The Second Battle of Ramadi was fought during the Iraq War from March 2006 to November 2006, for control of Ramadi, the capital of the Al Anbar Governorate in western Iraq. A joint US military force under the command of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division; 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines (3/8 Kilo Co., 3/8 Lima Co., 3/8 India Co.); and Iraqi Security Forces fought insurgents for control of key locations in Ramadi. Coalition strategy relied on establishing a number of patrol bases called Combat Operation Posts or "COP's" throughout the city, with the main efforts concentrated at the Government Center, OPVA, Hurricane Point, Blue Diamond, Hospital, and Corrigador.
U.S. military officers, specifically U.S. Army Captain Travis Patriquin, led the outreach effort to tribal leaders, which resulted in the formation of the Anbar Awakening. In August, insurgents executed a tribal sheik who was encouraging his kinsmen to join the Iraqi police and prevented his body from being buried in accordance with Islamic laws. In response, Sunni sheiks banded together to drive insurgents from Ramadi. In September 2006, Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha formed the Anbar Salvation Council, an alliance of approximately 40 Sunni tribes.
U.S. Navy SEAL Michael A. Monsoor was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for actions during the battle. On September 29, 2006, he threw himself upon a grenade which threatened the lives of the other members of his team. Monsoor had previously been awarded the Silver Star in May for rescuing an injured comrade in the city.
The battle was marked with the first death of a U.S. Navy SEAL in Iraq, Marc Alan Lee, August 2, 2006.
The battle also marked the first use of chlorine bombs by insurgents during the war. On October 21, 2006, insurgents detonated a car-bomb with two 100-pound chlorine tanks, injuring three Iraqi policemen and a civilian in Ramadi.
In December, while participating in a mounted patrol, south of the intersection of Checkpoint 295 and Route Michigan, a large Improvised Explosive Device detonated directly underneath a military Humvee carrying Army Captain Travis Patriquin, Marine Captain Megan McClung and Army Specialist Vincent Pomonte.
Background
Since the fall of Fallujah in 2004, Ramadi had been the center of the insurgency in Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq, a front group for al-Qaeda in Iraq, had declared the city to be its capital. The city of 500,000, located 110 kilometres (68 mi) west of Baghdad, was a contested territory between US forces and insurgents. Law and order had broken down, and street battles were common.
Prelude
Since 2005, 2nd Brigade, 28th Infantry Division had responsibility for the area of Ramadi. The Pennsylvania Army National Guard brigade had two attached infantry battalions; 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, and the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. In July 2005, they were joined by three detached companies from 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division: B Co. 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, A Co. 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, and A Co. 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, out of Fort Benning, GA. The units had previously been stationed in eastern Iraq since January 2005. They occupied Camp Corregidor, the Government Center, and COP Trotter upon their shift to Ramadi. Following a very promising Iraqi local election with over 80 percent voter turnout and 2-28 ID's success in recruiting 671 Iraqi police recruits, al-Qaeda in Iraq targeted the city for attacks. On January 5, 2006, AQI conducted a suicide bombing that killed 56 Iraqi police recruits and 2-28 ID's tribal and police engagement officer. A few days later, AQI assassinated half of the tribal leaders of Anbar's People's Committee.
AQI and allied fighters took over large sections of Ramadi following complex attacks on the city center. 2-28 ID conducted battalion-sized sweeps of neighborhoods, killing hundreds of enemy fighters, but the areas would be quickly reoccupied by AQI after the 2-28ID returned to its forward operating bases.
The 2-28 ID had taken heavy casualties, losing 82 soldiers' lives and had an additional 611 soldiers wounded. The brigade had limited intelligence on the enemy and was under resourced for the task at hand. Large areas of the city had no US presence. Soldiers of the brigade were attacked an average of 20 times a day. Aware of a deteriorating security situation, Multi-National Force – Iraq commander General George W. Casey Jr. cancelled a transition of responsibility to Iraqi forces and determined that 2nd Brigade, 28th Infantry Division would be replaced by a much larger US force at the end of their tour in June 2006.
General Casey selected Colonel Sean MacFarland's 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division to relieve the 2-28 ID. The BCT would be augmented by numerous forces including two battalions from 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division and various special operations forces, predominately U.S. Navy SEALs. 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment and 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment would complete their tour under Colonel MacFarland's command.
Arrival of the 1st Armored Division and Conduct of Battle
In early June 2006, the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Armored Division and various attachments were deployed to the Ramadi area from Tal Afar and took responsibility of the battle space from the redeploying 2nd BCT, 28th Infantry Division. Rumors of an offensive had already spread to the 400,000 citizens of the city who feared another Fallujah style attack. But the U.S. commander of 1st BCT, 1st Armored Division, Colonel Sean MacFarland decided to take it slowly and softly, without using heavy close air support, artillery or tank fire. Tanks were used to safeguard soldiers against IEDs and were key in targeting bunkered insurgents and snipers. By June 10, U.S. soldiers had "cordoned off" the city. U.S. airstrikes on residential areas were escalating, and US soldiers took to the streets with loudspeakers to warn civilians of a fierce impending attack. The concept, described by Major Matthew Van Wagenen of 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, was to "leave the city intact".
The objective of the operation was to cut off resupply and reinforcements to the insurgents in Ramadi by gaining control of the key entry points into the city. 1st BCT, 1st Armored Division also planned to establish new combat outposts (COPs) and patrol bases throughout the city, moving off their forward operating bases in order to engage the population and establish relationships with local leaders.
