RAMADI (Iraq): Mother of All MOUT Maps

[LongLeftFlank]

Rumors are flying down here, with pamboats filled with terrorists being sighted all over the Visayas. 

But it looks like a half assed desperation move by Abu Rami; a bunch of his ASG brothers turned themselves in last week and his plans became known. So he and his core group decided to go out in a blaze of martyrdom and take some 'white meat' (that's people like me) with him. But his departure (and maybe intent) was known, so when (non-Muslim) villagers in his staging area phoned him in, AFP was ready to move and he was toast. Burn in hell, arschleit: you just discovered the only god you've been serving all these years is Satan.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Amen to that. 

[LongLeftFlank]

Sitting by the Pacific, I penned out the next scenario in the Ramadi cycle (don't worry I will tweak the AI for Wicked Wednesday first). 

Same approximate map area as WW, but about twice the forces and US largely counterattacking this time.....

SHARIF DON'T LIKE IT

QUICK START

1. You are 2/4 Marines XO Mike Wylie, BASTARD THREE. Your column of 4 vehicles is rolling west on MSR MICHIGAN, expecting an ambush. Get through it as best you can, then talk in the QRFs and air support.

2. Heavy QRFs from all four 2/4 companies: Weapons (WHISKEY), Echo (PORCUPINE), Fox (BADGER) and Golf (JOKER) are standing by, ready to envelop the ambushers from all sides, together with air support and COLD STEEL Bradleys from Camp Corregidor.

3. Killing RED forces matters this time, although once again, if BLUE takes a lot of casualties doing it, this is going to make the papers. But then hell, we're already in the papers. Let these cowboys find out who they're messing with.

4. Do not damage Saddam Mosque. There are also VP penalties for demolishing too many other buildings, so be selective with the heavy ordnance....

BACKGROUND

Central Ramadi, IRAQ, 21 July 2004 1230

The sharp step up in insurgent attacks in Iraq's "Sunni Triangle" in July 2004 gave 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (1MEF) grave cause for concern. While foreign bombmakers and organizers were leavening the mix, the main threat was homegrown. Militias of the Sunni tribes, whose ancient vendettas and power struggles lay at the root of all Anbar politics, were now openly up in arms.

Contrary to reportage from antiwar media, 1MEF and the NatSec agencies knew these players quite well. Their kinships, hatreds and business interests were amply penciled out on whiteboards at Camp Blue Diamond. But while the Dulaym sheikhs were just as happy taking US reconstruction contracts as they were smuggling AQ takfiris along historic ratlines from Syria, to a man they were unwilling to adopt anyone's vision for government but their own. There would be no winning of Sunni hearts and minds without them. And since April the Americans had stepped harshly on their toes.

For their part, with Fallujah still defiant, US commanders felt they had no choice but to show resolve in Anbar: "presence patrols", to show that no area was denied them, and "cordon and knock" detention raids, to show that no personage was above the 'law', as laid down by Uncle Sam. Above all though, the Americans were convinced that building up a professional (neutral) Iraqi military and police was the key ingredient that would in time restore order and let them declare victory. They were embarked on a long, hard road.

Just after 3pm on this third "Wicked Wednesday" of this blazing July, Major Mike Wylie, XO (S-3) of 2/4 Marines (BASTARD THREE) and a four vehicle convoy entered the gauntlet stretch of MSR MICHIGAN, between OP Ag Center and the Saddam Mosque, driving west.

MAJ Wylie had a great deal on his mind. Following last week's attack on DEVIL SIX, the JCC had issued a warrant to detain one of the paramount Dulaym sheikhs, Abdul Razak al-Kharbit. He was now said to be in Jordan, but about 20 of his clansmen were in custody, and intel warned that the clan was now threatening to make Fallujah look like 'a tickle'.

Ominously, 501st Iraqi National Guard battalion, whose HQ now lay in front of BASTARD THREE, had abruptly confined itself to quarters. And the corpse of LTC Attallah, one of the few reliable police commanders, had been found outside town 2 days earlier.

So it was "High Noon", with Mike Wiley in the Gary Cooper role and the cowardly townspeople running for cover. Except that he and LTC Kennedy had decided that on this day the "Magnificent Bastards" of 2/4 would be the ones acting, not reacting. All four mobile companies of the battalion were on standby.

As BASTARD THREE slowed to thread the cement barriers of the deserted ING checkpoint, not a single human being was visible, anywhere. With the hairs standing up on his neck, Wylie began counting down silently: "Ten... nine... eight...."

Sequence.

