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Authors: Peter Mercer
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particularly long and cold run. We tried to incorporate more stops on our missions to keep them warm and make them more comfortable, without compromising our security, if it was possible. Neither the Gurkhas nor the Fijians ever moaned, though. They were professionals and hard as nails. I had a lot of respect for these men.
As contractors working in northern Iraq, sometimes we walked a fine line between being security personnel and mercenaries. To look at us and the weapons we carried and our tactics, you’d think we were some kind of paramilitaries. You can argue the toss all day: contractor, private military or mercenary. All I know is that I got paid a lot of money to look after and protect people and property. If trouble ever found us, so be it! We would deal with it using all the resources available to us – and we had a lot. We wouldn’t look for trouble, far from it. It was the team leader’s job in each of our patrols to avoid it at all costs, but we would not shy away from it, either. In the job we were doing people die; it’s part of the job. We were all there by choice and were there for the dosh. If you don’t agree or don’t want to do it, you go home. Period.
On this particular day it wasn’t much different from any other, as always the heavy weapons were fitted to the vehicles and all the spare ammo was loaded into the back along with, if you couldn’t guess, boxes and boxes of MREs (the American emergency food rations). It wasn’t unknown for us to sometimes get through 3,000–4,000 rounds in a large contact, our main tactic when being hit was to put down a large amount of fire and get the fuck out of the area as fast as possible. Being fully financed by the US Government, we had no shortage of weaponry and ammunition. We went through our usual routine of checking and double-checking our radios, weapons, bomb-jamming equipment, sat-nav and other communication means. We then went through the IA (immediate-action) drills quickly. These were mainly generic, but, for the mission we were now tasked with, we would be travelling through an insurgent stronghold so we really had to hammer it home to the lads to be on their toes, as this was going to be fucking dangerous, more dangerous than Mosul.
Tal Afar is a city in northwestern Iraq in the Ninawa Governorate, located approximately 30 miles west of Mosul and 120 miles northwest of Kirkuk. While no official census data exists, the city has been assessed as having a population of approximately 220,000 people, nearly all of whom are Iraqi Turkmen. The population’s religious affiliation is split roughly in halves, between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. While most residents do speak Arabic, a dialect of Turkish is also used almost universally throughout the city.
After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, insurgents used Tal Afar as a staging point for most of their attacks. In September 2004, American forces stormed in and defeated the insurgents and left roughly six-hundred troops in the city, and this was the time we were tasked to travel through this stronghold. This was not good. Later, however, the Iraqi authorities lost control over the city and in May 2005 the insurgents began taking over again.
Military operations in June 2005 did not quell the violence. Final offensive operations involving eight-thousand Iraqi and US troops were launched in September 2005. They tried, and successfully used, a new strategy of clearing, holding and building in the areas that they had purged of insurgents. An ambitious reconstruction effort was implemented. Most of the sewers had to be replaced after the attacks and this was done within a matter of weeks. Tal Afar has also been the scene of sectarian violence between the Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims. In May 2005 clashes broke out between the two groups. In March 2006 President George W Bush highlighted Tal Afar as a success story, but I personally feel that this was a bit premature, as the fighting continues to this
As contractors working in northern Iraq, sometimes we walked a fine line between being security personnel and mercenaries. To look at us and the weapons we carried and our tactics, you’d think we were some kind of paramilitaries. You can argue the toss all day: contractor, private military or mercenary. All I know is that I got paid a lot of money to look after and protect people and property. If trouble ever found us, so be it! We would deal with it using all the resources available to us – and we had a lot. We wouldn’t look for trouble, far from it. It was the team leader’s job in each of our patrols to avoid it at all costs, but we would not shy away from it, either. In the job we were doing people die; it’s part of the job. We were all there by choice and were there for the dosh. If you don’t agree or don’t want to do it, you go home. Period.
On this particular day it wasn’t much different from any other, as always the heavy weapons were fitted to the vehicles and all the spare ammo was loaded into the back along with, if you couldn’t guess, boxes and boxes of MREs (the American emergency food rations). It wasn’t unknown for us to sometimes get through 3,000–4,000 rounds in a large contact, our main tactic when being hit was to put down a large amount of fire and get the fuck out of the area as fast as possible. Being fully financed by the US Government, we had no shortage of weaponry and ammunition. We went through our usual routine of checking and double-checking our radios, weapons, bomb-jamming equipment, sat-nav and other communication means. We then went through the IA (immediate-action) drills quickly. These were mainly generic, but, for the mission we were now tasked with, we would be travelling through an insurgent stronghold so we really had to hammer it home to the lads to be on their toes, as this was going to be fucking dangerous, more dangerous than Mosul.
Tal Afar is a city in northwestern Iraq in the Ninawa Governorate, located approximately 30 miles west of Mosul and 120 miles northwest of Kirkuk. While no official census data exists, the city has been assessed as having a population of approximately 220,000 people, nearly all of whom are Iraqi Turkmen. The population’s religious affiliation is split roughly in halves, between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. While most residents do speak Arabic, a dialect of Turkish is also used almost universally throughout the city.
After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, insurgents used Tal Afar as a staging point for most of their attacks. In September 2004, American forces stormed in and defeated the insurgents and left roughly six-hundred troops in the city, and this was the time we were tasked to travel through this stronghold. This was not good. Later, however, the Iraqi authorities lost control over the city and in May 2005 the insurgents began taking over again.
Military operations in June 2005 did not quell the violence. Final offensive operations involving eight-thousand Iraqi and US troops were launched in September 2005. They tried, and successfully used, a new strategy of clearing, holding and building in the areas that they had purged of insurgents. An ambitious reconstruction effort was implemented. Most of the sewers had to be replaced after the attacks and this was done within a matter of weeks. Tal Afar has also been the scene of sectarian violence between the Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims. In May 2005 clashes broke out between the two groups. In March 2006 President George W Bush highlighted Tal Afar as a success story, but I personally feel that this was a bit premature, as the fighting continues to this
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