The flaming april of 2004
April 26, 2010 // "Viysko Ukrainy"
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Those days Ukrainian forces faced a real enemy in a real combat; they fought to death, held their positions, and sustained their first, truly combat casualties. It’s been over a year since the anti-Saddam “Iraqi Freedom” operation started, but the country was still very far from stability. The overall poverty of the population, basic consumer goods deficit, and above all, total unemployment heated the political situation in the country to the boiling point. |
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The first wave of rallies hit the country in mid-January, but most problems have been sorted out at the negotiations table then. Only northern regions, mainly inhabited by Saddam’s Sunni supporters, resorted to open terror against the Coalition forces. The Shiite communities of Iraq’s central, southern lands initially even supported the Coalition, but the frustration was increasingly growing among them, too. The second wave of peaceful rallies, masterly orchestrated by radical Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr swept over the Shiite provinces in late March, and were much bloodier.
The Wasit province – Ukrainian brigade’s zone of responsibility – lies in central Iraq. It remained relatively calm due to Ukrainian forces’ presence, but only until April… Mahdi Army’s (JAM) fighters transformed the peaceful demonstrations into violent uprisings that even hit several Coalition units. Insurgents seized mosques in the adjoining Najaf and Kerbela provinces, home to major Shia relics. They then turned the mosques into fortresses, so the Coalition had to put a lot of effort to eliminate those strongholds. A large number of JAM fighters moved into Wasit in order to start uprisings against the Coalition forces here, too. The province was under Ukrainian control, but the Ukrainian forces had neither heavy weapons nor artillery, nor even mortars, therefore the entire province and its capital city Al-Kut were easy game for the insurgents.
Former chief of the Ukrainian 6th separate mechanized brigade Press centre Andriy Lysenko says: “there was a feeling from the atmosphere hanging over the city that a wave of rallies will not by-pass Al-Kut. Ukrainian units sealed off every road leading to the city and searched every vehicle in order to prevent any insurgent infiltration or weapons smuggling. They managed to capture several dozens of security suspects and certain amount of weapons. Nevertheless, a few hundred bandits did manage to infiltrate the city”.
There was no sign of any uprising by 10 a.m. Children went to school – and that was a reliable sign of peace. Even despite a number of rallies organized by Al-Sadr’s supporters all over Al-Kut one day earlier. Insurgents that sneaked into the city were impudent enough to wave their weapons from the crowd as if trying to provoke Ukrainian soldiers. The local police and the civil defense forces disappeared in some mysterious direction. Some of them even took off their uniforms and joined the protestors...
Fight over the dam
A dam bridge over the Tigris was Al-Kut’s most important installation. It was this bridge that the strategic road from the airport, where Ukrainian peacekeepers’ camp was set up, to the city lied across. This massive 200-metre-long structure created a large man-made reservoir used by local citizens to irrigate their crops. Not only would the destruction of that bridge cut off the Ukrainian units patrolling the city, it could cause a large-scale flood which would affect a huge number of houses.
— It was this dam that the hottest battle was for, says Andriy Lysenko. I was at the checkpoint 1 at that time, near the entrance to our camp. The checkpoint was under violent fire from the insurgents hiding in one of the city blocks nearby. I heard conversations over the radio and figured that it was getting very hot on the dam. This is what some of our guys who were directly involved in fighting say.
— It all started at approximately 1 p.m., says Olexandr Mironyuk, reconnaissance company leader. We saw that people began taking their children from the street; classes ended suddenly and everyone was gone from the nearby school. We were prepared for anything. Each soldier assumed his position and observed his sector. The fighting began when a gun burst aimed at us followed from a green van that came from the nearest street and turned away from us. Initially, we fired only into the air. Half a minute later we were fired at from a grenade launcher. Sgt. Volodymyr Lytvynchuk spotted the shooter, but the latter managed to fire another RPG and hit the left side of Lt. Pavlo Kashpirsky’s APC. As a result, gunner Ruslan Androshchuk was lethally injured.
The boy sat in his combat post and even saw the shooter through his gun sights, but the Ukrainians were not given a go for engaging yet.
Ukrainian MP post on the other bank, which controlled the entrance to the bridge and approach routs from Al-Kut was assaulted almost simultaneously. Ukrainians found themselves under automatic and RPG fire.
