U.S. troops shift battle to Baghdad suburb

He and his comrades went through names — Jones, Rubenstein, could it be them? — trying to figure out who died. A young private bowed his head in prayer.

“One killed in action and nine casualties. That’s basically all of us right here,” said Spc. Anthony Bradshaw, a 21-year-old from San Antonio, pointing to the nine men around him.

Hunkered down in their vehicles, the 3rd platoon was itching to get into the fight. They are infantrymen trained for foot patrols, not to ride in armored vehicles, they said. And word of the two lost vehicles fueled their determination.

Then the order came: dismount, clear houses to the north.

At the back of the Stryker, the hatch dropped open, and nine soldiers piled out. They took cover on the front porch of an abandoned house and plotted their path. Explosions rang out to the east, source unknown.

They crouched behind a crumbling cement wall separating overgrown lawns where rusted garbage trucks lay. With large red wire cutters, Spc. Jeremiah Westerfeld, 22, ripped through concertina wire to allow the soldiers to scramble over the wall.

The Batesville, Ind., native bent over and offered a reporter his shoulder as a step to break her fall.

Smoke grenades and gunshots
They dropped down into a scruffy yard, thick with foliage and muddy ruts. A dog barked wildly. Smoke grenades were thrown for cover.

Someone shot the dog.

Doors were kicked in, residents questioned. One vacant house was booby-trapped with a trip wire connected to a homemade bomb made from a propane tank.

Throughout the day, soldiers took aim but seldom got a clear shot at the elusive militants, who hid behind rooftop water tanks and vanished in lush palm groves. Gunfire seemed to come from nowhere and from everywhere.

Insurgent fire kicked up pebbles at the Americans’ feet as they ran between buildings. Incoming bullets were getting more accurate.

In Baghdad, the 5-20 met little resistance as it scoured suspected insurgent dens in neighborhoods around Sadr City. They often drank tea with residents.

Things were different in Diyala, which could prove far more difficult to tame than Baghdad.

“I think the chai (tea) days — the quiet days — are over,” said 24-year-old Pfc. Allen Groth of Winona, Minn.

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