August 26, 2008

  • Dispatches From Iraq: Stake Through Their Hearts, Killing Al Qaeda

    Tuesday, March 25, 2008

    By Michael Yon

    Michael
    Yon is an independent journalist and former Green Beret who was
    embedded in Iraq for nine months in 2005. He has returned to Iraq for
    2008 to continue reporting on the war.

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    Click here to read the full dispatch for "Stake Through Their Hearts, Killing Al Qaeda."

    The
    sun was setting over Nineveh as four terrorists driving tons of
    explosives closed in on their targets. On Aug. 14, 2007, the Yezidi
    villages of Qahtaniya and Jazeera were under attack, but only the
    terrorists knew it as they drove their trucks straight into the hearts
    of the communities.

    The shockwave from
    detonation far outpaced the speed of sound. Buildings and humans were
    ripped apart and hurled asunder. Superheated poisonous gases from the
    explosions gathered the smoke and dust and lofted heavenward, while the
    second detonation quickly followed. The terrorists had landed their
    first blows straight through the heart of the Yezidi community, turning
    a wedding party into hundreds of funerals.

    But
    the attacks were not over. Yezidi men grabbed their rifles, and while
    two more truck bombs rumbled toward Qahtaniya and Jazeera, a hail of
    Yezidi bullets met them. The defenders who fired the bullets were
    killed with honor while standing between evil and their people. Two
    other truck bombs detonated on the outskirts of the villages.

    When
    the sun rose the next morning, screaming victims remained trapped in
    the rubble. Survivors clawed and ripped at the wreckage, working
    themselves to exhaustion to rescue their wives, husbands, children and
    brothers.

    The attacks on Qahtaniya and Jazeera
    killed more than 500 people and garnered international news. No group
    claimed responsibility, yet the attacks bore the mark of the Al Qaeda beast in the way that fangs to a jugular vein spells "Dracula."

    Al Qaeda is still trying to spin Iraq into civil war, but whereas in 2005-2006 Al Qaeda was succeeding, today Al Qaeda is being shredded.

    An
    Iraqi officer near Sinjar told me that recently a group of perhaps 20
    "jihadists," many of them foreign, descended on a Nineveh village. The
    Iraqi officer said the terrorists killed some adults and two babies.
    One baby they murdered was 15 days old.

    Until
    recently, such terror attacks inside Iraq could have coerced the
    village into sheltering Al Qaeda. Yet this time, the "jihadists" got an
    unexpected reception. Local men grabbed their rifles and poured fire on
    the demons, slaughtering them.

    Nineteen
    terrorists were destroyed. Times have changed for Al Qaeda here. Too
    many Iraqis have decided they are not going to take it anymore. Al
    Qaeda in Iraq is still fighting, and they are tough and wily, but Al
    Qaeda Central seems to realize there are easier targets elsewhere,
    perhaps in Europe, where many people demonstrate weakness in the face of terror.

    Al
    Qaeda was apparently not in Iraq before this war, and at the current
    rate they will not be here when it’s over. The Iraqi army and police
    are doing most of the work these days, but their own operations are
    significantly augmented by what we bring to the fight.

    The
    main American helicopter unit in Nineveh is 4-6 Air Cavalry Squadron.
    The normal strength of the "Redcatchers" is 40 helicopters -- 30 Kiowas
    and 10 Blackhawks -- but the Squadron has lost one Kiowa and a
    Blackhawk in Iraq, costing more than a dozen lives.

    The
    soldiers were lost forever, but the helicopters were replaced, and the
    Squadron is flying as hard as ever and to great effect. The pilots and
    crews work 24/7, performing direct combat and combat-support missions.

    I
    flew from Mosul in one of the Squadron’s Blackhawks from "Darkhorse"
    troop en route to FOB Sykes near Tal Afar. The "Hawks" are powerful,
    fast and loud. Blackhawk rotors are better designed than Vietnam-era
    Huey "choppers" and do not generate the percussive "whop whop whop."

    And
    so despite that Blackhawks are loud, when they fly low, fast and into
    the wind, they can at times literally sneak up on people on the ground.
    First there is silence and then "VRROOOOMMMM," the Hawk flies right
    over your head.

    We flew low from Mosul to Tal
    Afar in broad daylight, and if we happened to cross paths with a
    surface-to-air missile, the day could get exciting and final.

    Click here to read the full dispatch from Michael Yon.

    Click here to go to Michael Yon's Web site.