Hunt for the Bomb Factories

(4 of 4)

At the 2-12's approach, the owner of House 71 had run to a neighbor's home and attempted to mix in with other civilians, disguising himself by adopting someone else's name. Ryan saw through it. "Take Mr. Turban here," he orders, referring to the scarf around the suspect's head. "All that s___ was right behind his house--he knows something," he says. Under interrogation the man identifies himself as the weapons dealer working under Abu Ayesha and supplying arms to a host of divergent guerrilla and terrorist cells.

Ryan decides to send a message, a "show of force," as he calls it. He instructs his engineers to pile the weapons caches in the front yard of House 71. "We got all this stuff in his house, I don't see any reason why we can't blow it up," Ryan says. His Estonian counterpart chuckles. "I don't mind; it's not my house," he says. By day's end, the message has been delivered repeatedly. Coalition troops destroy two vehicles and another house in acts of retaliation. At nightfall the battalion returns to its base, having uprooted a large number of insurgent weapons sites. It has produced a staggering array of antiaircraft guns, TNT, RPG warheads and launchers, machine guns, plastic explosive, grenades and bombs. Surveying the booty, Ryan tells a subordinate, "We're just scratching the surface." •