After the battle, brawling!
Iraqi and American forces completed the brilliant, slow-motion assault on Tal Affar recently, having captured or killed hundreds of insurgents and terrorists. The Washington Post’s Jonathan Finer has a nice little piece on what the Americans did for fun after the victory:
After months of preparing for a battle with insurgents that never fully materialized and 12 days of running around this city from dawn to dusk, the soldiers of Eagle Troop did what soldiers often do with unspent aggression.
They fought each other.
Iraqi soldiers ride on top of an armored vehicle next to a U.S. tank, as the participate in an operation in Tal Afar, northwestern Iraq, Monday, Sept. 12, 2005. Insurgents melted into the countryside through a network of tunnels to escape an Iraqi-U.S. force that reported killing about 150 rebels while storming the militant bastion of Tal Afar. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ibrahim)
Iraqi soldiers ride on top of an armored vehicle next to a U.S. tank, as the participate in an operation in Tal Afar, northwestern Iraq, Monday, Sept. 12, 2005. Insurgents melted into the countryside through a network of tunnels to escape an Iraqi-U.S. force that reported killing about 150 rebels while storming the militant bastion of Tal Afar.Squaring off Tuesday evening in the front yard of a home they had commandeered to be their command post for the final stage of the assault on Tall Afar, they grappled one-on-one on the grass for hours. Good-natured taunts flew. T-shirts and uniform pants were torn. And as the sun began to fall behind the stone buildings of this restive city, an audience of hecklers grew.
