Ramadi Insurgents Develop Clever Tactics

[tocqueville]

By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer
23 minutes ago

RAMADI, Iraq - On an eerie, battle-scarred street in this blown-out urban war zone, a mannequin with painted black hair stares silently at U.S. Marines hunkered down in sandbagged observation posts atop buildings a few blocks away.

It's the latest insurgent ruse in an evolving war pitting the world's most powerful military against guerrilla fighters using their most effective weapon: ingenuity.

Insurgents in Ramadi recently have flown kites over U.S. troops to align mortar-fire, released pigeons to give away U.S. troop movements and staged attacks at fake funeral processions complete with rocket-stuffed coffins, U.S. forces deployed here say.

"They're crafty, I'll give 'em that," said Marine Cpl. John Strobridge, 20, of Orlando, Fla., as his Humvee passed the mannequin along one of the most bomb-infested roads in town, a street Americans call Route Michigan.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060409/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_guerrilla_ingenuity

[kaygore]

1. Sure they are crafty. The are fighting for their country!

[hobbit709]

2. "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy"

Evidently our leaders have yet to relearn this lesson. Patrols going out at the same time every day, using the same routes, etc. The "insurgents"-patriots defending their country against an occupier have enough sense to change their tactics-our leaders evidently can't/won't. So our troops continue to get killed for nothing in a stupid war.

[Cocoa]

3. they stole the mannequin trick from Bush

you know how they always call Laura Bush "Bush's secret weapon"...

[WhiteTara]

4. I think we should leave in the morning

we can never do anything here but cause more bloodshed.

"U.S. forces regularly sweep the roads for bombs, and insurgents sometimes try to remove them, then replace them. Another tactic: dropping a harmless piece of trash by the roadside one day, planting explosives in it the next, then arming it later and triggering it from blocks away with a cordless telephone.

Marine and Army officials said guerrilla fighters also fly kites that signal to other fighters where U.S. soldiers are, to help them direct their fire, and Del Gaudio said insurgents have released flocks of pigeons into the air as an American or Iraqi patrol goes by so that other fighters know where U.S. forces are."
snip
Del Gaudio said this week he'd come under fire by a dozen insurgents who were holding children and firing at U.S. forces — knowing Marines would not return fire. Goetz said a 12- or 13-year-old had been spotted Saturday planting a roadside bomb.

"They fight us hard, they are a determined enemy," Del Gaudio said. "But there is no morality there. They hide among the population, among families, women and children. That's how they fight. That's how they do what they do."

[cynatnite]

5. Weren't they crafty in Vietnam, too?

Isn't that one more parallel in the long list of parallels?