Nightmare-Z

by S. A. Lowry

  S.A. Lowry

  Copyright © 2012 by S.A. Lowry. Library of Congress Control Number: 2012903909 ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4691-7771-7 Softcover 978-1-4691-7770-0 Ebook 978-1-4691-7772-4

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  CoNtENtS

  Prologue ....................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Something Strange .................................................................................. 15 Affliction ................................................................................................. 60 Survival Of The Fittest ............................................................................ 85 Knowing Is Half The Battle .................................................................. 116 Sweet Tooth ........................................................................................... 158 One Percent ........................................................................................... 200 Occupied ............................................................................................... 274

  PROLOGUE THE IRAQ WAR! Under the administration of George W. Bush of the United States of America and Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom, both American and British forces began their onslaught to topple Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein on March 20th 2003. Weeks of heavy fighting and very important key battles soon ensued in the south and the north of the country, as well as moderate losses for Coalition forces and staggering losses on the Iraqi side. Most notably, the heavy armor of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division moved westward and then northward through the western desert toward Baghdad, while the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force moved more easterly along Highway 1 through the center of the country, and 1 (UK) Armored Division moved northward through the eastern marshland. On April 9th 2003, Baghdad fell. Marking the end of Saddam Hussein’s 24 year brutal reign.

  As a result, 9,200 Iraqi soldiers, 7,299 Iraqi civilians, 33 UK troops and 139 US troops would meet their fate within the first part of the ever changing war to come. Shortly towards the ending of the year, on 13 December 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured in a spider hole inside his birth city of Tikrit during Operation Red Dawn. His fate would be sealed years later in 2006 at the end of a rope.

  The start of 2004 was marked by a relative lull in violence. Insurgent forces reorganized during this time, studying the multinational force’s tactics and planning a renewed offensive. However, violence did increase during the Iraq Spring Fighting of 2004 with foreign fighters from around the Middle East as well as al-Qaeda in Iraq (an affiliated al-Qaeda group), led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi helping to drive the insurgency.

  As the insurgency grew there was a distinct change in targeting from the coalition forces towards the new Iraqi Security Forces, as hundreds of Iraqi civilians and police were killed over the next few months in a series of massive bombings. An organized Sunni insurgency, with deep roots and both nationalist and Islamist motivations, was becoming more powerful throughout Iraq. The Shia Mahdi Army also began launching attacks on coalition targets in an attempt to seize control from Iraqi security forces. The southern and central portions of Iraq were beginning to erupt in urban guerrilla combat as multinational forces attempted to keep control and prepared for a counteroffensive.

  The most serious fighting of the war so far began on March 31, 2004, when Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah ambushed a Blackwater USA convoy led by four U.S. private military contractors who were providing security for food conveys. The armed contractors were killed with grenades and small arms fire. Subsequently, their bodies were dragged from their vehicles by local people, beaten, set ablaze, and their burned corpses hung over a bridge crossing the Euphrates. Photos of the event were released to news agencies worldwide, causing a great deal of indignation and moral outrage in the United States, and prompting an unsuccessful “pacification” of the city: the First Battle of Fallujah in April 2004.

  The offensive was resumed in November 2004 in the bloodiest battle of the war so far: the Second Battle of Fallujah, described by the U.S. military as “the heaviest urban combat (that they had been involved in) since the battle of Hue City in Vietnam.” During the assault, U.S. forces used white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against insurgent personnel, attracting controversy. The 46-day battle resulted in a victory for the coalition, with 95 U.S. soldiers killed along with approximately 1,350 insurgents. Fallujah was totally devastated during the fighting, though civilian casualties were low, as they had mostly fled before the battle.

  On January 31 2005, Iraqis elected the Iraqi Transitional Government in order to draft a permanent constitution. Although some violence and a widespread Sunni boycott marred the event, most of the eligible Kurd and Shia populace participated. On February 4, Paul Wolfowitz announced that 15,000 U.S. troops whose tours of duty had been extended in order to provide election security would be pulled out of Iraq by the next month. February to April proved to be relatively peaceful months compared to the carnage of November and January, with insurgent attacks averaging 30 a day from the prior average of 70.

  Hopes for a quick end to the insurgency and a withdrawal of U.S. troops were dashed in May, Iraq’s bloodiest month since the invasion. Suicide bombers, believed to be mainly disheartened Iraqi Sunni Arabs, Syrians and Saudis, tore through Iraq. Their targets were often Shia gatherings or civilian concentrations of Shias. As a result, over 700 Iraqi civilians died in that month, as well as 79 U.S. soldiers. The summer of 2005 saw fighting around Baghdad and at Tall Afar in northwestern Iraq as U.S. forces tried to seal off the Syrian border. This led to fighting in the autumn in the small towns of the Euphrates valley between the capital and that border.

  A referendum was held on October 15 in which the new Iraqi constitution was ratified. An Iraqi national assembly was elected in December, with participation from the Sunnis as well as the Kurds and Shia.

