Troops Blast Music in Siege of Fallujah ("Hell's Bells")

http://ap.washingtontimes.com/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_FRONT_LINE?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME

In Fallujah's darkened, empty streets, U.S. troops blast AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" and other rock music full volume from a huge speaker, hoping to grate on the nerves of this Sunni Muslim city's gunmen and give a laugh to Marines along the front line.

Unable to advance farther into the city, an Army psychological operations team hopes a mix of heavy metal and insults shouted in Arabic - including, "You shoot like a goat herder" - will draw gunmen to step forward and attack. But no luck Thursday night.

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"These guys don't have a centralized leader; they're just here to fight. I don't see what negotiations are going to do," said Capt. Shannon Johnson, a company commander for the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. Word of truce talks last week forced his battalion to halt its plunge into the northeast section of the city just hours after arriving to back up other Marines.

In the meantime, perhaps the fiercest enemy - everyone here seems to agree - is the boredom, and worst of all the flies that pepper this dusty Euphrates River city west of Baghdad. Marines burn them, using matches to turn cans of flammable bug spray into mini blow torches. They also try to kill them by sprinkling diesel fuel over fly colonies. They joke about calling in airstrikes.

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On Friday, insurgents fired several mortars at U.S. forces. One of the shells blasted a chunk out of a house where Marines are positioned, filling the building with dust and smoke. No one was injured.

A short time later, an F-16 jet dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on the city, sending up a massive spray of dirt and smoke and destroying a building where Marines had spotted gunmen.

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The young Marine looked out over grim city blocks around a dusty soccer pitch and a trash-strewn lot, as a rain shower passed over. He said during the long hours of duty, he wonders what the insurgents are doing, how many there are and if they're watching him.

Adding to the eery feeling up, he said, are the music and speeches in Arabic that come over mosque loudspeakers.

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At night, the psychological operations unit attached to the Marine battalion here sends out messages from a loudspeaker mounted on an armored Humvee. On Thursday night, the crew and its Arabic-language interpreter taunted fighters, saying, "May all the ambulances in Fallujah have enough fuel to pick up the bodies of the mujahadeen."
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it's sad how stupid americans are
there is no hope

are they. . .?

The idiocy of the blatant irreverance towards Islamic culture will haunt us indefinately.

Heavy metal would compel even the most extreme pacifist to indulge violent urges.

Unbelievable.

You're succeeding.

Apologies to any baboons who might be reading.

Actually I don't want to know.

I wonder about the sanity of those in charge of this war....

This tactic was used against the Koresh and the Branch Davidians. We all know how that seige turned out.

going to make Iraqis believe we are not godless infidels? I see the psyops organizations of military intelligence are just as competent as the FBI and CIA.

the insurgents may like AC/DC. 'Another reason to fight -- we can have music again, even with the electricity off.'

they are able to use directional sound to concentrate it on whatever house is necassary.

marines used this on Noreagos compound in haiti during the 90s, he surrendered sometime after