Marines: River Patrols Defeat IEDs

Archives

July 10, 2006: Recently, there was an attack on a Navy-Marine riverine patrol in the Euphrates river near Baghdad. The Navy-operated boat, with a couple of Marine snipers aboard, was conducting a routine patrol to interdict terrorist movements across the river. Apparently a command-detonated IED was used. Fortunately it was on the river bank, and the boat was too far from the blast, and no serious injuries occurred (two lightly wounded). This was the first reported attempt to use an IED against a river patrol. Of course, an RPG would have been better, but that would have drawn accurate return fire. The U.S. Navy is sending a another riverine unit (220 sailors, twelve 39 foot boats) to Iraq this year. Each boat has a crew of sixteen and is armed with machine-guns and automatic grenade launchers. The navy is attempting to eliminate terrorist movements along, and across, the main rivers in Iraq. This is similar to the successful riverine campaign the navy waged in Vietnam four decades ago, using 50 foot "Swift" boats.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close