VIKING HAMMER (AND THE UGLY BABY)

01.Masters of Chaos Pages 8/17/04 12:00 PM Page 313
Viking Hammer (and the Ugly Baby)
About two kilometers farther, as the soldiers closed in on the town
of Gulp, they came under fire again. The team sergeant and the other
medic hauled out the Mk 19 and returned fire while the rest of the force
assaulted the town. They captured Gulp at 9 a.m.—hours earlier than
the captain had expected. The Kurds ran through the streets and
searched the rubble left by the previous week’s bombing. The mosque
was untouched, but, as the Kurds had claimed, it contained sandbagged
fighting positions and a command post. The soldiers also found a suicide
vest rigged with explosives and a gas mask. During the previous year,
many residents had left as the fundamentalist group had imposed draconian
Islamic practices and the fighting had escalated. After a brief rest,
ODA 091 and several hundred pesh merga split off south to head up the
adjacent valley. The split team of ODA 081—the captain, the team sergeant,
two medics, one weapons sergeant, and one communications sergeant—continued
with Sheikh Jafr’s Kurds toward Sargat.
The Kurds wanted to charge ahead at a run, but the captain insisted
that they clear the road for the vehicles bearing their heavy weapons.
They made good time for the next two kilometers, but then started taking
fire from two entrenched positions in the mountains on their right.
The team brought out its Mk 19 and the M240, and the Kurds followed
with their heavy DShK and PKM machine guns. When the Ansar firing
subsided, the force continued on again. The team sergeant and a medic
stayed behind with the Mk 19 to cover the advance. After shooting about
250 rounds, Grit decided that they should catch up with the rest of the
team. He was not surprised that they had to fight their way up the valley
and suppress the Ansar positions in the mountains one by one, but he
had no idea what was in store next.
Just outside Sargat, the valley widened into a bowl. As Grit and the
medic entered it, they came under intense machine-gun fire from the
surrounding mountains. The bulk of Ansar fighters had dug in around
Sargat to mount its defense. Grit looked around for cover, but the land
was as open as a golf course. To the right was a broad field divided by
rows of low rock walls barely three feet high. The two men saw their
teammates crouched behind the walls farther ahead and dashed for the
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