— I was sitting in my post in the APC just before fighting began, says Igor Chikel, reconnaissance squad driver who suffered injury in that combat. – I remember two insurgents with RPGs that jumped out of the ambush and were preparing to fire at our vehicles but were taken out by our snipers. When it became really hot on the other end of the bridge, our commander ordered us to support our comrades. That’s when I felt something hit the top hatch very hard. The hatch was thrown up, and I was hit by shrapnel. I later learned that I suffered a left forearm injury which went unnoticed because my head, still dizzy after the explosion, could only think of one thing: how not to lose grip of the steering wheel and how to manage to help our boys on the other side.
— The insurgents weren’t walking openly, they were firing from cover and roofs, says another reconnaissance trooper Mykhaylo Petryshynets. – They were striking in groups of 3 to 7 fighters, and changed positions frequently. Later, they began throwing hand grenades and firing from rifle-attached grenade launchers (GP-25 grenade launcher). Sometimes they even tricked us: I saw a woman running fast along the fence in our direction. When I took a closer look at her I saw “her” wearing a beard and trying to extract a machine gun from beneath her yashmak. I nailed the clown immediately. I didn’t even count how many of them I shot. There was no time for that. I tried to aim because we had no idea for how long we will have to hold the bridge.
Another fight was on in the city, where the civil provisional authority was located. The Mahdi fighters hit the CPA and the city hall where the civilian staff of 12 Americans, 3 Britons, and 6 Poles stayed protected by a company of the 61st battalion.
— We learned from radio transmissions that fierce gunfights were going there, too, says Andriy Lysenko, press centre chief.
— A taxi approaches the second house from the right side of the street; they begin unloading weapons! – the radio said.
— Guns right! Shoot to kill! Fire!
— Another two trucks with armed men! We could get them!
— Fire!
— “74” on the roof — “a pencil!” (sniper-auth.)
— Take him down son, fire!!!
Meanwhile, reconnaissance, MP units covered the crossing of the 61st battalion’s company from one end of the bridge to the other. They had to pass the dam while insurgents desperately tried to cut them off. MP platoon leader Olexiy Svidersky was injured while providing cover.
— We parked our ARV near a house, says Olexiy. Sniper Andriy Martynenko and machine gunner Roman Volodin climbed up to the balcony for better view over the area. They opened pretty accurate fire from there, and corrected our actions. They timely spotted a well-furnished gun post in one of the windows, so our grenadier Artyom Artyomov took down several insurgents with one shot. The first hand grenade to reach us looked like a “Kinder Surprise” candy. It hit the ground and fell apart, causing no explosion for some reason. An moment later, another grenade fell beside the first one. The explosion threw me to the side and I felt something hiting me in my left hip and forearm. My boys covered my retreat instantly.
The insurgents failed to take control of the city hall despite multiple assaults, so they decided to change their tactics and gain control of the road from the city to the airfield. So now they concentrated their fire on a small bridge near the grain elevator. There was a brick tower several floors high which, if taken control of, could give the insurgents a serious advantage. The tower allowed firing at both the Ukrainian units that defended the bridge and the road and the checkpoint 1, the main entrance to our camp. There was a ring-shaped road junction near the grain elevator, where three different roads met: across the dam to Al-Kut, to the town of Al-Khai, and across the small bridge to the Ukrainian camp. This road junction, and the brick tower near it became Mahdi fighter’s next target. 61st battalion’s platoon which arrived to secure positions near the road junction destroyed several gun posts before even reaching the area. Holding their positions under heavy fire, our boys provided good cover for our units returning from the city for re-supply.
— We arrived when the fight over the dam was at its height, mechanized platoon leader Olexandr Kovalchuk says. – We assumed positions on the ring and secured the roads leading from it. But the insurgents resumed heavy fire upon us. Machine guns, grenade launchers – they used everything. One grenade from a rifle-attached launcher exploded near my APC. I only managed to turn away and cover my face, but the shrapnel pierced both my legs. I thought of my men at that moment, lest they lose their nerve seeing that their commander is down…
The furious fire calmed down a little bit by night and soon ended completely. Nevertheless, our command decided to withdraw units to the base camp and abandon the city. Only one 61st battalion’s company was blocked in the CPA building. Ukrainian soldiers, along with the American, British, and Polish personnel stayed in the CPA building on the night of April 6-7 under frantic mortar fire and a shower of bullets and grenades. But before the dawn, at 5 a.m., our unit executed a prompt decoy maneuver and arrived at the base camp without a single casualty, having destroyed up to 10 enemy gun posts.
As early as April 6 evening, after the battles for the dam and the city hall, Ukrainians contacted the militant leaders for negotiations. Ukrainian side was to be represented by the Ukrainian contingent’s commander, Multinational division Deputy Commander, Gen. Anatoly Sobora.