1. AT 1507D, 2/4 MARINES XO S CONVOY (20 PAX IN 4X VEHICLES) WAS ATTK WITH AN IED, FOLLOWED BY RPG AND SAF FROM 8-10X AIF IVO AR RAMADI (LB427998). THE CONVOY WAS MOVING WEST ON MSR MICHIGAN RETURNING FROM COMBAT OUTPOST TO CAMP HURRICANE POINT. AT 1543D, THE CONVOY WAS ABLE TO BREAK CONTACT AND RETURNED TO COMBAT OUTPOST.

[The] Humvee had been hit at a deserted checkpoint outside the Iraqi National Guard headquarters, where concrete barriers force vehicles into a slow slalom. Marines later said they had seen people moving inside the building -- Guardsmen, they believed. The attackers had tunneled under the pavement to place the bomb. 

Scores of guerrillas fired rifles and rocket-propelled grenades from rooftops near National Guard buildings, sparking a street battle that drew in more than a battalion of US forces, and that killed 25 insurgents.

“There was about a half-mile stretch of the main road in town that instantly became a battlefield as we moved through it,” explained Maj. Mike Wylie

[LTC Kennedy] “My XO was returning from my far eastern outpost when his four vehicle convoy was hit by an IED (155 round, remotely detonated) and immediately engaged by small arms and RPGs. They attempted to get out of the kill zone but it extended about 400 meters with shooters lining the road from rooftops. Every vehicle was hit several times but they escaped unharmed.

2. 2/4 MARINES COMMENCED OPS TO CLEAR THE PRIMARY CONTACT SITE AND REPORTED MULTIPLE RPG AND SAF CONTACTS. 

[LTC Kennedy] “We launched the Quick Reaction Force [W/2/4] within minutes along with my Fwd CP (Ollie [North] and cameraman imbedded). As we were swooping in from two directions more IEDs hit us. The vehicle behind mine (carrying a rolling camera) was struck by a Vehicle Borne IED; no damage or casualties except the Arab who went to his maker."

While the QRF drew closer to the objective, the AIF detonated a vehicle-borne explosive. The explosion startled the Marines meant to reinforce those under fire in the city, but didn't stop them. Several civilians, however, were killed by the blast. 

"We got out of the vehicles and started looking for targets and made sure everyone was okay," said Lance Cpl. Mathew L. Brown, a 20-year-old machine gunner for Weapons Company from Hillsdale, Mich. "Then we got back in and started pushing towards Saddam's Mosque."

3. They encountered a fierce fight. They found themselves in the middle of a hail of bullets, RPGs and more homemade bombs. "Once we got there, an improvised explosive device went off in front of my vehicle," Brown explained. "An RPG hit a wall right next to our truck and we got out and started suppressing." Marines ran toward the source of the fire, weapons on all sides blazing. "While we were still moving we kicked open our doors and started firing at buildings we thought we were taking fire from," said Cpl. Jared H. McKenzie, a 22-year-old squad leader for Weapons Company. McKenzie jumped out of the vehicle, directing the gunner in his vehicle to kill the enemy hiding out in a furniture store.... "It was hard to hear if we were receiving any small arms over all the explosions."

[Kennedy] “By this time Golf was in contact to the east and Fox coming in from the south in contact. Fox-6 and fire support team were casualties from an RPG but they continued to fight. Weapons company with me shooting rockets and 40mm easily broke up the attack. 

Golf was in a big MOUT fight, clearing a hotel and adjacent building for a couple of hours. Echo finally came in from the north and crushed the bastards. My Fwd got to defend itself again as the companies love to abandon me. Luckily I have a great Three and SgtMaj to keep us healthy.

4. Cpl Holladay, 2/4 Golf. Civilian traffic had already stopped so we had a straight shot to the ambush site. However, we decided that we should detour to the street directly south of the MSR and come out to the west of the 3's convoy. We diverted from the MSR and started down the side street. 

I guess we surprised a group of insurgents posted at the other end of the street that were probably waiting for us to move directly to the convoy and then move south. They recovered quickly enough though, and opened up on the lead truck with an automatic weapon and fired an RPG. I was in the third vehicle in line with the CO and watched from my turret as the rocket missed the lead truck by scant inches and slammed into the side of the second vehicle. 

All vehicles immediately got out of the kill zone and Marines jumped to the ground and sought cover. The machine gun that had initiated the attack was still launching rounds at us and I heard Gunny bellow, "GET SOME SUPPRESSION DOWN THAT STREET!" 

