Matdador 2

The Associated
Press has this report originating from across the Syrian border on Operation
Matador.

From their rooftops, Syrians in frontier towns watched airstrikes and
battles on the other side of the Iraqi border, where U.S. forces are fighting
insurgents in an offensive raging uncomfortably close to Syria's doorstep.
Rawaf Hamad, a farmer in the village of Showaiyeh, said he was shaken awake at
3 a.m. Thursday by shelling about a mile away in the Iraqi town of al-Qaim.
He heard the sound of warplanes. ''There was heavy gunfire that lasted until 6
a.m today,'' the 24-year-old said.

Readers will recall that Matador opened on Sunday. The report above is
datelined Thursday recounting events at a local time of 3 a.m.

In Abu Kamal , a town of 70,000 about three miles from the border,
residents could feel the ground shake from the fighting across the border.
People took to rooftops to watch U.S. fighter jets and helicopter gunships
bombard insurgents hiding in houses in al-Qaim. The Syrians said they could
hear small arms fire from the ground, apparently insurgents returning fire.
Heavy fighting broke out in the area at about midday Wednesday and continued
through daybreak Thursday before it tapered off to sporadic exchanges in the
afternoon.

The fighting has been going on for five days. A number of reports have
suggested that the Marines have hit an empty sack and that the insurgents had
escaped prior to the assault, leaving only those who chose martyrdom to stand
and fight. The duration and intensity of the combat suggests otherwise. The
Syrian townsfolk report US heavy weapons use (fixed wing, helicopter gunships
and probably artillery) and return fire. This type of fire is significant,
because heavy weapons are typically used against entrenched enemy fighters.
Fixed-wing ordnance is often used to attack positions that cannot be harmed by
helicopter missiles because the targets are too strongly built. The fact that
many fires are delivered by night is also suggestive, because it recalls Marine
tactics in Fallujah, when US forces exploited their superior night vision and
surveillance capabilities to maneuver while the enemy was blinded. That in turn
implies that the level of enemy resistance is such that individual positions
have to be reduced by maneuver and destruction. Reports of return fire from
enemy fighters imply they have prepared positions or ammunition caches because
it is hard to keep shooting if they only started out with the ammunition in
their personal bandoliers. The balance of probability is a significant number of
enemy combatants have been caught up in Matador; that the area itself is
liberally supplied with defensive positions and the enemy are fighting to the
death.