Snipers are strategic weapons in Fallujah

By Tony Perry
The Los Angeles Times

	HAYNE PALMOUR IV / AP A Marine sniper looks through his scope for insurgents moving from building to building at sunset on the northwest side of Fallujah, Iraq.
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FALLUJAH, Iraq — Taking a short breather Friday, the 21-year-old Marine corporal explained what it was like to practice his lethal skill in the battle for this city.

"It's a sniper's dream," he said in polite, matter-of-fact tones. "You can go anywhere and there are so many ways to fire at the enemy without him knowing where you are."

Sniping — killing an enemy from long distance with a single shot — has become a significant tactic for Marines in this "Sunni Triangle" city as three battalions skirmish daily with armed insurgents who can find cover among the buildings, walls and trees.

Marine sniper teams are spread in and around the city, working night and day, using powerful scopes, thermal imaging equipment and specially modified bolt-action rifles that allow them to identify and target armed insurgents from 800 yards or more.

The Marines believe their snipers have killed hundreds of insurgents, although that figure alone does not accurately portray the significance of sniping. A sign on the wall of sniper school at Camp Pendleton, Calif., displays a Chinese proverb: "Kill One Man, Terrorize a Thousand."

"Sometimes a guy will go down, and I'll let him scream a bit to destroy the morale of his buddies," said the Marine corporal. "Then I'll use a second shot."

In negotiations aimed at ending the standoff in the city, the insurgents have demanded that the Marines pull back their snipers.

As negotiations continued yesterday, a shaky truce existed between the Marines who surround the city and the fighters within the circle. But the week-old cease-fire allows the Marines to carry out defensive operations within the city, which among other things they define as allowing fire on insurgents who display weapons, break the curfew or move their forces toward U.S. troops.

While official policy discourages Marines from keeping a personal count of people they have killed, the custom continues. In nearly two weeks of conflict here, the corporal from a Midwestern city has emerged as the top sniper, with 24 confirmed kills. By comparison, the top Marine Corps sniper in Vietnam killed 103 people in 16 months.

"As a sniper your goal is to completely demoralize the enemy," said the corporal, who played football and ran track in high school, and dreams of becoming a high-school coach. "I couldn't have asked to be in a better place. I just got lucky: to be here at the right time and with the right training."
 
The military has asked that the names of snipers not be published. Insurgents were said to have placed a bounty for the killing of any Marine sniper. A Web site, linked to the insurgents, attempts to provide information on snipers and their family members. During Vietnam, the Viet Cong also put a bounty on snipers.

"If you're going to be a sniper," said the corporal, "you just have to accept the things that come with it."

The corporal was a scout during last year's battle to topple Saddam Hussein's regime, helping a sniper find a target and align the shot. This year, he's the shooter, assigned to a scout partner. He remembers his first time as a sniper in action.

"The first time, you get the adrenaline rush afterward," he said. "During the shooting, you have to take care of your breathing. It felt good to do my job, good to take a bad guy out."

Marine snipers, whose motto is "one shot, one kill," fire from rooftops in crowded urban areas of Fallujah, as well as exploring the city by foot. It sometimes takes hours to set up a shot, as the sniper hides in the distance, waiting for the opportune moment.

Marine officers credit the snipers, all of whom are enlisted men, with saving Marine lives by suppressing enemy fire and allowing their comrades greater freedom of movement.

"The snipers clear the streets for us," said Capt. Douglas Zembiec. "The snipers are true heroes."

Marine intelligence suggests that the insurgents, using Russian- and Chinese-made rifles and optics, have their own sniper teams, but there have been no reports of Marines killed by sniper fire.

Unlike most Marines, the sniper sees his enemy before killing him. The enemy has a face.

Most combatants get only a glimpse of their enemies. The distance is too great, the spray of bullets too rapid.

But the sniper, with time to set up his shot, sees his victim more clearly through a powerful scope: Their faces, their eyes, the weapons in their hands. And their expression when the bullet hits "their center mass."

"You have to have a combat mind-set," said the corporal.

Unlike other infantry troops, the sniper thus has a greater confidence that his shot is not as likely to hit a civilian or a "friendly." Witnesses inside Fallujah claims than many of the more than 600 Iraqis believed killed in the city during the siege have been noncombatants, including a large number of women and children.

The corporal hopes to get back home by late fall in time to take his girlfriend to a college football game and go deer hunting with his father.

"When I go hunting for whitetail, it's for food and sport," he said. "Here, when I go hunting, it's personal, very personal."

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