Marines raid suspicious Iraqi tent city

By: DARRIN MORTENSON - Staff Writer | Friday, January 28, 2005 12:28 AM PST ∞

KARBALA, Iraq ---- About 200 Marines and soldiers on a nighttime raid against a suspected suicide bomber hide-out in the desert south of Karbala on Thursday netted little more than several irritated nomad families and a bone-deep chill.

The raid was an effort by the Marines in the region to foil any attempts by insurgents to terrorize residents of Iraq's two Shiite holy cities on or before election day Sunday, when Shiite voters are expected to win a huge majority of seats in a new parliament.

After 14 hours on the road, however, the Marines returned to their base in Karbala, a holy city southwest of Baghdad, empty-handed, except for a cell phone and one middle-age Iraqi man who for some reason tried to run.

The Marines were part of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a Camp Pendleton-based unit working to secure the region southwest of Baghdad before the election.

Pre-election offensive

Col. Anthony Haslam, commander of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said intelligence sources led the Marines to believe that a cluster of recently erected tents far out in the rugged desert was a staging area for suicide bombers and foreign fighters.

"We might hit the jackpot or it could just be a dry hole," Haslam said minutes before the raid convoy pulled out of the Marines' nearest base to Karbala about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday.

"Even if it is ( a dry hole), it's still good to keep them off balance, keep them on the run," Haslam said.

The junior Marines seemed to agree as they prepared for the largest raid they said they had conducted since major fighting against Shiite militants ceased in the region at the end of August.

Some Marines ---- mostly battle-hardened young veterans of the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment ---- cheered it as one last chance to "get some" before the Marine expeditionary unit packs up and heads for home in mid-February.

Others, however, were more ambivalent about the eleventh-hour mission as the convoy rolled out of the base under a full moon in air that was already cold ---- and quickly getting colder.

"Mixed feelings, really," said Lance Cpl. Justin Childress, 20, of Northern California. "We're pulling out of this base in a few days, and going home in a couple weeks. It would kinda suck to take shrapnel now."

Troops rev up for chilly drive

Despite his qualms, Childress joined the others in their enthusiasm as the trucks rambled toward the tent village like buses carrying a bunch of high school jocks across town to play the rival team.

"Ssshhhhh." Lance Cpl. Ryan Visket, 20, of Los Angeles said in his best Elmer Fudd voice when the vehicles halted at the first of several rallying points.

"Be vewy vewy qwuiet."

Even after a couple hours of being whipped by the near-freezing desert air on the open backs of trucks, their gripes still had a humorous edge.

"We need to invade Cuba, or somewhere with a temperate climate," Visket said before bursting into an air guitar routine that drew condensation puffs of laughs from his shivering comrades.

Ragged, skinny dogs announced the Marines' arrival in each village as the trucks rolled on past 10 p.m., then 11 p.m., and on to midnight.

When two light armored vehicles got stuck in the mud within sight of the targeted tents at midnight, the whole convoy turned around to head several hours south to the Marines' other base in the nearby city of Najaf.

"We're going to FOB Duke and attacking from the south," a Marine yelled, referring to Forward Operating Base Duke in the neighboring city of Najaf. He informed each truck of the plan as he ran down the line.

Cold got colder

Cold Marines moaned at the news.

"I can't feel my freakin' feet!" one yelled.

Over miles of freezing desert, the chill eventually stifled even the few remaining futile groans. The Marines fell silent, each seeming to retreat to that place inside that the Marines' training built, the place inside that keeps them pushing on.

It's a zone they said they learn visit to get them one more mile on a run, over one last ridge line on a road march, and head first into chaos on the battlefield.

And wherever that warm, happy zone was for the frozen Marines on the wandering raiding party, it seemed to include lots of women. Bawdy wise-cracks were about all that seemed to break the silence as the trucks pushed on across the desert.

Finally, at sunrise, they re-reached the tent city from another angle in the desert, converging on three clusters of wool and canvas tents inexplicably set up in the harsh barren land.

Bedouin get wake-up call

Cobra attack helicopters were on standby, and Harrier jets circled high above.

Marines went to work immediately, holding the women and children inside the tents at gunpoint while others rummaged through their meager belongings looking for weapons.

They searched a pen of goats, inspected a pen of camels, and sifted through grain sacks filled with patched-up clothes and stacks of blankets.

"Where are the men?" they quizzed the women in each tent. Their young children, all members of a nomadic people called the Bedouin, hacked and coughed against the cold.

A spokeswoman in each tent ---- strong and hardy women who seemed unafraid of all the Marines' weapons and brawn ---- told the troops varying stories about where the men had gone and how each of the three families were related.

One woman with a tattooed forehead and hands scoffed at them.

The Marines seemed a little peeved, having encountered the Iraqi peasants' proud resistance before.

They gave the women and children bottled water and packaged rations.

Army dragnet

A chubby Army intelligence officer on his first mission, however, was outraged when the women told incomplete or contradictory stories to him and his men.

He demanded answers, accused them of lying and threatened to haul them in.

When Marines found a man hiding in the desert nearby, the Army intelligence officer said, "Ha ha! Now I caught them in a lie!

"Tell him if he doesn't tell us what we want to know, it's going to be a long, long time till he sees his wife or kids," he told his Iraqi translator.

Seeming to be pleased with himself on his first encounter with Iraqis in the wild, he rounded up several other Army intelligence officers for a brief meeting.

"Either way, we're going to have to crack him," said Army Staff Sgt. Jim Barlow, 28, of Salt Lake City, as they emerged ---- grinning ---- from their huddle.

"We're going to have to show him that we aren't messing around," said the intelligence officer, who refused to give his name "for security reasons."

Action better than alternative

The bearded man of about 45 who the Marines caught in the desert, was about the net haul of the 14-hour operation. The Marines blindfolded the man and made him walk barefoot ---- as they found him ---- across the frozen earth to a truck where they wrapped him in blankets for the long cold journey back to the base.

"Their stories just aren't adding up," said Marine 1st Lt. Chris Smith.

"We'll just bring him in with us and see what he has to say."

Once they thawed out some and had a hot lunch, Marines said the long, cold mission was frustrating, but still worthwhile.

Intelligence sources said at least 10 men fled the site before the Marines arrived.

"If they were bad," said San Marcos native Sgt. Adam Cunningham, a member of the Marine reconnaissance team on the mission Wednesday, "then it's good we hit it.

"At least now they know we're tracking them."

Contact staff writer Darrin Mortenson at dmortenson@nctimes.com.

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