Battle of Ramadi (2004)

The Battle of Ramadi was fought in the spring of 2004, during the same time as the First Battle of Fallujah, for control of the capital of the Al Anbar Governorate in western Iraq. A coalition military force consisting of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines were stationed to defend the city from an insurgent assault.

In April 2004, Fallujah was under siege by Coalition Forces and insurgents were looking to relieve pressure on the city by attempting an offensive of their own. Ramadi, the capital of Al Anbar Province, was seen as a center of gravity to coalition forces, and thus a critical city in western Iraq.

Before the battle started, insurgents cut off the highway out of Al Anbar to Baghdad.

On April 6, 2004, Marines fought with insurgents throughout the city in running gun battles that day. At the end of the first day of fighting 12 Marines had been killed in action. The following day fighting continued. Over the course of a four-day period it was reported that 250 insurgents had been killed.

After 6 months of fighting in Ramadi, 34 Marines and a Navy corpsman had been KIA, and 269 Marines had been wounded. The city remained an unstable environment throughout the course of the 2000s which lead to the subsequent battle in 2006. Five NMCB Seabees were killed in action and 31 were wounded.

4 April
Beginning at 10:48, Company G received small arms and RPG fire in the al-Maab District. The insurgents were pursued to a nearby building where two squads and a quick reaction force continued fighting from 11:45 to 12:05. From there the squads were pinned down and the quick reaction force move to a support position where they were engaged one block east of Company G's position. Captain Christopher J. Bronzi, commander of the company, led his Marines in 24 hours of action. At one point he led a team onto the street to recover the body of a fallen Marine.

At approximately 13:30, an explosives device was reported in Company E’s sector, on the eastern outskirts of the city, and while cordoning off the area the company received small arms fire. At approximately the same time just to the east, one of the battalion’s sniper teams set up near the Euphrates River was attacked by 12 to 15 men. At approximately 14:00, a Company E patrol was ambushed. A quick reaction force was dispatched to reinforce the patrol when it engaged with the enemy still further to the east of the city. Two Humvees were hit, and its platoon commander was critically wounded.