Battle of Haditha

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Battle of Haditha
Part of the Post-invasion Iraq
Date August 01, 2005 - August 03, 2005 Location Haditha, Iraq Result Insurgent tactical victory
Combatants
United States	Iraqi insurgents
Strength
1,000	unknown
Casualties
20 killed, 1 wounded	unknown

The Battle of Haditha was a battle fought over two days on the outskirts of the town of Haditha, Iraq, which was one of the many towns that were under insurgent control in the Euphrates River valley during 2005.

[edit] The Battle

On the morning of August 01, 2005 a six-man Marine sniper unit on the outskirts of Haditha was attacked by a large insurgent force from the Islamic extremist Ansar al-Sunnah Army and in less than 10 minutes was overrun.^[1] All members of the unit were killed. A few days later a video of the attack was posted on the Internet on which insurgents were seen rushing the Marines. The group’s Web site posted still photographs showing a bloody, badly wounded body wearing Marine camouflage trousers and two hooded gunmen standing in front of several rifles. The insurgents said that they slit the throats of some of the Marines. Masked gunmen had shown up in the Haditha public market that afternoon displaying helmets, flak jackets and other equipment they said was taken from the bodies of the dead Marines. The bodies of five of the Marines were found in one place and the body of the sixth was discovered later a few miles away. Two days later, the Marines started an operation, which included efforts to find the insurgents responsible for the attack on the outskirts of the town. The operation began in disaster. A Marine amphibious assault vehicle, which was transporting Marines to the initial assault, hit a huge roadside bomb. The vehicle was completely destroyed and 15 out of the 16 people that were inside it were killed, with only one Marine surviving. Among the killed was also an Iraqi civilian interpreter.^[2]

[edit] Aftermath

After the killings, Marines and Iraqi soldiers began positioning their units for “Operation Quick Strike.” Around 1,000 Marines, Sailors and Iraqi soldiers moved into the city of Haqliniyah, Iraq which is about seven kilometers southwest of Haditha. The intent of "Operation Quick Strike" was to interdict and disrupt militant's presence in the Haditha, Haqliniyah, and Barwanah areas but the operation did not manage to gain any major results. All of the Marines killed were assigned to 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines. Fourteen of them were members of the battalion's Lima Company. The company had already lost six servicemen since the beginning of the war, including four members in Operation Matador in May. In May, out of the 9 Marines killed and 40 wounded during Matador four killed and nine wounded were from the same squad of Lima company. During 2005, Lima Company was the workhorse of both Regimental Combat Team Two and 3/25 participating in 15 regimental and battalion operations throughout their tour. The company saw combat from Hit, Iraq in the east to Al Qaim in the west. During Operation Matador, all members of that one squad were killed or wounded in 96 hours of fighting in far western Iraq.^[3] By the end of their deployment the Ohio Marine battalion lost 48 Marines and Sailors and another 150 wounded out of a compliment of 1,350 Marines.

In late August, Lima Company 3/25 conducted a raid on the home next to the site where the snipers had been killed. On 1 August, 2005 Lima Company had detained 2 military age males in this house and had found large quantities of blood in the house. Both these Iraqi males were flown to Al Asad Airbase for interrogation. In a raid in late August 2005, Lima Company, 3/25 detained 7 Iraqi males and discovered a large weapons cache of small arms and explosives buried behind their house. These Iraqi males were also transported to Al Asad Airbase where six of them subsequently confessed to the killing of the snipers. In early 2006, all eight Iraqi men involved in the sniper incident were tried by an Iraqi court in Baghdad, found guilty, and executed by hanging for their crimes. This raid is referenced in the A&E documentary 'Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company' which premiered in May of 2006.^[4]

[edit] References