Battle of Samawah

Battle of Samawah
Part of 2003 Invasion of Iraq

Soldiers from Bravo company 2/325th watch an Iraqi paramilitary unit's headquarters burn during an assault on Samawah's north side 4 April 2003.
Date30 March – 4 April 2003
(5 days)
Location
Samawah, Iraq
Result United States victory[1]
Belligerents
United States United States Iraq Ba'athist Iraq
Commanders and leaders
United States Gen. Charles Swannack

Iraq Lt. Gen. Yahya[2]
Iraq Mizban Khidar Hadi
Iraq Yahya Huwaish Fadani

Iraq Kinan Mansour Khaleel
Strength
2nd Brigade, U.S. 82nd Airborne Division
1-41st Infantry Regiment
2-70th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Division		 Elements of the Saddam Fedayeen, Iraqi Republican Guard
Iraqi Army
Casualties and losses
1 killed
6 wounded[1]		 46 killed
23 captured[3]

The Battle of Samawah took place during the 2003 invasion of Iraq as American troops fought to clear the city of Iraqi forces. The city had been bypassed during the advance on Baghdad, leaving the task of clearing it to American paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division with mechanized infantry and armor provided by units of the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, and 2-70th Armor Battalions, along with 3rd platoon 59th Chemical Company tasked with finding and removing any potential chemical or biological weapons. The battle was the largest sustained urban combat that paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne had been involved in since World War II.

  1. ^ a b [1] Archived 31 January 2013 at archive.today
  2. ^ [2] Archived 9 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Wages of War -- Appendix 1. Survey of reported Iraqi combatant fatalities in the 2003 war - Commonwealth Institute of Cambridge". Comw.org. Retrieved 13 October 2014.