Ask any grunt throughout history and they'll tell you urban warfare is their worst nightmare.
Any window alleyway or bombed out building could be hiding the next enemy ambush. It's the most
dangerous environment for soldiers to fight in in march 2008 the last major fight of the Iraq war
took place in Sadr City the fate of the war and stability of the country would be determined by
this battle's outcome. Brian Williams: Now to Iraq and American troops on a mission in one of
the poorest and most dangerous anti-American areas in all of Baghdad. Katie Curic: one of the most
dangerous places in Iraq is Baghdad's Sadr City where American and Iraqi forces have been battling
Shiite militias block by block. Chirs Cappy: It was unclear if the insurgents or coalition forces
would be victorious but it appeared the enemy had a clear advantage since they were dug in defending
a well-fortified city it had become their last stronghold close to the capital of Baghdad
if the coalition was going to win this fight they were going to need to come up with a new strategy
unlike anything we'd seen before and the result still affects the situation in Iraq to this day
yet barely anyone knows the details of this story welcome to solder city a densely populated urban
jungle of winding streets and tiny alleyways home to two million people its location is very
strategically important because it's only 16 kilometers away from Baghdad
that's rocket firing distance a year before the battle during the surge we saw special
forces teams conducting frequent raids there against enemy leadership during one of these
raids they called in close air support but it went horribly wrong resulting in civilian deaths
after that tragedy Iraqi prime minister Nori Al-Maliki banned u.s forces from even entering
Sadr city since then there was little to no u.s forces presence in that city this led to a decay
in the security situation as insurgents flocked to this safe haven solder city
had become a gap in security where insurgents could set the battle conditions for themselves
they were up against the insurgent Mahdi Army, intelligence estimates put them at
up to 8 000 fighters. In march of 2008 the fighters increased their rocket and mortar
attacks on the capital of Baghdad striking the ministry of interior which was a government
building. The initial onslaught on march 23rd saw the insurgents launching a coordinated offensive
throughout Sadr city and it was focused on attacking iraqi government buildings
this was to highlight the coalition's inability to provide security in iraq the enemy quickly
captured the checkpoints throughout the city and used them to launch rockets into the green zone
without security in the green zone it was going to delegitimize the iraqi prime minister al-malaki
he reversed his position and directed the 3rd brigade combat
team 4th infantry division to destroy the enemy insurgents by any means necessary
the task of defeating the mehdin army was handed to colonel john hort a native of fayetteville
north carolina the u.s forces retaliated with striker mounted disruption patrols that denied
the enemy the ability to launch attacks oh first of all it's pretty significant because we haven't
had coalition forces in this area for a number of years and fairly recently it's been known to
be an area where insurgent activity has been high so it's significant because this is our
first step forward in this area as part of the baghdad security plan these missions often found
themselves in firefights surrounded by 100 enemy fighters or more one platoon led by lieutenant
morse was ordered to reinforce iraqi forces at a checkpoint that was under attack while helping to
escort the wounded to a small outpost they were hit by an ied and attacked with small arms fire
this was a classic tactic of the insurgency it's called the complex ambush where they destroy one
vehicle in a convoy so the rest of the platoon is stuck and bogged down in a kill zone then another
platoon would have to come up and help recover that downed vehicle the insurgents would then
focus their fire on the new platoon destroying one of their vehicles this in turn meant that
yet another third platoon would have to come out to help recover both of the rest of the company
we continued to move to try and secure the uh the rocket launch sites and uh it just continued
it did surprise us a deliberately prepared defense that's taken weeks if not months to prepare
and complex ambushes with rpgs small arms and uh and a lot of ieds when the enemy decides to turn
an urban environment like this into a battle zone they choose to put the population at risk
within one week the unit with the callsign one two scr lost six of their strikers all
to ieds and rpgs this forced commander holt to switch to heavier up armored vehicles that
could withstand these attacks so they would always have at least one bradley and one tank
the enemy's goal here was to protect their launch sites they did everything they could to stop u.s
forces from finding and destroying their launches they even had a system of signals with black flags
that let the other fighters know when they had successfully diverted an american patrol
and that it was safe for them to fire more rockets at the government buildings the end of march saw
heavy fighting but u.s forces still hadn't made their proper assault into this city yet to begin
to understand how complex this battle was and the kind of politics that were involved on march 28th
550 iraqi police quit and joined the insurgents they said quote these weapons are defending the
country not for fighting your brothers said sheikh salman al-ragi during this period between march
23rd and march 31st right before the invasion of Sadr city the United States forces destroyed
over 180 militants nine u.s soldiers were KIA the shelling on the green zone left two u.s diplomats
and one iraqi government agent kia the costs were high and the battle hadn't even begun yet
so what was the possible solution to stopping these rocket attacks and securing a hostile
urban environment US Army Colonel Hort came up with a clever new strategy to create a three
mile long wall of concrete t-walls each of these concrete slabs were three meters high
there was no guarantee this would work but it was their best shot and they would only get one chance
to do it right have you seen anything like this no i have not personally seen anything like this on a
good day the soldiers put up a hundred slabs when the fighting is heavy only eight the worst job
exposed climbing a ladder to unhook the slabs from a crane
