How US special operators held off Saddam's forces for days during the largest battle of the Iraq War, according to troops who were there

The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was marked by a shock-and-awe campaign that showcased the undisputed conventional might of the US military. A blitzkrieg push from the south defeated Saddam Hussein's army in just 26 days.

While the vast majority of the roughly 230,000 Coalition troops came from the south, a small special-operations contingent was sent to take a key strategic objective close to the Iraqi capital.

The ensuing four-day battle was the single largest engagement of the entire war, with 22 Iraqi troops engaged for each US commando present.

Located in northwestern Iraq, Haditha Dam was a strategic target for both sides. Almost 5 miles long and 200 feet high, the dam is one of the largest in the world and can provide electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes, even reaching Baghdad more than 150 miles away.

Before the invasion, US planners feared that Saddam might intentionally destroy the dam and flood the area in order to protect Baghdad's northwestern flank from Coalition forces. The Iraqi dictator's claims that the US would target and destroy the dam complicated matters further.

US commanders chose the Rangers of B Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment to take the dam. They were augmented with a Delta Force sniper/reconnaissance team from C Squadron, while the elite pilots of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the "Night Stalkers," would provide air support.

The small Night Stalker contingent of Little Bird helicopters - two AH-6 attack models and one MH-6 scout variant - would prove crucial in the battle. The MH-6 had a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera to paint targets for the two AH-6s. The MH-6 also acted as bait to draw enemy fire so the two attack birds could pounce.

"We had no warning we'd be facing such a fierce response from the Iraqis - none whatsoever," retired Chief Warrant Officer 4 Greg Coker told Insider. Coker, a Night Stalker pilot and author of "Death Waits in the Dark," spent 30 years in uniform and completed 11 combat tours.

"Intel had briefed us that there was light resistance and eight to 10 personnel on the dam. But there was a major Iraqi base, a division-size force, in the town of Haditha that was home to Fedayeen, Republican Guards and Iraq regular army," Coker said.

Iraq's Republican Guard was an elite force that reported directly to Saddam, while the Fedayeen was a paramilitary force outside the regular military.

Haditha Dam was codenamed "Objective Lynx," while an old airfield nearby was codenamed "Objective Serpent."

The Delta operators conducted reconnaissance of the dam before the main assault. Rangers conducted a rare combat jump on Serpent and captured it, allowing the rest of the force to be transported in and letting the Night Stalkers use it as a forward arming and refueling point.

Early on the night of April 1, the Rangers and Delta Force operators stormed the dam.

The assault went as planned, with the Rangers quickly securing the dam and setting blocking positions on the east and west entries of the structure, while Delta operators breached the facility to clear any explosive devices that Iraqis might have planted.

But the fight was only beginning. The Iraqis counterattacked with infantry, tanks, and artillery, pressuring the Rangers to their limits. Coker and the other Night Stalkers flew several danger-close missions in support of the American commandos on the ground.

Strikes within 200 meters of a friendly position are considered danger close. That night, the Night Stalkers fired ordnance as close as 12 meters from the Rangers.

On that first day alone, the three Little Birds expended an astounding 231 rockets, 66,000 rounds of 7.62 mm mini-gun ammunition, and 8,000 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition.

Pilots and crew also fired 6,000 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition from their personal M-4 rifles and dropped 90 M-67 fragmentation grenades, making four runs to rearm and refuel. The choppers carried so much ammunition that they could barely hover and had to be constantly moving to keep from crashing.

After the "Black Hawk Down" battle in Mogadishu in 1993, Night Stalkers, both pilots and crew, have carried more lethal personal weaponry, including sidearms and M4 rifles.

Besides small-arms ground fire - which caused severe damage to Coker's chopper that crew chiefs mended with duct tape - the Night Stalkers had to account for hidden anti-aircraft trucks and surface-to-air missiles.

At one point during the four-day battle, the Iraqis attacked Serpent in an attempt to cut of the Rangers' support. They even launched a SCUD missile at the airfield, but the Rangers and Night Stalkers there held them off.

more

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-special-operators-held-off-131601396.html

Suspect Arrested In Vicious Assault Of Asian Man On New York Street

An arrest has been made in Friday night’s brutal assault of a 61-year-old Asian man on a New York City street, authorities said Tuesday.

Jarrod Powell, 49, was taken into custody and charged with two counts of felony assault in the disturbing attack in East Harlem that left the man in critical condition, the New York City Police Department said.

The victim, previously identified by local news outlets as Yao Pan Ma, was knocked from behind to the ground; his head was then repeatedly kicked and stomped on. The disturbing attack was captured on surveillance video and mirrors a similar assault against an Asian American woman near Times Square in March. That attack ended with the man’s arrest on assault and hate crime charges

more

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/jarrod-powell-arrested-nyc-assault-152336851.html

>>13524532

>>13524636

>Interesting that the most secretive Court in the land is also the most corrupt.

