember who you look like you just become
hardened heart and it is inserted stronghold and it just needed to know to
be cleared out like I'm just spring cleaning and just swept out many
American troops are like prakash thrilled to finally face their enemy's
head on straight you to drink adrenaline rush to us on the spot when I found out
we're going to Fallujah I was over the moon
I was so excited I was so pumped up this was everything I'd lived for
in november eight operation phantom fury begins
artillery batteries unleash and non-stop garage
ok
infantry marine private Alex nickel waits at the edge of the city and takes
it all in fireworks really are kind of lame now do you see like always
air support what not coming down it's it's pretty impressive you think they
get them all but those nooks and crannies everywhere
soon after eight thousand us ground troops punch into the city
sergeant Bellavia is pumped but his initial move into Fallujah is met with
chillin silence the first maybe four blocks and didn't see anything
not a thing I mean we peppered that place just as eerie quiet
that's because insurgents and foreign fighters have taken shelter in buildings
like these US forces conduct search-and-destroy missions cutting the
enemy house-to-house room to room and door-to-door company commanders like 30
year old Brian chon Tosh guide their men through the maze of narrow streets
as they creep through the city don't know which buildings hide insurgents so
they have to search them all
every door opened every room looked in no rock unturned was pretty much the the
guidance i gave I didn't flinch that and started step one time I was young all
the whole time didn't matters caution into the wind spirit i'll make it out
here are not as sergeant Bellavia moves slowly down the streets he sees signs
that insurgents have learned how to defend against an American assault they
know we like to take you know doors again on rooftops there is no secret
would be doing all year they bricked up every single entrance windows doors that
were facing our breach . the only door that was exposed to an ID there
no things we like to jump from rooftop to rooftop they would smash a roof down
so you'd fall from the roof to the second story which is like a 15-foot
drop break stairwells off inside homes and literally force you to take the
route they had planned for you got a real quick this piece is missing right
here
ok
in one house Bellavia fueled by adrenaline sponsor wounded insurgent
runs after him LOL via shoots the man and chases them into a room where he
plunges a knife into his chest
you just got weaker and weaker and just like ran his hand through my hair it's
slowly brought us some his hand down you know my chicken and well it's probably
the Moores moment you know my life at that moment he wasn't a an animal
anymore you know he wasn't a bad guy anymore it wasn't a surgeon he was a
person fighting for his life and I was taking it you know
in november two thousand four captain Ryan John Tosh and his company of
Marines are in their eighth straight day of urban combat in the Sunni stronghold
of Fallujah on this day they're looking for remaining in surges
his men are beyond exhausted and living on adrenaline the range of emotions that
means with would feel everything like thousands of times a day but hey I made
it I'm alive like I just kick that door down
okay I got to go to the next door ok that houses over good
buildings clear go outside but we've got another one to do that rise and fall of
of emotions and uncertainty would have to endure throughout the day and it was
taxing they're ordered to calm a mosque for weapons when the enemy attacks
yeah
they take up a position on this rooftop and target the source of the gunfire
insurgents hiding in houses near the mosque whole divisions got surrounded
and now they don't want to give up tried talking to him with our interpreter get
him to surrender walk out on the street they're telling us they'd rather died
and now then come out and surrender so we're gonna die my second John Tosh
orders an airstrike
as night falls Marines walk to the houses they sift through the rubble
all told they discovered 21 dead fighters take out the bodies
yeah
the second battle for Fallujah last 10 days
ok
it takes a large toll 70 Americans died still US troops kill over a thousand
insurgents it's a victory for the US and Sergeant Bellavia savers the moment
volusia was a battle that I needed that we needed to show that we were that we
were doing the right thing
the morale i think was slipping we needed something and when you looked
around Felucia is very easy to see who the guys were and now we we killed bad
and I think it was a good thing but the ones that get away like al-qaeda in Iraq
leader abu musab al-zarqawi keep second lieutenant Neil prakash up at night we
let out a lot of guys are how he was able to flee to flee the city we let out
a lot of military age males because we told them there's a delivery mission
coming through here if you're a civilian clear out the insurgents quickly regroup
and re-emerge in and around Baghdad everybody who escaped the loser came
into our our area and that was our job to stop him from coming into area and
see if we can capture sergeant jo mo is from queens new york and specialist
Daniel maiello is from Brooklyn they're part of a tight-knit National Guard unit
called the Fighting 69 in december two thousand four they run regular security
patrols near baghdad with their Scout platoon
being stationed near the Iraqi capital means they're more likely to be hit by
an insurgent IED than anywhere else in Iraq
