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

defend it. Staff troops and communicators assigned to the task force headquarters companyably pitched in. 79After the fact, Lieutenant Colonel Twitty described Team Zan’s opponents at CURLEYas “Syrian Jihadists” who came to Iraq to fight against Americans. According to Twitty, theyshowed no evidence of thorough or professional training, but they fought with determination.Many of the Syrian fighters occupied a large building on the northwest corner of theinterchange. According to Twitty, the troops at CURLEY claimed the intensity of fire from thebuilding made the whole structure look as if it were “twinkling and blinking.” 81Although Zan troopers cleared the Iraqiand Syrian defenders out several times, theenemy reoccupied the shallow trenches aroundthe periphery of the cloverleaf because Zan hadtwo few troops to defend the entire perimeteragainst the onslaught of dismounted attacks.Team Zan literally fought a 360-degree fight.Growing bolder, small groups of attackersedged closer and closer to the position from alldirections, and although the direct-lay missionsShimmering in the SunTwo days after the fighting, Private First ClassDavid Turner, a mechanic in Headquartersand and Headquarters Company, 3-15 IN, passedCURLEY. He described the streets and groundas as “shimmering in in the the sun sun like like gold gold from from all theallexpended the expended brass brass lying lying on the on ground.”the ground.”TF TF 3-15 3-15 IN IN Unit Unit History Historyagainst the large building helped, heavy fire continued to come from there. 82 The Syrians andIraqis fought with a fierce, even fanatical, determination, pressing home their attacks. One ofthe mechanized infantry troops killed a woman who attacked his part of the perimeter. 83Figure 204. A Special Operations soldier mans a .50 caliber machine gun while driving in a convoythrough downtown Baghdad364SSgt Jeremy T. Lock, US Air Force