On June 7, through intelligence tracking, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was located and killed by US Forces in a precision-guided bomb strike outside of Baghdad along with five other insurgents. By June 17, there were several skirmishes with the insurgents which killed two American soldiers.
Ramadi General Hospital Captured
At the beginning of July, units under the command of 1st BCT, 1st Armored Division and Iraqi Forces, managed to push deep enough into the city to capture the Ramadi General Hospital. The Marines reported through verified evidence that members of al-Qaeda in Iraq had been using the seven-story building, which was equipped with some 250 beds, to treat their wounded and fire on U.S. troops in the area. At the conclusion of the operation, American Forces took heavy sniper fire from insurgents that slipped away.
On August 21, insurgents killed Abu Ali Jassim, a Sunni sheikh who had encouraged many of his tribesmen to join the Iraqi Police. The insurgents hid the body in a field rather than returning it for a proper burial, violating Islamic law and angering Jassim's tribesmen. Following this, 40 sheikhs from 20 tribes from across Al Anbar organised a movement called the Sahwa Al Anbar (Anbar Awakening). On September 9, Sheikh Sittar organised a tribal council attended by over fifty sheikhs and Col. Sean MacFarland. During this council, Sittar officially declared the Anbar Awakening underway.
Shortly after the council, the tribes began attacking al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgents in the suburbs of Ramadi. By October, nearly every tribe in northern and western Ramadi had joined the awakening. By December, attacks had dropped 50% according to the U.S. military.
September–October
In mid-September 2006, the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines ("1/6") relieved the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines in western Ramadi. The battalion commander, Lt. Col. Jurney, deployed his companies throughout the city. Alpha Company was deployed to OP VA, a combat outpost close to a large seven-story building. Bravo Company took up position in the Ramadi Government Center and Charlie Company was deployed to OP Hawk, the main combat outpost around Ramadi General Hospital.
Delta Force operators from Task Force Green and DEVGRU operators from Task Force Blue mounted takedown operations against al-Qaeda targets based on high-level intelligence.
In late September, Pentagon officials announced that the troops of the 1st brigade, 1st Armored Division would have their tour extended by 46 days. This extension was ordered to give the relieving brigade, the 1st brigade, 3rd Infantry Division time to prepare for their deployment at the start of 2007.
In mid-October, 1/6 conducted its first major offensive, taking the large building on 17th Street in the Jumaiyah neighborhood where they established the 17th Street Security Station. This was the first joint Marine-Iraqi outpost in the city.
In mid-October, al-Qaeda announced the creation of Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), with Ramadi as its capital replacing the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC) and its al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).
November incident
During heavy fighting between November 13 and November 15, U.S. forces were alleged to have killed at least 30 people, including women and children, in an airstrike in central Ramadi. Interviews by an unnamed Los Angeles Times correspondent in Ramadi supported eyewitness statements that there were civilian deaths during the fighting. Residents said the houses in an old Iraqi army officers quarters had been destroyed, including one being used as an Internet cafe. News photos showed bodies of civilians allegedly killed by coalition forces.
A Marine spokesman disputed the account, saying that an airstrike on November 14 targeted a bridge east of Ramadi and there were many insurgent casualties in the attack. He said that on the 13th and 14th, Coalition forces killed 16 suspected insurgents, who had been placing IEDs and firing mortars and RPGs, in fighting in three separate incidents in Ramadi. At least one U.S. soldier was also killed in the fighting. The spokesman did not respond to inquiries about the number of civilian deaths, but he admitted that it was often difficult for coalition forces to distinguish between insurgents and civilians and did not confirm or deny that some collateral damage may have occurred. He neither responded to inquiries made by The Times regarding the number of homes destroyed or tank rounds fired in the fighting.
Aftermath
By mid-November at least 75 American soldiers and Marines were killed along with an unknown number of Iraqi soldiers and police. The U.S. commander, Col. MacFarland said 750 insurgents had been killed in fighting in Ramadi and that his forces had secured 70% of the city. The intense battles of October and November 2006 largely eliminated al-Qaeda from the city, the surviving militants fled, with teams of them turning up in Baghdad and elsewhere, whilst others melted into the population.
The Devlin report
Two years before the battle, in 2004, then commander of the Marine garrison, MajGen James Mattis, stated that, "if Ramadi fell the whole province (Al Anbar) goes to hell". Two years later, a classified report written by Marine Col. Pete Devlin in August 2006 and leaked to the Washington Post in mid-September 2006, said Al Anbar had been lost and there was almost nothing that could be done. Devlin was the chief Intelligence Officer for the Marine units operating in the province. The report said that not only were military operations facing a stalemate, unable to extend and sustain security beyond the perimeters of their bases, but also local governments in the province had collapsed and the weak central government had almost no presence.
On November 28, 2006, another part of the classified Marine Corps intelligence report was published by The Washington Post which said US forces could neither crush the insurgency in western Iraq nor counter the rising popularity of the al-Qaeda terrorist network in the area. According to the report, "the social and political situation has deteriorated to a point that US and Iraqi troops are no longer capable of militarily defeating the insurgency in al-Anbar." The report describes al-Qaeda in Iraq as the "dominant organization of influence" in the province, more important than local authorities, the Iraqi government and US troops "in its ability to control the day-to-day life of the average Sunni."
Operation Squeeze Play
Insurgents still remained well entrenched in the city with coalition forces continuing combat operations throughout November and December. On November 28, 2006, six civilians, including five Iraqi girls, were killed when a U.S. tank fired into a building from which two insurgents were firing upon U.S. soldiers.