They work...
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/8544525.htm?1c (Credit: Philadelphia Inquirer)
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/8544525.htm?1c (Credit: Philadelphia Inquirer)
Marines in Fallujah keep enemy in sight
Teams of snipers thin insurgents' ranks.
By Carol Rosenberg
Inquirer Foreign Staff
FALLUJAH, Iraq - Marines awaiting orders to launch a full-scale attack here are using a not-so-secret weapon that commanders consider more effective than a 500-pound bomb to winnow down enemy fighters: sniper teams that target anyone suspected of being an insurgent.
In the last three weeks, two sniper teams attached to the First Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, have shot down 90 people who have strayed into their sights. The two teams are part of the 100 Marine sharpshooters deployed by three battalions around the city. One sniper secreted away in another corner of Fallujah has "26 confirmed kills," military officers here report.
"Every time we get to kill somebody, he is no longer shooting at the Marines," said Sgt. Dennis Elchlinger, 31, of Encampment, Wyo., who is one of only 500 scout-snipers in the Marine Corps.
Elchlinger said he did not know whether his team's victims were foreign fighters or local citizens brandishing weapons in a bid to drive out the U.S. occupiers.
"They don't wear a uniform. It's hard to tell the nationality of someone with a towel on his face," said Elchlinger, referring to the way many of the insurgents cover their faces.
Snipers have worked in the shadows amid a cease-fire that U.S. officials say has been repeatedly broken by insurgents. The snipers were deployed early this month, as guerrilla ambushes claimed more than 50 Marine lives in the bloodiest fighting since U.S. troops entered Iraq last year. Not since the Vietnam War have American forces deployed so many sharpshooters.
Day and night, the sniper teams stalk their prey, well beyond the bases from which Marines control about a quarter of the city. From rooftops, in fields and around alleyways, the sharpshooters are an offensive force - at a time when most Marines are under orders to fire only when attacked.
The Marines are threatening an all-out assault on the insurgents holed up in the city if an agreement is not reached for the Iraqi fighters to give up their guns.
A sniper team consists of four men, each of whom carries a sniper rifle, an M-16 and a pistol, as well as extra ammo and a host of other equipment. They set up sniper nests from which they track suspected enemy fighters with long-range scopes, thermal imaging devices and computerized equipment. If the team agrees a person has "hostile intent" - such as carrying a weapon or rocket-propelled grenade - a designated sharpshooter cuts him down with a special bolt-action rifle, killing him with a single shot up to 1,000 yards away.
"They've become the enemy's worst nightmare. We have something they can't counter," boasts Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, the First Battalion's commander.
"It's better to send a well-aimed bullet down than a 500-pound bomb," says Lt. Col. Austin "Sparky" Renforth, who is in charge of all Marine operations in Fallujah and has ordered air strikes to bail out Marines suddenly pinned down by insurgent gunmen.
"We didn't come for full-scale warfare," he said. "We brought soccer balls and Frisbees, wanted to make friends with these people. Once you drop a couple guys - call it information ops or psych ops - you get the message to the whole area."
In fact, commanders boast that in on-again, off-again negotiations with Fallujah's civic leaders, the Iraqis asked first that the Marines withdraw their snipers. Refugees fleeing Fallujah complained that the sharpshooters target civilians.
The snipers say they target only people with "hostile intent" and are given wide latitude to determine that. While an infantryman is under orders to fire only if a person is leveling a weapon, sharpshooters may fire at people whose behavior suggests they are part of the insurgency.
There's no shortage of targets.
"Seems there's more enemy here to me. Everyone was walking freely with AK-47s," said Cpl. Oscar Reyes, comparing his assignment in Fallujah with one a year ago, when he was posted near Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace in Baghdad, picking off enemies who came near U.S. forces.
That mission lasted three days. Reyes has been in Fallujah 21 days and counts eight confirmed kills and five probable kills in that time.
Besides sharpshooting, the snipers have called in air strikes on mortar positions and used their long-range rifles to detonate a dead fighter with an explosive vest, at a safe distance.
The snipers don't think their efforts will forestall the need for the Marines to launch a full-scale assault. "These guys are bunkered down in their houses. You've got to get them out of the house to do the job," said First Lt. Timothy Murray, 26, of Aliso Viejo, Calif., who commands a scout-sniper platoon of 20.
Elchlinger is typical of members of the elite unit. Slightly older than the average infantryman, he started out hunting - elk - long before he found himself in Iraq.
But his team leader, Reyes, is 23, and a product of a big city, Los Angeles. He had never hunted before becoming a Marine.
Now, he says, "I'm a hunter of gunmen."
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