Soldiers face uncoordinated Iraqi attacks, US forces safe

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The matchup Tuesday beneath a highway cloverleaf in Baghdad wouldn't qualify as a battle. But after hours of potshots from Iraqis and fire from U.S. snipers, more than a dozen Iraqis were dead and many more were wounded, without a single Marine injury.\nThe Iraqis, some in streets to one side of the U.S. troops, others in a field on another side, mainly waved Kalashnikov rifles or took random shots that whizzed past the Marines.\n"There's just no coordination," said Staff Sgt. John Kelley, 29, of Toronto, Ohio.\nIn one of many small-scale engagements in and around Baghdad on Tuesday, two Marine snipers on a rooftop and others in tanks and Humvees topped with machine guns killed approaching Iraqis one by one throughout the morning, often from hundreds of yards away.\nWhen members of the 3rd battalion, 7th Marine Regiment reached the elevated cloverleaf in the southeastern part of the city before midnight Monday, all was quiet except for bombs exploding in the distance. Then, about 4:30 a.m., two Marines snipers on a rooftop noticed a truck pull up a few hundred yards away.\nUsing his night vision scope, Sgt. Joshua Hamblin, 26, of Wichita, Kan., saw the silhouette of a man with a rifle, took aim and shot him. He fired again at another man, and a Marine machine gunner also opened fire. The remaining men from the truck grabbed the two bodies and sped off.\nAbout two hours later, another man wandered into the street carrying a rifle.\n"He had no idea we were here," Hamblin said. After he was hit, Hamblin said, another man grabbed the rifle and ran off as the dying man begged for help.\nFor the rest of the morning, armed Iraqis, often alone or in pairs, wandered toward the Marines only to be shot by the snipers. Many died instantly, others were wounded and dragged by comrades into alleys or driven away.\nAt one point, a man in a black ski mask with a rifle in the bed of a truck pulled up behind a group of civilians. The snipers said they aimed high to scatter the civilians, then shot him.\nAs Hamblin and Cpl. Owen Mulder, 21, of Wilmont, Minn., continued to scan under the elevated highway, Marines in Humvees kept watch for suicide bombers.