US soldiers' Iraq war tales

US soldiers' Iraq war tales

US soldiers said they had expected mass Iraqi surrenders

US soldiers injured in Iraq have been saying they had not been expecting to meet such fierce resistance from Iraqi troops.

A number of wounded soldiers who were airlifted out of the country for treatment spoke to reporters on Thursday about their experiences.

Three of them from the 30th Infantry Regiment were caught up in heavy fighting near the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriya.

Sergeant Charles Horgan, 21, said he had been blown from his gun turret and suffered a wound to his foot after Iraqis - dressed in civilian clothes - attacked with rocket-propelled grenades.

"I saw what I thought was a rifle. I turned my turret towards them so I could possibly engage them with the machine gun. That's when I heard a pop from further down the road," Sgt Horgan said.

"I looked down the road and right as I looked there was a rocket headed towards us. It was just like in the movies.

"I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to die.'"

'All dazed'

His comrade - Sergeant Jamie Villafane - confirmed the story about civilian clothes.

"A rocket had hit our truck from the front, blew me out of the truck," Sgt Villafane said.

Sergeant Horgan says the Iraqi attack was "just like in the movies"

"I was all dazed, next thing I remember I started engaging the guys to the left of us who were firing at us, the civilians who were firing at us."

He said that, despite shrapnel injuries to his arm, he took four Iraqis prisoner before being evacuated by helicopter.

Another soldier - US Marine Lance Corporal Joshua Menard - said he was surprised by the resistance, after having been briefed by his commanders to expect mass surrenders.

He said the main fear was of chemical or biological weapons, but that he would go back to Iraq if he could.

Correspondents say the war in Iraq has already brought some bitter surprises to US military planners.

They say other recent wars fought by the US - the Gulf War, Kosovo and Afghanistan - were dominated by early air campaigns and caused few American casualties.

But they say that the current campaign is being fought mainly on the ground, and there are likely to be further casualties.

The US Army Medical Corps in Landstuhl, Germany says it is now treating 72 wounded soldiers of whom 22 have combat injuries.