Militants' latest tactic: the drive-by shooting

MOSUL, Iraq — Army hatch gunner Brandon Jones may have missed the man who fired potshots at his head, but the sergeant managed to destroy something else: the insurgent's car.

As U.S. and Iraqi forces have battled guerrillas for control of the northern city of Mosul in recent weeks, the insurgents have been putting their wheels to work.

Instead of packing their vehicles with explosives and detonating them in suicidal attacks, insurgents are more likely to fire on troops as they speed past their patrols and combat outposts.

Soldiers say the insurgents seem to favor Opels, because they have a reputation for being fast. Cars are also becoming insurgents' preferred hiding place for weapons.

"What's happening is, they realize we're finding the weapons they try to bury and hide in warehouses," said Lt. Col. Michael Kurilla, commander of the Army unit responsible for Mosul's crowded west side.

"What they're doing now is hiding all of their weapons in cars," Kurilla said. "That way they can keep it moving around and out of sight."

Sometimes U.S. soldiers pursue the drive-by shooters in 21-ton Stryker armored vehicles, jumping curbs and barreling down rutted dirt roads.

Such was the case recently when Jones, 23, of Santa Rosa, Calif., and the rest of his platoon were fired at by suspected insurgents in at least two vehicles.

The subsequent chase, through narrow streets, ended in a shootout, with the U.S. fire igniting a blaze in one of the cars.

The flames touched off a chain reaction, detonating rocket-propelled grenades and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in the trunk.

After the turmoil subsided, soldiers inspected the other car. They said they found a sniper rifle, a heavy machine gun, a handful of grenades, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, walkie-talkies, batteries and boxes of bullets. They also recovered several cellphones, one of which began ringing as soldiers examined it.

"Don't answer it. We don't want them to know we have it," one soldier said.

The incident was the platoon's first close-up experience with insurgents.

"Usually you get shot at and never see who's doing it," Jones said. "Either that or we get hit by (homemade bombs) and stuff that you can't react to. This was different."

Even though the soldiers didn't find or kill the insurgents, who had jumped out of the cars as the U.S. soldiers closed in, Jones said he and his fellow soldiers had made a point.

"We got a couple of their cars," Jones said. "Maybe that will keep them off the street for a while."