I had also noticed that there was a car parked about 50 meters to my front with it's trunk open. Finding this rather odd, I pumped a burst into it and one of the tracers set the fuel tank on fire. The insurgents were using the car I had lit up as some kind of ammo dump. The rockets, explosives and other munitions started cooking off and I told my driver to get the hell out of there.

In the initial attack, the lead vehicle had taken several rounds in the engine compartment and was only able to move far enough to get behind a wall before the engine quit. The recovery team had already shown up to tow the RPGed truck back to base and decided to just take both back.

5. ARMORED QRF FROM 1-16IN (M1 AND M2 S) AND MARINES REPORT HEAVY AIF ACTIVITY CENTERED ON THE SADDAM MOSQUE (LB429999) AND TO THE NORTH (LC4282008).

There was a building directly to our north that stood 5 stories and was believed to contain 3-5 insurgents. Before clearing it out, we were to saturate it with lead and HE (High Explosives). Two Army Bradley Fighting Vehicles had shown up and were to assist in this endeavor.... The door was blown in with an AT-4 and a squad cleared the building, finding the insurgents, unsurprisingly, dead.

Overhead air support moved on to cover the Marines as they swept through searching out the remnants of the attackers. During the sweeps the Marines discovered another vehicle-borne explosive they detonated with a TOW missile. Soldiers recovered another homemade bomb in a burlap sack, made from a 155 mm artillery round. Abandoned grenade launchers and enemy machine gun and grenades, two anti-tank mines, a homemade rocket launcher and ammunition were also recovered. 

6. THE LAST CONTACT, CENTERED ON THE SADAM MOSQUE, OCCURRED AT 1850D AND 2/4 MARINES THEN COMMENCED CONSOLIDATION AND SEARCH OPS.

The Marines arrested 25 people - including two Iraqi police - and said that at one point they had faced up to 100 attackers.

****

[Sgt.Squarehead]

57 minutes ago, LongLeftFlank said:

4. Do not damage Saddam Mosque. There are also VP penalties for demolishing too many other buildings, so be selective with the heavy ordnance....

Meh.....I've been wanting to put a JDAM through the roof of that structure ever since I first laid eyes on it, just to see what it would do, but I fear I might be struck down for my blasphemy (the water tower on the other hand went down a treat)! 

Edited April 15, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead

[LongLeftFlank]

On 6/19/2010 at 11:47 AM, LongLeftFlank said:

Here's the interior of the massive domed musala. The mizhrab, which marks the direction of Mecca, is visible. As in old Christian churches, the colonnaded galleries on either side were for VIPs and women.

 

No joy infidel crusader, the most you ever get to do is occupy it, with Iraq jundi and US paratroopers. ROE....

[Sgt.Squarehead]

LOL! 

My interest is purely scientific I assure you, I just wondered how the unique construction you have used to model the building would direct the blast.....Honest! 

[LongLeftFlank]

Quick update: took in the great playtest feedback (cheers all) and overhauled 2 of the AI plans to reduce banzai charges and massacres.

In addition to the rescue situation, WICKED WEDNESDAY is distinctly challenging owing to the shortage of dismount infantry in the QRFs. Systematic house clearing is not an option for you. Instead make the most of your guntrucks to suppress the enemy, while understanding their vulnerabilities (gunners, tires).

[sburke]

*****************************************************SPOILER ALERT***********************************************************************************

 

 

This game never ceases to deliver.  Trying out a run on the updated version of this.  Turn 1 has the enemy sniper pop up and it wounds one of my guys.  Not an auspicious start, but my return fire takes out somebody with this guy and suppresses the sniper.  Not the best as I'd like him confirmed down but it gives me some breathing room.  Turn 2 starts and my heart drops into a pit somewhere around my stomach as my sphincter squeezes tight it's escape route.  No way buddy you are hanging in there with the rest of us and are gonna face this awful situation..... a cab comes roaring around the corner headed right for my men...

and keeps coming

and now I am just waiting for the blast that will take out my entire command.  No one has fired.  One guy is pulling a grenade but far too slow to do any good.  My troops are all dead men that just don't know it yet.

and somehow it drives right through my lines and heads down the road

The turn ended there with my jaw on the floor and I couldn't but help recall some of the crazy stories I have read about Iraq.

LLF you bastard, I'm getting old.  My heart isn't what it used to be.

Edited May 6, 2017 by sburke

[Erwin]

If that's by design that is VERY COOL. 

But, wish you'd placed a ****SPOILER ALERT ******.

[sburke]

21 minutes ago, Erwin said:

If that's by design that is VERY COOL. 

