Combat· Iraq War (Op IRAQI FREEDOM)
Al Kut
Al Kut was a city on the Tigris that figured in the Marine drive toward Baghdad, where Marine forces feinted and fought to fix Iraqi units and open the path north.
As part of the broader scheme of maneuver, the Marines applied pressure at Al Kut to tie down the Iraqi defenders, including elements of the Republican Guard in the area, while the main effort drove on toward the capital. The action at Al Kut was one of the shaping operations of the march up, in which the Marines used pressure at one point to enable the advance elsewhere, deceiving and pinning the enemy. The fighting there was part of the rapid, fluid campaign of the invasion, the Marines maneuvering across the rivers and approaches of central Iraq. Al Kut formed one of the waypoints on the Marine route to Baghdad, a place where the enemy was engaged and bypassed in the swift drive north.
Record no. 742