On Point: the United States Army in Operation Iraqi ... - Boekje Pienter

Figure 145. Enemy and friendly disposition in Objective MURRAYOne company from TF 4-64 AR cleared the police headquarters building near the bridgeand confiscated a case of AK-47s and ammunition. Another company reported hundreds ofAK-47s, RPGs, uniforms, 82mm mortar rounds, and 25mm ADA ammunition inside a largeweapons cache located south of the bridge. The unit also captured documents outlining thedefense of the city and the location of the military headquarters in that area. 35 As the afternoonwaned, the Tuskers, having accomplished what they intended, pulled out of the town andreturned to the positions they occupied prior to the attack. 36 The attack on MURRAY provedquite productive—killing some 46 Iraqi troops, capturing 23, and destroying 29 mortars andmore than 1,000 mortar rounds. In addition, the troops destroyed one Iraqi 20mm AA gunalong with a four-barrel self-propelled AAA vehicle. They captured or destroyed more than 50AK-47s, 90 RPGs, and hundreds of RPG and mortar rounds. Finally, the attack into MURRAYfixed enemy forces east of the Euphrates River by demonstrating a threat to Baghdad fromdue south. This ultimately allowed 1st and 3rd BCTs to successfully attack north and seize theKarbala Gap, securing the actual route for the attack into Baghdad from the west. 37Artillery SupportAs TF 3-15 IN withdrew, one of its tanks slid into a canal. The commander estimated itwould take all night to recover the tank and assigned a company-size force to provide securityfor the area. To provide protection for the recovery operation, 1-9 FA established a criticalfriendly zone (CFZ) around the recovery area. A CFZ is a programming feature within theAN/TSQ-36 Firefinder counterbattery radar. The Firefinder can detect artillery shells in flightand plot the point of origin—the enemy artillery tubes. By creating a CFZ, if the radar detectsany enemy rounds falling into that protected area, the American artillery is cleared to fire264