But, wish you'd placed a ****SPOILER ALERT ******.

sorry man I was still kind of freaked out - and it could very well be a VBIED that didn't go off.  Don't count on it doing the same for you 

oh and I am not 100% sure this is the updated.  I decided not to verify by starting over after a beginning like that so I'll be trying again after this run just to see.  . . and I won't tell any one here what the next one does.

Edited May 6, 2017 by sburke

[LongLeftFlank]

Well, what with Uber, the regular taxi guys gotta take fares where they can.

 

[LongLeftFlank]

Local citizens driving unawares into firefights, and then not taking not so gentle hints to turn around, was very common.

The following happened in the historical July 14th engagement, at OP AG CENTER, 400m east of the DEVIL SIX position.

http://jarheadjournal.blogspot.com/2005/04/july-14th.html

Around 1230, we received a call over the radio that an Army convoy was to be moving past our location on its way back to Junction City. Just as the convoy moved out our line of sight an IED went off where the convoy should have been. As soon as the bomb went off, all civilian traffic, pedestrian and vehicle, stopped and got out of the area. One of my squad members told me there was a car speeding around the corner and heading for the stopped convoy. I told him to give him a warning shot in the windshield. The driver didn’t stop and I shouted, “Light him up!” He and I fired several rounds into the car. It stopped in front of the soccer stadium across the street and the driver got out holding his side and staggered off the street. As soon as he stepped onto the sidewalk, gunfire erupted around us. We were taking fire from all directions and immediately called in the QRF.

The abandoned car was actually mistaken for a VBIED, which is what held up the QRF from reaching DEVIL SIX for so long (in the scenario).

http://jarheadjournal.blogspot.com/2005/04/

The QRF formed up in a defensive formation and stopped all traffic until the second VBIED could be dealt with. Two Marines attempted to blow it up with the Mk-19 (40mm automatic grenade launcher) with no success. While this was going on, a vehicle turned onto the MSR and moved toward our lines and was not slowing. I gave him a warning burst and still, he kept moving toward us. I put the next burst into his hood and he got the message and reversed his course in one hell of a hurry....

[Erwin]

I wonder if Uber will program in a "Reverse" program if one of its autocars start taking gunfire?  Good question for CNN.  Am in Tempe at present and they are all over the place.  A bloody nuisance as they all drive at the speed limit no matter what and are other wise quite slow.  You have to maneuver around em. 

Questions:  What will this do to the auto industry if all cars end of driving like this.  What of the luxury and high-powered brands??  You gonna pay $100K+ for a car that drives like your grandmother??  Someone hasn't thought this whole auto car thing thru.  And now Uber is talking about flying cars by 2015!  Am beginning to think it's one huge investment scam. 

[LongLeftFlank]

17 hours ago, Erwin said:

And now Uber is talking about flying cars by 2015!  Am beginning to think it's one huge investment scam. 

It's ok, Elon Musk will sort out time travel too. Or is it Google? They're evidently already going to solve death, so us grogs can keep gaming and arguing in perpetuum mobile. 

http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2017/04/john-gray-dear-google-please-solve-death

[LongLeftFlank]

 Brief update: a 'surge' in RL work has prevented any further progress on Ramadi, but I have had a chance here and there to do some further reading.

Outstanding new histories on the Iraq War are now coming out (2016) and being declassified. They effectively debunk the earlier wave of personality cult narratives, e.g.  "SEAL sniper teams won Ramadi single handed, killing the entire AQIZ chain of command with 700m head shots" or "Petraeus and MacFarland were the first US commanders ever to think of recruiting Sunni sheikhs and their clans to fight Al Qaeda."

(MSM media btw was even more clueless on these developments; they had long before convinced themselves that all was lost, quagmire, Vietnam, etc. Sound familiar?)

For those interested in this important period of US military history, the following pubs provide a huge amount of valuable background on the final phase of the Ramadi/Anbar campaign (2006 - 2007) and the background to the tribal uprisings against Zarqawi and his headchoppers.  Dr. William Knarr, Col Alford (who lived a lot of this history!) and the team at IDA have done fantastic work.

https://www.ida.org/idamedia/Corporate/Files/Publications/IDA_Documents/JAWD/2016/P-5059V4A.ashx

1. The Sufiya uprising, where 1/9 Infantry crushed an al Qaeda attempt to make an example of the  Abu Soda tribe by dragging their corpses behind pickups, Trojan war style.

https://www.ida.org/idamedia/Corporate/Files/Publications/IDA_Documents/JAWD/2016/P-5052V4.ashx

2. Operation Murfreesboro (2007), clearing out heavily mined south Ramadi neighborhoods block by block, in the heaviest US street fighting since Fallujah. 

www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=AD1001769

JSOU Report 15-4. Knarr: The 2005 Iraqi Sunni Awakening. 
Bigger picture perspective on the emerging conflicts between AQ and the Anbar tribes, and how USSF work planted the seeds.