— We intended to win extra time in order to let our units withdraw from Al-Kut completely. In addition, we had to wait until Coalition reinforcements arrive, Gen. Sobora says. – I wished to speak directly with the JAM leader, Al-Sadr; and I wanted the negotiations to be held in our territory. But the insurgents sent in a different person. Americans even wanted to arrest him, but that would ruin any negotiations. So I guaranteed safety to the parliamentary and agreed to negotiate in their territory, arriving unarmed in a SUV.
Terrorists even guaranteed that their leaders be present during the negotiations, and that there be no threat to our representatives. The negotiations have been arranged to take place the next day at an abandoned police station near the Al-Kut dam.
— When I reported to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine about my plans to negotiate, Gen. Sobora says, he told me to take reliable guards. He was right… when we approached the police station in two APCs, several grenades were launched at us. None of them reached the target, fortunately.
— The negotiations did not take place, because what the insurgents really wanted was to lure the Ukrainian commander out and kill him. That would mean complete success for them, says Andriy Lysenko, Ukrainian brigade’s press-secretary.
Whose victory?..
JAM militants filmed the positions abandoned by Ukrainian troops, the destroyed CPA building and sent the tapes to a number of news agencies. Even such respected newspaper as the British Daily Telegraph published a review based on fake facts, telling about how “the Ukrainian contingent withdrew from their positions despite the order from the Coalition to hold Al-Kut…” This was only part true.
There were several reasons for Ukrainians to leave Al-Kut. The first one is that such operations in cities are only conducted with air support. To clear the city only with assault rifles and machine guns meant causing unjustified casualties among our own soldiers. The Coalition dispatched two F-16s to help Ukrainians, but they proved useless. The insurgents changed positions frequently, operated in small groups, and fired at our units from densely-populated city blocks. So there was nothing left for the F-16s but to make a few circles over the city and return to base. Two Apache helicopters were later sent to provide fire support, but they, too, were unable to use their weapons.
— I was a witness during a conversation when our command was asking the multinational force for support, says Andriy Lysenko. The Coalition provided support, but airstrikes had to be controlled from the ground, and Ukrainian brigade had no such specialists at that time (Air Controller section was only included into the next contingent rotation – auth.). Of course, airstrikes could be delivered without ground controllers, but there was a big risk of our units being hit. In addition, the aircraft would be firing at populated blocks meaning large civilian casualties. And finally, we could not calculate the scale of casualties and damage since we did not know what kind of ordnance the Americans would be using.
Another thing which is not true was that the Coalition command demanded to hold Al-Kut “at any cost, like Stalingrad”. The Coalition staffs had clear idea of what kind of weapons the Ukrainian units had, so they dispatched an American mechanized infantry battalion enhanced with a company of A1M1s and a battery of self-propelled artillery guns. The Americans had big experience from other Iraqi cities; therefore they would never throw light infantry to clear a city without proper artillery support, followed by an airstrike and an armored fist. The reinforcements arrived the next day and started “doing their job”. This is what Gen. Sobora wanted to warn the JAM about. Even before their arrival, the Americans warned that they would “iron Al-Kut quite violently” so they would hate to find Ukrainians somewhere in the city where they hold the CPA building like “Brest fortress”.
To hold positions until Americans arrive meant putting our soldiers at greater risk, since such intense fighting in cities cause much bigger casualties. So the Ukrainian command, with the consent from the Coalition command and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided to withdraw our units from Al-Kut.
— We could hold the CPA building for several days, Andriy Lysenko says. – The boys had enough ammo, food, and water. The building itself was strong enough to withstand mortar fire (over 50 120-mm mortar rounds hit the building on the night of “CPA defense” – auth.). But civilian workers had to be evacuated, that’s why we abandoned the building. We could even take the entire city under control by ourselves, but we would lose God knows how many our soldiers and materiel… Our partners in the Coalition wouldn’t understand us, because the life of a soldier is of utmost importance. Nevertheless, what Ukrainians have done over those two days was an example of courage and heroism.
According to data provided by the American intelligence, Ukrainians killed 180 to 200 insurgents in the first day of battles in Al-Kut. One Ukrainian fell dead and six were slightly injured. Such were the results of street fights over the Iraqi city of Al-Kut in the hot April of 2004. They were the first, and we hope – the last ones in the history of our army. May the victory won in the battlefield never be stolen by dirty words in the yellow press. We always were, are, and always will be good soldiers and reliable allies to our partners in arms..
