LITTLE ROCK — FURAT, Iraq - Pfc. Brandon Titsworth stood at the back of a growling humvee and wrestled his body armor onto his shoulders. A cigarette dangled from his grinning lips.
Staff Sgt. Curtis Coleman burst out of the house in his usual raucous style and hollered, "Let's get to work!" to hissquad of soldiers from 1st Battalion, Bravo Company, 3rd Platoon of Arkansas' 39th Infantry Brigade.
There is only a small part of the battalion that patrols the streets of Iraq. The battalion's primary mission is to guardCamp Slayer, part of the Victory Base Complex that surrounds Baghdad International Airport.
For part of Bravo Company and Alpha Company, that means patrolling the towns and fields that surround the camp's highconcrete walls to keep insurgents from attacking the camp's residents and the constant flow of military planes in and out.
The latest focus of the patrols is searching for launch sites for "lob bombs," the latest weaponbeing used against U.S. bases in Iraq.
Officially called an Improvised Rocket Assisted Mortar by military officials, the weapon is a homemade bomb - a propane or oxygen tank packed with explosives and retrofitted with the propulsion system from a 107mm Russian rocket. Lob bombs are fired in a series from the backs of pickups and dump trucks.
The bombs have limited range - 100-500 yards - but pack the biggest wallop of any weapon in the insurgent arsenal right now.
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The homemade bombs have one objective: To inflict major damage on U.S. camps, said Maj. Mike Robbins of Junction City, 1st Battalion's executive officer. They are called lob bombs because of their limited range. They are "lobbed" into camps from a short distance and carry enough munitions to cause extensive damage.
So far, three soldiers have died in such attacks. More than 15 soldiers were wounded in one recent bombing.
Unlike rockets and mortar shells, which can be shot down in flight if picked up on radar, lob bombs are not airborne long enough to be stopped, and they carry more explosives than roadside bombs that have been known to crack open tanks.
Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, commander of the 4th Infantry Division in Baghdad, told The Associated Press last week that the makeshift lob bomb is "the greatest threat right now that we face."
The bombs are believed to be used by the Shiite Muslim militia, according to military officials.
There have been more than 10 attacks on U.S. bases in and around Baghdad since November, when the bomb first surfaced. Most of the attacks havebeen at smaller camps near Sadr City on the eastern edge of the capital city, according to reports.
The latest lob-bomb attack occurred a week ago in northeast Baghdad. One soldier and an interpreter were injured in an attack on Joint Security Station Ur about 1 p.m., according to Multi-National Forces Iraq officials.
"Our response is increased presence patrols," Robbins said.
Coleman's squad members loaded into their humvees and headed to Furat, a bustling town along the camp's eastern perimeter. Guard towers at the nearby U.S. camp get shot at from this area occasionally, but the main conflict the residents of Furat face is with their neighbor city, Jihad.
Furat and Jihad are separated by a reedy, sewage-filled canal and by their religion. Furat is a Sunni enclave, while Jihad is mainly Shiite Muslim.
The day turned suddenly hazy as Coleman's squad rolled through the lush fields toward Furat's police station.
"There are three known snipers who live out here," Sgt. Josh Pennington of Sheridan said as the patrol approached the city's edge. "But that's good. You don't normally fight where you live. But we still have to be cautious."
The trucks navigated the razor-wire-lined dirt road and pulled up near the police station. Soldiers piled out of the humvees with guns at the ready and followed 1st Lt. Brian Inman of Mena to the gate guard.
"We need to get up on the roof of your buildings," he said to the guard through an interpreter. "OK?"
"It is no problem," the police guard replied, shaking the red beret on his head.
Groups of men in the police station stopped their conversations and stared as the soldiers passed.
The police led the soldiers up several flights of stairs to the roof, where the streets and alleyways of Furat spread out below amid mud and brick buildings and shops built out of palm fronds.
Inman snapped digital pictures of the larger roads leading toward the camp wall behind him. Soldiers spread across the roof, watching buildings and roofs for trouble.
"I'm looking for big open roads where a big truck could roll down near camp," Inman said. "I'm looking for areas where [lob bombs] can be fired from."
Unlike rockets and mortar shells, which leave distinct evidence like burned soil where they are fired, the lob bombs are almost impossible to trace because they're fired from trucks.
The policemen gathered in the middle of the roof and talked about their jobs. They make good money, they say, $500 per month.
"I keep things safe," said one police officer, through an interpreter.
"The only problem is there are no girls here," added another.
Coleman, of Little Rock, knelt down behind a ridge on the roof nearby and accidentally kicked a wire out of the satellite dish behind him.
The police officers who had been chatting in Arabic behind him unleashed a barrage of perfectly pronounced American cuss words as they rushed to plug the satellite dish back in.
The soldiers moved from roof to roof, surveying the landscape. Men wandered the streets below as children played and waved.
As they walked back down tothe street, a police officer pulled them aside to look at a room in the building that had been gutted by fire a week earlier. They wanted money to fix it.
The radio crackled that a group of young men was walking toward the station. Inman ordered his men back outside. It was time to go.
They passed two police officers manning a set of RPK machine guns outside the gate. The guns were coated in dirt and hadn't been oiled in recent history.
"Damn!" Coleman said, rubbing a finger along the gun. "You need to clean that s***!"
"We clean them every day," said one policeman, shooing away Coleman's hand.
Coleman shook his head and explained to the men how they should use a paintbrush to scrub the dirt out of the weapon and oil it.
The soldiers loaded back into their trucks and continued their patrol, looping past the main entrance into the airport and back through Furat. Children stopped to yell and wave as the trucks drove past piles of trash and scrap metal lining the streets. Men gathered for afternoon tea in sidewalk cafes, and women carried babies on daily errands.
It was just another day in Furat, Camp Victory's neighbor.
"Too easy," Inman said to his men when they returned to camp, soaked with sweat from the late afternoon's effort. "Right? Too easy."
Front Section, Pages 1, 3 on 07/17/2008