Why Did Insurgents In Iraq Freeze Mortars Before Attacking

[ghostrecon]

I'm from Iraq. In 2004-2005 I used to walk home from school and on my way I see all types of mortars deployed under trees cover. And all of them were 120mm which were the biggest ones. The US air support destroyed them all that resulted to break the glass of all of our nearby house windows. What a dark scary days. I'm now a gastrointestinal surgeon serving my same city (Najaf) in south Iraq. Good thing all that dangerous walks to school didn't go for nothing.

[nematolvajkergetok]

They had some interesting ideas. In some IEDs, they used a piece of fruit as a timer. The fruit kept a switch open, until it gradually spoiled and get soft. There was no telling how long it would take, so it wasn't a very precise method, but worked fine in many situations.

[dainonjensen]

Imagine how many mortar tubes you'd have to have for this tactic to make sense.

[stephenwilliams]

They used jugs filled with water as time delay fuses. drainage holes where drilled at the bottom so when the jug emptied the metal that was floating in the jug hit the magnet at the bottom that charged a fuse and fire rockets that where propped up with railings

[Ryan-kz]

I remember we got back off a mission in Ramadi, Iraq in the summer of 2008. Walked into the KBR laundry center to drop off dirty laundry and it felt like walking into a freezer because the air conditioning was so good. Walked over to the thermostat to look at the temperature… It’s was 103 degrees Fahrenheit in that building. It was 140 degrees Fahrenheit outside. It was like being on the moon. What an insane place to live.

[eltonjohnson]

We were in Baghdad. We never got hit with mortars. Instead, we got hit with those damn 107 mm rockets. They would bring them in from Iran. They would transport them around in the beds of those white-and-red Toyota pickup trucks. They would park, take the rocket and the portable rocket launcher out of the truck, set up and fire. Then they would throw the rocket launcher back in the bed of the truck and take off. It was impossible to do counter fire because of this mobility.

[f...yofeelins]

"Then sprint away before the Americans responded" is the most (PG) rated way ive ever heard anyone say "they sacrificed 1 man to stay behind and die so they could escape total annihilation"

Way to go on that truly 👏

[Halvos]

Fun Fact on Mikeburnheart's channel Zach Hazard talks about his experiences in Afghanistan, he actually experienced being shelled like this.

[iraqirestoration]

Im from Iraq i was a teenager between 2004-2007 I remember being running to the school because I saw the Mahdi army sets mortars 60’s and 80’s mm and they about to attack Us base (al Rostomiya base) it’s just three miles from home to the school but it can take more than two hours if the attacks started sometimes im forced to stay home my parents will visit the teachers later in that day to bring my homework now im a petroleum engineer and I drive near that Us base and I remember those tough days every time
US did a great job when took Saddam down but they didn’t choose the right people to roll this country sometimes I feel they choose them corrupted on purpose to keep Iraq weak maybe because we refuse to Recognition of Israel i don’t know maybe

[tipchaser]

Zach hazard explained it better in his campfire stories about the kevlar burrito

[sombodythatyouusedtoknow]

I remember hearing Zach Hazard talk about that thing in one of his campfire histories

[missles]

I was in the Afghanistan war and it really was a problem for us because they would light our ass up we wouldn't have you know knowledge that they're doing it a lot of times but you could not shoot them till the rocket fired so they would not ever be there when it fired they'd already be gone so we know they were using some kind of method It was really hard to deal with

[Viberac]

There's a video on YouTube about an army guy that had this tactic used on his base.

His name is Zach Hazard and on his buddy's channel 'mikeburnfire' with the video title 'Campfire stories - Mortared' he told about how the enemy use the tactics and how they counter it

[ringzorj]

"while possibly an urban legend" is the most important part.

[phreeken]

I remember one time some insurgents tried getting away on the Euphrates River on a boat after hitting us with some mortars and we launched our QRF consisting of Harriers. We got em that day.

[samsonsoturian]

It is almost certainly apocryphal since there's an almost total lack of refrigeration in the middle east. Maybe a rich hodgie tried it once but the round failed to go off, so they stopped.

[TheBushdoctor]

Yea, the Iraqis were famous for carrying freezers with them to the front line.

[vegetasbulge]

When I was there, they had a mortar tube welded to the back of a truck bed. They would pop off a couple and would be gone before you had enough time to react.

[josephtjader]

I remember when I was in the Air Force that the food was always good and never ran out. I also had TV and internet. Thank god I never bought into the commercials of the army or marines and became a grunt...that would suck. I actually was told at MEPS that my asvab score was too high to join those branches

[satnite]

Never heard of that. I was there and that seems like, maybe a one time thing. They didn't have the extra mortar tubes to just leave. The standard tactic by 2006, at least south of Baghdad, was to shallow bury a base plate from where they wanted to fire. When they wanted to attack they would drive up in a truck, jump out, put the tube in the base plate, drop 3 or 4 rounds, then throw the tube back in the truck and take off.