sergeant almost tries to catch in surgeons in the act sometimes we just
sit in the field in silence with the trucks off with night-vision optics
going all night just looking around to see what we can catch who is digging in
the road who wasn't taking in the road and the way that these people usually
made money was the blow us up or to do something bad against us in early
December almost maiello are in a for Humphrey convoy they're returning to
base when they hear a sound they've come to dread I heard a pop and I turned
around and I saw it just like a . smoke coming up all motor runs to the rectum V
and finds his staff sergeant Henry irizarry and his crew badly injured when
I got there the truck was actually cut in half
there was no more engineers normal front tires it was actually I mean literally
the front of the truck is going
the bomb causes massive injuries to four soldiers irizarry almost squad leader
and mentor is in the worst shape is he was actually blown out of the truck
I grabbed both his arms literally and they weren't there I went straight
through a beautiful i was like oh that's not gonna be good and he had nothing
left him road but he was still alive a medevac him to a military hospital in
Baghdad
we're doctors try to save his life
we stayed out there on that scene stuff that was blown up for everything you
don't want to leave anything for the enemy to use against you
so our commanders had us out there forever later almost gets the news that
his friend izzy is dead like your heart being ripped from your chest because he
was the guy who pretty much holding it together and now it's not there he was
getting ready to go home on leave in just couple days and he was counting
down the days and it was gonna be home for Christmas and then you know then
just like that he wasn't three months after the IED kill squad leader Henry
irizarry the fighting 69th is moved south they conduct patrols and what's
called route Irish connecting central Baghdad to the airport
it's known to troops as the most dangerous road in a rock here somebody
that wants to hurt American troops and that's the place together
chances are you're going to get somebody important you know not just not just
your average yeah my ella is patrolling route Irish when suddenly didn't see
anything and just you know it was a pop and I remember getting it and I'm just
feeling hot and I lost couple of teeth right here and then I realize you know I
had lacerations on my face and I one I was like stolen truck I got out of the
truck and I just sort of my whole uniform is covered in blood and I was
kinda second round I remember just being kind of useless and and banging on the
door the blast kills two more members of my ella and almost unit
I blame myself every single day for not being there I should've went down my
crew it wouldn't change anything whether i was there or not but I still feel like
I should have been there
my ella recovers from his injuries that also struggles with guilt start me
because I was responsible for that truck you know and then they're not here
anymore and i am so it's a so it's something that a that I'm still dealing
with you know by April 2005 hayee DS are killing an average of 17 troops each
month despite the danger captain Brendon Heather minh and his unit Patrol on foot
their mission not just to kill in searches but somehow win over the hearts
and minds of Iraqis who are being terrorized by the if you're in your
vehicles in the armor than you are completely cold and distant from the
people that you want to get to know I wanted them to see a human being there
army captain Ryan Howard his unit conduct patrols in a small city called
tell offer near the border with Syria they're anxious and have good reason to
be to offer was called al-qaeda's town
everywhere you turn the boogeyman without their part of his mission is to
prevent foreign fighters from slipping into the country and attacking US forces
if they get past house unit they have a clear shot in the Mosul 30 miles to the
east and straight into staff sergeant adam lingos area of operation a lot of
guys would come across the border from Syria called on the weekend jihadists
and coming fight fight the Giotto weekends and then go back to work in
Syria during the week lingo grabs his camera and record his unit as they
conduct raids trying to kill her capture these weekend warriors
ok
about half of these raids turn up in surgeons but the rest of the time lingo
and his men are just kicking down doors of innocent Iraqis
yeah
and i would get pretty upset of the time we do a raid it would end up being a
bogus right
no um and I wouldn't blame them but also being upset about it at all
I mean I would be pretty upset to lingo comes to believe that high-intensity
raids are doing more harm than good
so they try a very different approach was definitely stop usual explosive
breeches and stuff like that
we would basically knock on the door they soon discover that this simple
human gesture goes a very long way with the population Marine Captain Brendan
Heather man from Oklahoma uses a similar human touch about a hundred fifty miles
south in the border town of alki Eve he has his men do patrols on foot
he's trying to get the people to trust his men so that they'll help the
Americans identify insurgents the stuff that really made it happen is individual
patrols meeting with people we just call it patrolling meal to meal because what
human beings do they converse while having a meal so what we went had tea at
this house launched over here and dinner sometimes they would provide the food
sometimes we would and it worked out like that
ok
yeah