Outside the walls the city spread in every direction. It was a warren of abandoned homes and courtyard walls that contained small pockets of life among the ruins. More than 70% of the sector's population had fled. Those that remained were among the poorest in a country where the average salary topped off at a meagre $300USD a month.
Sewage overflowed into the streets and trash was piled waist-high on most intersections. The smell was overwhelming. Decay and rot, death and disease. Everyone got sick, shitting their brains out back at the COP while waving away the fat lazy flies that always seemed to find our faces.
In this wasteland the enemy was dug in. We played our cat and mouse game, always looking for them. Daring them to come out and fight while they waited, patient as spiders, to hit us when we least expected it.
Sometimes we'd patrol through a block of houses where it was clear that the former residents had been forcibly removed. Personal belongings were scattered in courtyards and out into the streets. Empty houses, where the last signs of life were molding bread and dinnerware laid out and covered with a fine layer of dust.
These houses were the creepiest. Run through with ratlines, the enemy could get in behind us, turning a recently cleared building into an insurgent strongpoint that took hours to crack open. More often than not, when we managed to get back inside, the enemy was gone. The best we could hope for was a blood trail, or some footsteps in the ever-present dust. We'd call it up and step-off, abandoning our hard fought gains, giving them back to the enemy to be used against us the next time we patrolled through.
We learned pretty quick that the only place that was ever truly clear was the inside of our small security bubble. 30 men wandering through the wilderness. Searching for our enigmatic foe and dreaming of hot chow or a shower.
Tamim Fares is a storyteller and Army veteran chronicling the stories of the Iraq War during the Surge. You can follow him here.
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Sounds like Al-Anbar circa 2007!
I have no words. Thank you for sharing such a powerful and chilling story.