Close Quarter Fighting

At about 6:30 a.m., Ranger "MN", the sniper of the Command Group, reported two confirmed kills. Unfortunately, at about 7:30 a.m., Ranger MN was hit on his leg by enemy sniper fire. Other troop snipers confirmed four enemy fighters killed.

It was also at about 7:30 a.m. when Cpt "C" and 1Lt "G" took advantage of Building 963A and Building 978 in order to support the movement of 15DRC and 15SRC. The enemy fighters were not giving up their currently occupied buildings and were ready to defend those positions at any cost. 1SRC and 2SRC were tasked to provide support by fire to 15SRC and 15DRC. However, numerous IEDs laid out by the enemy in the kill zone prevented 15SRC and 15DRC from easily advancing.

Throughout this time, other Rangers were doing their best to move forward through the houses but breaking down walls took some time because of the presence of enemy fighters on the opposite side of the wall.

“Soldiers had to be careful about breaking down walls because once they had a hole in that wall, some enemy fighters would put the barrel of their guns through those holes and start shooting,” Lt Col Yunque explained. “You had to listen carefully if there was someone on the other side of that wall.”

There were also times when Rangers were the ones who put the barrels of their guns through holes. In some of those instances, the enemy would hit and damage the barrels of the guns with hard objects like hammer and lead pipe.

Lt Col Yunque remarked, “Wall-to-wall ‘yung laban [We fought wall-to-wall]. We were just in a small area pero ang hirap makita lahat ng kalaban [but it was very hard to find all our enemies]. It was unlike anything we encountered before. The fight was brutal. It was close-quarter. It was a brawl – very personal, very intimate – if you may call it that way.” 

--NO MAN LEFT BEHIND (2018/Copy&Share)