With The Troops: When Kids Are in the Cross Hairs

The image of the children is impossible to forget. When the fire fight in Karbala first broke out, all they could think of was their first casualty, Brown--his side open, his eyes lulling--being carried out past them. But Specialist Larry Brown was a man of 20, and he was a professional infantryman. The kids, boys, were maybe 7 or 8 and had no place there. Bravo Company wasted them. Had to. Right when the fire fight was at its hottest, when maybe 100 guys were popping up across the rooftops firing AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, the boys bounced into the courtyard below the building where Bravo was spread out and attempted to retrieve an RPG dropped by a dead Iraqi. "It sounds terrible when you hear about this cold, away from the fight," says commander Lieut. Colonel Chris Holden. "We shot and killed children. But I accept full responsibility for that. That's the kind of fight it was."

It was the kind of ugly, house-to-house bloodbath the U.S. had feared most, especially in Baghdad. But it happened first in Karbala, which before Baghdad collapsed, loomed as a potential stranglehold on the supply route leading to the capital. History had already stamped Karbala in blood. In 680 A.D., Muhammad's grandson Hussein and a small group of supporters fought to the death here over the right to lead the Muslim faith. Now scouts reported that 500 to 700 Fedayeen Saddam were digging in to make a stand.

For Bravo Company, part of the 502nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne, the battle for Karbala started ahead of schedule on the morning of April 5. Bravo was still two blocks south of its first objective, a water-treatment plant, when it began taking fire. "We were two minutes in, and we were in full contact," said Sergeant Mark de la Garza.

Taking cover behind his Bradley fighting vehicle, called Red 2, Sergeant David C. Brown radioed Sergeant Patrick Jarchow in Red 3, and devised a plan that would define the day. Starting from the water plant, Jarchow's men would jump from roof to roof, with Brown matching them on the ground, kicking in doors and clearing houses, identifying targets. Killing them.

The two squads moved steadily northeast through the city. When they reached an intersection, with both squads on the ground, Sergeant Brown pivoted left and saw a man holding two RPGs. "I popped two rounds at him, and I see the impact in his chest and gut. He reached down, grabbed one RPG, and it goes off and blows his foot off. It ricochets off and comes straight at us. We cross over the intersection, and that's when I saw Larry Brown get hit." Behind Sergeant Brown, Specialist Brown had reached the junction and was met with a short burst of waist-high fire. "He fell against the wall on his left. I yelled, 'Get Brown! Cover! He's hit!'"

Through the haze of smoke grenades, Sergeants Brown and Jarchow saw a father and daughter approach the fallen RPG gunner. Jarchow shot at the gunner again. In Sergeant Brown's words, "The girl helps him up, and they're walking away and I popped him again, and he's down. He moves again, and I empty my magazine into him."