IRAQ WAR: A series of missed turns by an exhausted company commander led a convoy of troops into the deadliest ambush of the Iraq war, where 11 US soldiers died in a "torrent of fire," a US army inquiry has found.
Contributing to the fatal confusion, the report found, was the fact that many of the company's weapons jammed during the firefight, forcing some of the seven soldiers eventually taken prisoner to surrender.
Also, communications along the convoy were cut off because of dead batteries, and one key delay occurred when a truck ran out of gas, according to the army report about the firefight on March 23rd outside Nasiriyah.
Part of the Texas-based 507th Maintenance Company "found itself in a desperate situation due to a navigational error caused by the combined effects of the operational pace, acute fatigue, isolation and the harsh environmental conditions," the report's summary says.
In addition, the report says Pte Jessica Lynch, a West Virginia supply clerk whose capture and rescue were among the most publicised events in the war, suffered serious injuries when the Humvee in which she was riding was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and slammed into another truck at about 45 m.p.h.
The report rejects early media accounts that Pte Lynch was shot in the attack and even returned fire against the Iraqis; stories that later stirred a controversy over whether the Pentagon had exaggerated the details of Pte Lynch's capture to make her appear more heroic. She remains hospitalised.
The army's 15-page report, which has been released to the families of some of those killed in the attack, is stirring a fresh controversy because it does not recommend disciplinary action against any of those involved, even though it outlines key mistakes by a company commander, Capt Troy Kent King.
- (Newsday)