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The road back from ‘chaos’

BAGHDAD — The charred remains of the two-story storefront are a stark reminder of the two devastating car bombs that ripped through the bustling marketplace in New Baghdad on Feb. 18.

News reports put the death toll at 60, with 180 people injured.

“People were everywhere, smoke was everywhere, body parts were everywhere,” said 1st Lt. Clarke Brown of 1st Platoon, D Company, 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. “Mayhem is probably the best word to describe it. It was chaos.”

Soldiers with 1st Platoon, D Company, and 2nd Platoon, A Company, of the 82nd Airborne’s 1-504, were in the marketplace earlier in the day. Their mission was to scope out the marketplace because 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, planned to place barriers around the marketplace to secure the area from car bombs. (Read the full story)

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