News from the front...

(Somewhat in response to keith_london's post.)

Hell on highway 9. A few excerpts:

"Fire a warning shot," he ordered as the vehicle kept coming. Then, with increasing urgency, he told the platoon to shoot a 7.62mm machine-gun round into its radiator. "Stop [messing] around!" Johnson yelled into the company radio network when he still saw no action being taken. Finally, he shouted at the top of his voice, "Stop him, Red 1, stop him!"

That order was immediately followed by the loud reports of 25mm cannon fire from one or more of the platoon's Bradleys. About half a dozen shots were heard in all.

"Cease fire!" Johnson yelled over the radio. Then, as he peered into his binoculars from the intersection on Highway 9, he roared at the platoon leader, "You just [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough!"

...

"It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen, and I hope I never see it again," Sgt. Mario Manzano, 26, an Army medic with Bravo Company of the division's 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, said later in an interview. He said one of the wounded women sat in the vehicle holding the mangled bodies of two of her children. "She didn't want to get out of the car," he said.

...

Lt. Col. Stephen Twitty, the 3rd Battalion commander, gave permission for three of the survivors to return to the vehicle and recover the bodies of their loved ones. Medics gave the group 10 body bags. U.S. officials offered an unspecified amount of money to compensate them.

"They wanted to bury them before the dogs got to them," said Cpl. Brian Truenow, 28, of Townsend, Mass.

A tale of friendly fire is blood-boiling. Excerpts from the "action":

Lieutenant Alex MacEwen, 25, Lance Corporal of Horse Steven Gerrard, 33, and Trooper Chris Finney, 18, were flown home last night with shrapnel wounds and burns. Before leaving the Argus they spoke of their bewilderment and anger that, despite flying very low over their heads, the A10 pilot apparently failed to recognize the coalition identification markings on their British-made tanks. Another vehicle in the five-strong convoy patrolling the marshes near the meeting of the Euphrates and Shatt al-Arab rivers bore a large Union Jack.

"All this kit has been provided by the Americans. They've said if you put this kit on you won't get shot," LCoH Gerrard said from his hospital bed on the Argus. "We can identify a friendly vehicle from 1,500 meters, yet you've got an A10 with advanced technology and he can't use a thermal sight to identify whether a tank is a friend or foe. It's ridiculous.

"Combat is what I've been trained for. I can command my vehicle. I can keep it from being attacked. What I have not been trained to do is look over my shoulder to see whether an American is shooting at me."

...

Suddenly, LcoH Gerrard heard the distinctive, relentless roar of an A10's anti-tank gunfire. "I will never forget that noise as long as I live. It is a noise I never want to hear again," he said.

"There was no gap between the bullets. I heard it and I froze...
Then I saw the A10 coming again and I just ran.

"I'll never forget that A10. He was about 50 meters off the ground. He circled, because he can turn on a ten-pence. He came back around. He was no more than 1,000 meters away when he started his attack run. He was about 500 meters away when he started firing.

"On the back of one of the engineers' vehicles there was a Union Jack. It's about 18 inches wide by about 12 inches. For him to fire his weapons I believe he had to look through his magnified optics. How he could not see that Union Jack I don't know. It was like Platoon. I was stood there on a little bank 25 meters away from my tank waving."

The front two Scimitars, packed with ammunition, grenades, rifle rounds and diesel tanks, exploded into flames. Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull, 25, did not escape.

Trooper Finney was injured when the A10 returned for a second run. He said: "The plane came over again and it started shooting. I saw sparks coming from the ground or my leg. It didn't hurt, it felt like someone had kicked me in the back of my leg. I felt warm down the back of my leg. Blood was spurting everywhere. I thought I was dead."

LCoH Gerrard criticized the A10 for shooting when there were civilians so close to the tanks. He said: "There was a boy of about 12 years old. He was no more than 20 meters away when the Yank opened up. There were all these civilians around. He had absolutely no regard for human life. I believe he was a cowboy.

"There were four or five that I noticed earlier and this one had broken off and was on his own when he attacked us. He'd just gone out on a jolly.

"I'm curious about what's going to happen to the pilot. He's killed one of my friends and he's killed him on the second run."

Lieutenant MacEwen - who now has special plastic bags tied round his hands to treat his burns - described how he saw the A10 return after he stumbled, burning, from his flaming tank and ran for the cover of a reed bed on the marshes...

He added: "After this I am quite pleased to be going home. 'Blue-on-blue' has always been one of my biggest fears. It is something that my friends and family joked about. 'Don't worry about the Iraqis, it's the Americans you want to watch.' The proof is in the pudding really."

Meanwhile, American peace activists who were injured when their car rolled after blowing a tire while racing for the Jordanian border were taken by Iraq civilians to the nearest hospital, in Rutbah. They discovered that the hospital had been bombed on the 26th, with several dead and injured. The US Central Command denied any knowledge of having bombed a hospital. (There were US bombing runs in the area on that date.)