  Insurgent attacks increased in 2005 with 34,131 recorded incidents, compared to a total 26,496 for the previous year. Throughout 2008, U.S. officials and independent think tanks began to point to improvements in the security situation, as measured by key statistics. According to the U.S. Defense Department, in December 2008 the “overall level of violence” in the country had dropped 80% since before the surge began in January 2007, and the country’s murder rate had dropped to pre-war levels. They also pointed out that the casualty figure for U.S. forces in 2008 was 314 against a figure of 904 in 2007.

  The beginning of 2006 was marked by government creation talks, growing sectarian violence, and continuous anti-coalition attacks. Sectarian violence expanded to a new level of intensity following the al-Askari Mosque bombing in the Iraqi city of Samarra, on February 22, 2006. The explosion at the mosque, one of the holiest sites in Shi’a Islam, is believed to have been caused by a bomb planted by al-Qaeda.

  In a January 10, 2007, televised address to the U.S. public, Bush proposed 21,500 more troop
s for Iraq, a job program for Iraqis, more reconstruction proposals, and $1.2 billion for these programs. On January 23, 2007, in the 2007 State of the Union Address, Bush announced “deploying reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Iraq.” On February 10, 2007, David Petraeus was made commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I), the four-star post that oversees all coalition forces in country, replacing General George Casey. In his new position, Petraeus oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq and employed them in the new “Surge” strategy outlined by the Bush administration. 2007 also saw a sharp increase in insurgent chlorine bombings.

  On May 10, 2007, 144 Iraqi Parliamentary lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal. On June 3, 2007, the Iraqi Parliament voted 85 to 59 to require the Iraqi government to consult with Parliament before requesting additional extensions of the UN Security Council Mandate for Coalition operations in Iraq. Despite this, the mandate was renewed on December 18, 2007, without the approval of the Iraqi parliament. [180] Pressures on U.S. troops were compounded by the continuing withdrawal of coalition forces. In early 2007, British Prime Minister Blair announced that following Operation Sinbad British troops would begin to withdraw from Basra Governorate, handing security over to the Iraqis.

  By March 2008, violence in Iraq was reported curtailed by 40-80%, according to a Pentagon report. Progress in Sunni areas continued after members of the Awakening movement were transferred from U.S. military to Iraqi control. In May, the Iraqi army—backed by coalition support—launched an offensive in Mosul, the last major Iraqi stronghold of al-Qaeda. Despite detaining thousands of individuals, the offensive failed to lead to major long-term security improvements in Mosul. At the end of the year, the city remained a major flashpoint.

  At the end of March 2008, the Iraqi Army, with Coalition air support, launched an offensive, dubbed “Charge of the Knights”, in Basra to secure the area from militias. This was the first major operation where the Iraqi Army did not have direct combat support from conventional coalition ground troops. The offensive was opposed by the Mahdi Army, one of the militias, which controlled much of the region. Fighting quickly spread to other parts of Iraq: including Sadr City, Al Kut, Al Hillah and others. During the fighting Iraqi forces met stiff resistance from militiamen in Basra to the point that the Iraqi military offensive slowed to a crawl, with the high attrition rates finally forcing the Sadrists to the negotiating table. U.S. military officials met these trends with cautious optimism as they approached what they described as the “transition” embodied in the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement which was negotiated throughout 2008. The commander of the coalition, U.S. General Raymond T. Odierno, noted that “in military terms, transitions are the most dangerous time” in December 2008.

  The U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement was approved by the Iraqi government on December 4, 2008. It establishes that U.S. combat forces will withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, and that all U.S. forces will be completely out of Iraq by December 31, 2011. The pact is subject to possible negotiations which could delay withdrawal and a referendum scheduled for mid-2009 in Iraq which may require all U.S. forces to completely leave by the middle of 2010. The pact requires criminal charges for holding prisoners over 24 hours, and requires a warrant for searches of homes and buildings that are not related to combat.

  U.S. contractors working for U.S. forces will be subject to Iraqi criminal law, while contractors working for the State Department and other U.S. agencies may retain their immunity. If U.S. forces commit still undecided “major premeditated felonies” while off-duty and off-base, they will be subject to the still undecided procedures laid out by a joint U.S.-Iraq committee if the U.S. certifies the forces were off-duty.

  On January 1, 2009, the United States handed control of the Green Zone and Saddam Hussein’s presidential palace to the Iraqi government in a ceremonial move described by the country’s prime minister as a restoration of Iraq’s sovereignty. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he would propose January 1 be declared national “Sovereignty Day”. “This palace is the symbol of Iraqi sovereignty and by restoring it, a real message is directed to all Iraqi people that Iraqi sovereignty has returned to its natural status,” al-Maliki said.

  The U.S. military attributed a decline in reported civilian deaths to several factors including the U.S.-led “troop surge”, the growth of U.S.-funded Awakening Councils, and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s call for his militia to abide by a cease fire.