[Combatintman]

@LongLeftFlank- some mission making gold there. I too have noticed that there has been a lot more released on US stability ops in Iraq which are great for scenario design. Maps and heaps of detail like this are exactly the sort of thing we need.

[LongLeftFlank]

Yes, and while my service buddies are pretty hacked off about it, for a historian the Wikileaks 'nine liners' give a priceless day by day chrono of the tempo of insurgent action, counteraction, etc.

[sburke]

oops

 

Edited May 15, 2017 by sburke

[LongLeftFlank]

Damn hippies! Get off my thread!

[LongLeftFlank]

6 hours ago, Combatintman said:

@LongLeftFlank- some mission making gold there. I too have noticed that there has been a lot more released on US stability ops in Iraq which are great for scenario design. Maps and heaps of detail like this are exactly the sort of thing we need.

The Sufiya rescue operation of Nov 2006 took place in a semi-rural area not on or near my map of downtown, so if it appeals to you by all means take a crack.

On top of the IDA paper Daniel Bolger's "Why We Lost" contains some more good detail around LTC Ferry's relief thrust and the air and artillery strikes. 

"Three of the pickups blundered south, smacking into Ferry's lead tank. The M1 punched them to bits with 120mm main gun rounds. There wasn't much left of them or their AQI passengers."

[LongLeftFlank]

Been on the road this week, but hope to finalize WICKED WEDNESDAY this Ramadan weekend, insh'allah. 

In the meantime, this short piece is a bit wonkish, but does echo some of my own past observations that outside 'medieval' backwaters like A'stan, the focal point of modern (counter)insurgency today seems to be urban areas, not mountainous strongholds.

Now can an insurgency with an urban poor/middle class base truly take power? Mao (and Ho) didn't think so, but Che Guevara did. And in a modern wired, mobile world are the distinctions between peasant and urban day labourer blurring?

http://politicalviolenceataglance.org/2017/05/23/the-future-of-war-is-in-cities-the-study-of-war-should-follow-suit/

Urban warfare necessitates decentralized, fast-paced, small-unit operations. And junior commanders capable of operating independently are essential.... [while] some of the non-state groups fighting in cities are increasingly using quasi-conventional military tactics and weapons such as antitank guided missiles and longer-range rockets, some of the most effective tools states employ in urban combat – such as Special Operation Forces and psychological warfare – resemble classic guerrilla tactics. 

True, rural insurgencies have not vanished altogether. But looking at today’s conflicts, it is no accident that the emblematic names that come to mind are those of cities like Aleppo, Homs, Mosul, Gaza, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Sana’a. As David Kilcullen urges, it is “time to drag ourselves – body and mind – out of the mountains.”

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Pretty sure the US DoD published a document to the same effect a couple of years back, I remember it scaring the bejesus out of some of the conspiracy-nuts. 

[sburke]

Heh - LLF you are risking a major tangent on your thread.  Some things to consider regarding insurgencies - at Khe Sanh the US identified some movement of major NVA units prior to the battle by the use of sound mics.  Now with drones and thermal imaging, a rural insurgency becomes a lot more difficult.  Between that and rapid global urbanization, any insurgency is forced to move into an urban environment in order to stay hidden.  The next big issue is supply and rear areas.  The Taliban has Pakistan.  The NVA had N Vietnam and Laos.  The Syrian resistance has to some degree Turkey.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

I think a big part of the issue is always going to be separating the insurgents from the locals, especially when (at least some of) the insurgents are the locals.....The world's military forces already know how to take urban areas, what they don't know is how to do it without causing intolerable carnage. 

Edited May 26, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead

[LongLeftFlank]

The indifferntly trained and equipped  Philippine Army 1st Division is facing those quandaries right at this moment, in Muslim majority Marawi city, Mindanao, where the takfiri "Maute" group has invaded and is busy in a brutal pogrom against Christian residents. Their intent of course is to invite army reprisal - accidental or otherwise - against non-radical Muslims, that will then (re)radicalize the MILF/MNLF militias who have negotiated quasi-official status in that area under the autonomy agreement.

Most of the Muslim residents don't want any trouble, but also aren’t willing to shop the extremists to the army/police. With good reason because arrestees have a disturbing tendency to escape custody or simply be released, and then seek revenge on the 'rats'. So even though it isn't 'support' per se, they are allowing the Islamist fish to swim in the sea, to use Mao's analogy....