Danger In Iraq: Up Close And Personal

Marines Face Attacks Daily In Ramadi, The Heart Of The Insurgency

(CBS)  In downtown Ramadi, the fight with the Iraqi insurgency is up close – and, as CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan reports, for one company of U.S. Marines, it's very personal.

In a Ramadi market, Lt. Carlos Goetz has found propaganda glorifying the killing of his fellow Marines.

"Close your store, and if you get froggy, I will kill you," he says to some men who are being cuffed and thrown into a Humvee. "Getting froggy" is Marine-speak for "don't try anythng."

Ramadi has become the operational center of al Qaeda and the symbolic heart of the Iraqi insurgency. So Kilo company has taken the fight to the most dangerous city streets in all of Iraq, hunting their enemy where they hide — among the population.

"We're not out with snipers hitting people a click away," says Marine 2nd Lt. Brian Wilson. "We're opening a door and there's a guy 15 feet away."

Lt. Wilson lost four of his men just over five weeks ago. The day after CBS News joined his platoon on this patrol, he nearly lost two more.

"Something hit me in the back; it felt like a sledgehammer," says Pfc. Charles Mitchell. "It just spun me around."

The plates in their body armor saved Mitchell and Lance Cpl. Sean Madison. But it was the second ambush in two days, so Lt. Doug Hsu, about to head out on patrol, made a critical call.

"We're gonna bring out the gun trucks because we've been taking a lot of contact on the egress routes back into the (government) center," he says.

It's a decision that would save his men's lives.

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Read Part One Of Logan's Report
Lara Logan Talks About Her Assignment
Interview: Marine Lt. Carlos Goetz

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Hsu's first squad heads down some busy streets to take up lookout positions in a house less than a mile from their base.

At the same time, a few streets away, a sniper began targeting his second squad.

Hsu senses growing signs that the enemy may be planning something bigger.

"The people are getting off the streets," he says, "so basically the thinking is they're trying to maneuver in on us."

The tension is written on the men's faces as they plan their route back to base.

"We’ll probably get hit when we're going back to friendly lines," Hsu says.

As the Marines start to head out, they eye Iraqi men huddled just off the street watching them pass.

On the final approach to the base, they find that the shopkeepers have fled, their goods still on display. Then it begins. Out of nowhere, the first shot slammed into a Marine.

On the way back into the base, the firing started. One Marine was wounded in the leg.

Marines rushed into the kill zone to help 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Phillip Tussy. Under constant fire from both sides, they get him to one of the gun trucks and begin emergency treatment.

Heavy machine guns pounded the insurgent positions as automatic rounds and small arms fire hissed. The covering fire from the Humvees continued as the Marines pushed through, finally making it to base.

Cpl. Tussy survived, but there was no rest for his platoon. Hours later, they were on their next operation.

"We expect those sorts of things," says Hsu. "We suck it up and go on with our mission.

It's a mission that's seen some progress — with the Iraqi security forces beginning to share some of the burden. But the challenges are still huge: U.S. commanders admit Ramadi is just as violent today as it was a year ago.