"This was the first time our National Guard unit was going in there to set up checkpoints and guard the neighborhood," Staff Sgt. Jalal Taha, 34, said from a hospital bed where he was recovering from a bullet wound to his foot and smoking a cigarette. "We wanted to go alone, without the Americans. The whole battalion was out today to show people there is security and we can provide it without the Americans.
"My group had about 30 soldiers. At the moment we got in the neighborhood, they attacked us from the roofs" of a cluster of seven- story apartment buildings. "Grenades came down from all four buildings around us. We could see them on the rooftop. We could see them on the balconies, throwing grenades and shooting. We fired back, and then it seemed like all the buildings started to attack us."
"They were hiding in the apartments," Staff Sgt. Abbas Hussein said. "They used small arms, hand grenades and then rockets and mortars."
Another guardsman, Amar Ghassan, 19, said the attackers threw a grenade down the stairwell of a building as he raced up to confront them. He said he ducked into a room for shelter.
"I couldn't go back out the same way, so I had to break a window to get out," Ghassan said. He said he gashed his arm on the glass.
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The U.S. soldiers came to back up the Iraqis but withdrew when it became clear that "the Iraqi National Guard was handling the situation. The Iraqis had things under control," a top U.S. military officer said on condition of anonymity. "While there still may be casualties and loss of life, the direction we are headed is of having Iraqi security forces take care of security."
A military spokesman said the U.S. soldiers did not fire and had no casualties.
But Sgt. Taha said the situation was not under control.
"We were just trying to withdraw. I ordered my men to stop shooting in hopes that the other side would let us withdraw. We were hiding by the walls and kept backing up until we got out.
"As we were going out, I felt my foot wasn't moving. I looked and saw a hole in my boot and blood coming out. I knew I was shot. Two of my colleagues carried me out."
"I was 17 years in the old army," Taha said. "I never saw anything like this."
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