Ask Roberts…

>>13524706

What's up with the "Patriot" clinic on the card?

This asswipe an actor?

>>13524830

A nice "Anniversary" gift of an UNSEALED INDICTMENT would be WONDERFUL

HAHAHAHAHA

Nothing is changing. But, believe that it's a change. Not many wear masks outside, including most sheep.

CDC says many Americans can now go outside without a mask

NEW YORK (AP) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its guidelines Tuesday on the wearing of masks outdoors, saying fully vaccinated Americans don't need to cover their faces anymore unless they are in a big crowd of strangers.

And those who are unvaccinated can go outside without masks in some cases, too.

The new guidance represents another carefully calibrated step on the road back to normal from the coronavirus outbreak that has killed over 570,000 people in U.S.

For most of the past year, the CDC had been advising Americans to wear masks outdoors if they are within 6 feet of each other.

The change comes as more than half of U.S. adults have gotten at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, and more than a third have been fully vaccinated.

“It’s the return of freedom,” said Dr. Mike Saag, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who welcomed the change. “It’s the return of us being able to do normal activities again. We’re not there yet, but we’re on the exit ramp. And that’s a beautiful thing.”

More people need to be vaccinated, and concerns persist about variants and other possible shifts in the epidemic. But Saag said the new guidance is a sensible reward following the development and distribution of effective vaccines and about 140 million Americans stepping forward to get their shots.

The CDC, which has been cautious in its guidance during the crisis, essentially endorsed what many Americans have already been doing over the past several weeks.

The CDC says that fully vaccinated or not, people do not have to wear masks outdoors when they walk, bike or run alone or with members of their household. They can also go maskless in small outdoor gatherings with fully vaccinated people.

But from there, the CDC has differing guidance for people who are fully vaccinated and those who are not.

Unvaccinated people — defined by the CDC as those who have yet to receive both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson formula — should wear masks at outdoor gatherings that include other unvaccinated people. They also should keep using masks at outdoor restaurants.

Fully vaccinated people do not need to cover up in those situations, the CDC says.

However, everyone should keep wearing masks at crowded outdoor events such as concerts or sporting events, the CDC says.

And the agency continues to recommend masks at indoor public places, such as hair salons, restaurants, shopping centers, museums and movie theaters.

Dr. Babak Javid, a physician-scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, said the new CDC guidance is sensible.

“In the vast majority of outdoor scenarios, transmission risk is low,” Javid said.

Javid has favored outdoor mask-wearing requirements because he believes they increase indoor mask-wearing, but he said Americans can understand the relative risks and make good decisions.

“The key thing is to make sure people wear masks indoors” while in public spaces, he said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cdc-says-many-americans-now-161757278.html

>>13524972

>Operation: Lockstep

mRNA anyone?

At The Rockefeller Foundation, we’ve always tried to stay one step ahead – imagining futures that inspire bold action and making catalytic bets that can lead to long-term change. As an institution deeply rooted in science and technology, we understand their transformational power to address today’s challenges – and help plan for those we haven’t yet envisioned.

In the 1930s, Warren Weaver, who led The Rockefeller Foundation’s programs in natural sciences, had a hunch that chemical and physical explanations of life would lead to a whole new world of research and discovery. He coined the term “molecular biology” and a field was born.

In 1956, The Rockefeller Foundation supported the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, which was the first use of “artificial intelligence” as well. After some fits and starts, that field exploded too.

And now, artificial intelligence has combined with molecular biology to accelerate the development of vaccines and therapeutics for the world’s worst pandemic since 1918.

Could any of this have been predicted? Absolutely not. However, both molecular biology and artificial intelligence were guided by visions of positive futures where both fields contributed to improving people’s well-being.

Unfortunately, we must also plan for futures that aren’t as bright – be it due to a disease outbreak or natural disaster – to minimize harm and prepare for recovery.

In 2009, The Rockefeller Foundation conducted an exercise to explore the future of technology in development and identify ways to better respond to emerging challenges. The results were captured in a report that includes several plausible scenarios that could impact millions of people around the world. One such scenario,“Lockstep,”described a fictional pandemic that would infect 20% of the world in 2012, killing eight million people in just seven months.

Now that we’re well into a real pandemic, we see some chilling similarities between our current Zoom-centered world and Lockstep. The report predicted that telepresence technologies would “respond to the demand for less-expensive, lower bandwidth, sophisticated communications systems for populations whose travel is restricted.” Other predictions were off, including the emergence of MRI technologies to detect abnormal behavior with anti-social intent.

While baseless posts have circulated recently calling the exercise part of a “diabolical plan for world domination,” we see it as further evidence of the importance of scenario planning in helping governments, institutions and others navigate near-term decisions that can have long-term impact. Our hope then – as it is now – was to focus on what we don’t know so we could make better plans to address a real pandemic, such as the one we’re facing today.

https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/blog/innovating-for-a-bold-future/