article about my new home

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/balad-ab.htm

At about paragraph #15, the writer discusses the timeframe during which I last lived there. I’ll cut and paste it below.  Certainly, we well remember the evening of 3 July ‘03, considering the close proximity of the attacks:

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On the night of 03 July 2003, American forces were attacked in two separate incidents in Balad, 90km north-west of Baghdad. The well-coordinated ambushes led to 18 American soldiers being injured and left 11 Iraqi fighters dead. The attacks involved typical guerilla weapons such as machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, as well as a new element – highly accurate mortars which can be fired from as far away as 6.5km. In one attack on a highway near Balad, US soldiers were ambushed three times over a span of eight hours by about 50 enemies lying in wait in trenches and behind earthen berms on both sides of the highway. The guerillas were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. Previously, most attacks on American forces in Iraq had involved smaller groups of gunmen.

Less than two hours before the first ambush, four mortar rounds were fired into the grounds of Camp Anaconda. A total of 16 soldiers were wounded in a mortar attack against a logistics post near Balad, Iraq, July 3. Two of the soldiers, all members of the 4th Infantry Division, were evacuated from the area and are in stable condition. The rest were treated and released. This was the first instance of a mortar attack against U.S. troops since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1.