it's a test of wills on both sides the insurgents can literally go to lunch come back and we've only
moved about 30 meters think of how terrifying it must have been to be the soldier tasked with
exposing themselves to unhook that concrete wall right on the other side of the street was
the entire Mahdi Army any type of weapon system the enemy had they tried to use against us up at
the wall i mean it was step by step by step and fighting literally every hour of the day on April
6 the invasion began it was led by elements of the iraqi army it was key to this battle that the
optics from the outside world looking in would see the Iraqis as the leaders of this fight it needed
to be known that the iraqi army were in charge. Soldier: here in area here in Sadr City we're
waiting on Iraqi Army they're pushing forward ahead of us once uh they clear up further we're
just gonna follow behind them guys are actually doing pretty good they're pushing they're actually
well as far as I can see they're just pushing down the road these guys are they're pretty
quick and sneaky they'll just do random shots and take off *GUNSHOTS* yeah like that hahaha
after the Iraqi army nearly retreated they pushed forward and fighting had mostly stopped early on
April 11 as United States and Iraqi forces managed to advance down the main road through Sadr City
and they set up a forward defense line inside the district they had their foothold there from
which to start laying concrete actually what we're trying to do is we want to partner up
with the Iraqis and then eventually Iraq is taking the lead so Hort and his men had to do something
to keep them out they decided to build a wall a barrier straight across Sadr city it would
also create a buffer zone wide enough to prevent the militia rockets from reaching the green zone
walls were slowly but surely going up throughout the city insurgents would use
the cover of sandstorms to plant IEDs or attack the coalitions during low visibility because
their movement was being restricted by these walls and it was code named operation gold wall
and involved day in and day out concrete laying these missions were to construct one
continuous long t-wall that stretched through solder city this simple yet eloquent solution
would prevent fighters from sneaking around and planting ieds with ease most Iraqi veterans are
familiar with these walls surrounding outposts and bases but the wall's purpose here was very
different instead of keeping the enemy out it was meant to keep them trapped within Sadr City
it wasn't all that different from a medieval siege tactic except they would use modern concrete
walls and they would be laid with gas-powered cranes on april 29 2008 army captain Logan Veath
was in the middle of setting up concrete barriers that were vital strategic piece to this battle at
7 30 a.m captain vieth and his platoon had been working all day and night to get these barriers up
we had just put our 60th barrier and all of the sudden we heard a big explosion said captain Vieth
they were caught in a storm of enemy small arms fire and improvised explosives hitting one of
their strikers captain Vieth and sergeant first class locklear ran towards the striker that had
been hit they ran towards it on foot while Rocket Propelled Grenade explosions and ak-47 rounds
landed all around them the striker gunner had been badly burned captain beast put him on his back and
carried him to safety to another armored vehicle where they held the insurgents back in order to
prevent their armor from falling into enemy hands it took six weeks to complete the wall with three
u.s battalions during this time they fired 812 rounds from the 120 millimeter M1 Abrahams main
tank gun and 2000 25 millimeter M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle rounds against the enemy close
quarters urban room clearing with special forces raids were another piece to solving the puzzle
of solder city in the southern portions of Sadr City units executed a daily rhythm that had become
commonplace in counter-insurgency battles during the day key leaders would meet with local leaders
called shakes at their home they would find out what kind of problems they needed solved such as
water treatment or unemployment infantry platoon leaders and platoon sergeants would work to solve
these issues in order to secure the local's loyalty knight was a completely different story
soldiers would switch from peacekeeping to war face as they executed raids kicking in doors where
suspected insurgents were staying colonel Farris referred to this as the day job and night job
during a brief ceasefire an insurgent spoke to a reporter which gave us some insight into
their perspective on what was happening the insurgent said quote we don't know what to do
if we carry guns the government will oppose us but if we put them down the Americans will come
surround our homes and capture us end quote that sounds like a horrible position to be in where
some of them felt like they were stuck between multiple factions and armies not knowing how to
avoid the conflict on april 27th the insurgents took advantage of another sandstorm that grounded
the close air support assets which were key for u.s forces it was their main advantage
so a platoon-sized element of fighters attacked a u.s checkpoint but the M1A2 Abrams tank there
made short work of all 22 of them and no u.s forces were even injured in the attack
between april 30th and may 1st the u.s army eliminated 28 militia in a series of separate
attacks against them on may 7th a cease-fire went into effect and a 14-point agreement was signed
which guaranteed the end to the rocket attacks on government buildings and the green zone entirely
all told about 941 militia were kia 22 u.s were kia nearly 600 civilians paid the ultimate price
between rockets that were launched by the militia and fighting in the streets between the two groups
one of the reasons violence in Iraq has subsided so dramatically was a significant
battle that u.s forces won in Sadr city just five months ago the fight was seen as a victory
for the United States of America forces as they achieved their key mission goals one of the major
takeaways was that this was seen as an Iraqi army-led mission whether or not that was truly
the case doesn't really matter the optics on the world stage showed that this was a win by and for
the iraqis i believe that time since then has shown that the iraqi army is capable of defending
their objectives to this day I'm your host Chris copy thank you for watching task and purpose out