  On February 27, 2009, United States President Barack Obama gave a speech at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in the U.S. state of North Carolina announcing that the U.S. combat mission in Iraq would end by August 31, 2010. A “transitional force” of up to 50,000 troops tasked with training the Iraqi Security Forces, conducting counterterrorism operations, and providing general support may remain until the end of 2011, the president added.

  The day before Obama’s speech, Prime Minister of Iraq Nuri al-Maliki said at a press conference that the government of Iraq had “no worries” over the impending departure of U.S. forces and expressed confidence in the ability of the Iraqi Security Forces and police to maintain order without American military support.

  On April 30, 2009, the United Kingdom formally ended combat operations. Prime Minister Gordon Brown characterized the operation in Iraq as a “success story” because of UK troops’ effort. Britain handed control of Basra to the United States Armed Forces. The withdrawal of U.S. forces began at the end of June, with 38 bases to be handed over to Iraqi forces. On June 29, 2009, U.S. forces withdrew from Baghdad. On November 30, 2009, Iraqi Interior Ministry officials reported that the civilian death toll in Iraq fell to its lowest level in November since the 2003 invasion.

  On February 17, 2010, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that as of September 1, 2010, the name “Operation Iraqi Freedom” would be replaced by “Operation New Dawn”.

  On April 18, 2010, US and Iraqi forces killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in a joint American and Iraqi operation near Tikrit, Iraq. The coalition forces believed al-Masri to be wearing a suicide vest and proceeded cautiously. After the lengthy exchange of fire and bombing of the house, the Iraqi troops stormed inside and found two women still alive, one of whom was al-Masri’s wife, and four dead men, identified as al-Masri, Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi, an assistant to al-Masri, and al-Baghdadi’s son. A suicide vest was indeed found on al-Masri’s corpse, as the Iraqi Army subsequently stated. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the killings of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri at a news conference in Baghdad and showed reporters photographs of their bloody corpses. “The attack was carried out by ground forces which surrounded the house, and also through the use of missiles,” Mr. Maliki said. “During the operation computers were seized with e-mails and messages to the two biggest terrorists, Osama bin Laden and [his deputy] Ayman al-Zawahiri,” Mr. Maliki added. U.S. forces commander Gen. Raymond Odierno praised the operation. “The death of these terrorists is potentially the most significant blow to al-Qaeda in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency,” he said. “There is still work to do but this is a significant step forward in ridding Iraq of terrorists.”

  US Vice-President Joe Biden stated that the deaths of the top two al-Qaeda figures in Iraq are “potentially devastating” blows to the terror network there and proof that Iraqi security forces are gaining ground.

  On 20 June, Iraq’s Central Bank was bombed in an attack that left 15 people dead and brought much of downtown Baghdad to a standstill. The attack was claimed to have been carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq. This attack was followed by another attack on Iraq’s Bank of Trade building that killed 26 and wounded 52 people. Iraqi commandos training under the supervision of soldiers from the US 82nd Airborne in December 2010.

  In late August 2010, insurgents conducted a major attack with at least 12 car bombs simultaneously detona
ting from Mosul to Basra and killing at least 51. These attacks coincided with the U.S. plans for a withdrawal of combat troops.

  The supposed “last” U.S. combat brigades departed Iraq in the early morning of August 19, 2010. Convoys of U.S. troops had been moving out of Iraq to Kuwait for several days, and NBC News broadcast live from Iraq as the “last” convoy crossed the border. While all combat brigades left the country, an additional 50,000 personnel remained in the country to provide support for the Iraqi military. However, naturally these remaining 50,000 US troops would still assume combat roles and perform duties as combat brigades. They were just giving a different name to curb public opinion. These troops are required to leave Iraq by 31 December 2011 under an agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments. State Dept. spokesman P.J. Crowley stated “We are ending the war . . . . but we are not ending our work in Iraq, We have a long-term commitment to Iraq.”

  Many people falsely believed the Iraq war ended in August of 2010 however, the remaining troops still remained as combat brigades and just assumed a different name with a different set of rules of war. Remaining troops in the country still came under daily attacks from insurgents and many deaths were to follow in the year of 2011.

  Moktada al-Sadr returned to Iraq in the holy city of Najaf to lead the Sadrist movement after being in exile since 2007. On October 21, 2011 President Obama announced that all remaining U.S. troops and trainers would leave Iraq by the end of the year. In the south, insurgent activity, suspected Sadrist Militiamen and Iranian agents brought US troops under constant attack from the port city of Umm Qasar, Basrah City and all the way north up to Baghdad. Daily grenade attacks, roadside bombings and rocket attacks plagued the now uncertain south of majority Shiite populated areas.

  As it stands, the Second Gulf War left 4,476 US troops dead along with 32,629 wounded. 179 UK troops killed along with 315 wounded and an estimated 21,221 to 26,405 insurgents killed. Iraqi civilian deaths as a result of the conflict is estimated somewhere just beyond 100,000.