The Circuit by Bob Shepherd Page A

found the number plate. Although badly burnt, enough remained for us to positively identify the vehicle as Terry’s.
    As we circled the 4x4, I kept two lists in my head; one containing details of Daniel’s version of events and the other what I was seeing with my own eyes. We noted scorch marks on the roof of the vehicle which supported Daniel’s description of the fuel cans exploding. But there was one key element of Daniel’s story that wasn’t adding up. He had seemed adamant that only the Americans had fired on them. But the vehicle before us had clearly been fired on from more than one direction.
    We were beginning to build up a picture of what had really happened but we needed more evidence. Martin and I aligned ourselves with Terry’s vehicle facing west where the US tanks would have been positioned some two hundred metres away. The remains of the Fedayeen pickup truck were right behind us. That placed Terry’s 4x4 in a direct line between the Fedayeen and American forces. From where we stood, it looked like Daniel had definitely got it wrong; it wasn’t just the Americans who had shot at them; the poor ITN lads had got themselves caught in crossfire.
    We found further evidence of crossfire inside the vehicle. On the floor we picked up 7.62 mm long and 5.56 mm bullet heads – standard American issue. We also found 7.62 mm short bullet heads, a Russian-made calibre used by the Iraqis.
    It didn’t surprise me that Daniel could have got such a crucial detail of the incident wrong. The odds of surviving brutal crossfire are poor indeed. Martin and I were astonished Daniel had managed it. The whole episode must have left him in a state of deep shock.
    With the clock moving against us we walked across the highway to see what the Fedayeen vehicle could tell us about what had really taken place. The Fedayeen pickup truck was only partially burnt. The wheels had been stolen but, as we’d noted already, it still had a Russian-made medium machine-gun monopod mounted on the back. The angle of the monopod was aimed through Terry’s vehicle directly at the American tank position.
    As far as we could tell the Iraqis had fought fiercely before succumbing to the Americans’ superior firepower. There was still a lot of dried blood on the ground near the pickup truck. Inside, we found bits of flesh and bone along with 7.62 mm long and 5.56 mm bullet heads. Loads of empty ammunition cases and link littered the back of the pickup and surrounding ground. That showed us that the Fedayeen machine gunner had managed to put down a fair weight of fire before they were taken out.
    We extended our search beyond the pickup along the east side of the highway. There were sections of large drainage pipes big enough for a man to walk through running north intermittently along the road. In between the pipes was a series of partially dug trenches.
    We searched the pipes and ditches for the bodies of the missing lads but found nothing; no blood trails, no clothing. We also kept an eye out for wildlife that feed on decaying flesh, such as vultures, dogs, etc., but there appeared to be no animals like that in the area.
    We still had one more vital point of Daniel’s story to check out – one which we hoped would prove correct. We crossed back to the west side of the highway to search the area where Daniel had told us he’d seen Fred wave to him. There was a piece of dead ground where Fred could have taken cover; the area had a shallow puddle of water and scrub reaching eight feet tall. We searched the area as thoroughly as we could in the time we had remaining. We found nothing that could either prove or disprove what Daniel had told us.
    By this point, we’d spent forty-five minutes on the ground; thirty minutes longer than we should have. We’d pushed ourselves to the limit for the sake of the two missing men, but it was time for us to get going.

CHAPTER 10
    Day three of our investigation began with a heated exchange with a Rupert at the