On July 28, 1971, Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai was born near Samarra, Iraq. He was the third of four sons born into the Al-Bu Badri tribe. Family connections in this desolate part of the world are everything. They transcend national identities and political allegiances. The only force stronger is Islam.
This young man was a religious zealot from his earliest years. He eventually adopted a nom de guerre. The world came to know this otherwise unremarkable fanatic as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Al-Baghdadi ultimately ruled the most depraved mob of reprobates since Hitler’s Nazis.
Al-Baghdadi struggled in school. He wanted to attend the University of Baghdad and study law. When that didn’t pan out he went to the Islamic University of Baghdad and studied Islamic Law along with the Quran. Quranic recitation was his specialty.
With the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 al-Baghdadi became a professional terrorist. Captured in February of 2004 he spent time in Abu Ghraib. His job title with Al Qaeda was listed as “secretary.” The Combined Review and Release Board declared him “Low Level” and set him free.
The next seven years were unusually volatile times, even by Islamic terrorist standards. Organizations came and went. Coalition forces played Whack-a-Mole, killing terrorist leaders and deconstructing terror cells as the intel allowed. By May of 2010 the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI) was the baddest kid on the block, and al-Baghdadi was calling the shots.
The Heart of Darkness
It’s tough for the civilized mind to grasp how truly ghastly these people were. Underneath a thin veneer of religious fervor, they were just garden-variety homicidal maniac thugs. Given their penchant for extortion, drug dealing, kidnapping, and shakedowns they were like the Mafia only with suicide bombers. In 2011, the US Government put a $10 million bounty on al-Baghdadi’s head. In 2017 that number increased to $25 million.
On his orders, al-Baghdadi’s gang of lunatics planted IEDs, attacked targets both military and civilian, and generally engaged in unfettered slaughter claiming their dark twisted god told them to do so. By the time ISI expanded into ISIS (or ISIL depending upon your source—Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or, alternatively, the Levant) they were responsible for the gory deaths of thousands. Cutting people’s heads off to produce motivational videos was a specialty.
Just when you thought he couldn’t get any worse, al-Baghdadi was also a serial rapist. He “married” any woman who caught his fancy, to include American hostage Kayla Mueller, and used these women to satisfy his sick lusts. Throughout it all he moved constantly, always staying one step ahead of the drones, Special Operators, and Hellfire missiles. Then in 2019 the CIA’s Special Activities Center interrogated one of his many wives along with a brother-in-law and uncovered a solid lead.
Operation Kayla Mueller
I’m nothing special, but I do have some very interesting friends. The sort of individual who thrives as a Tier 1 operator generally has a fairly rarefied sense of right and wrong. When faced with the opportunity to end a guy who burns people alive, blows up children, rapes humanitarian workers, and violates all accepted norms of civilized behavior these extraordinary guys do enjoy a certain singularity of purpose.
They christened the mission to kill or capture al-Baghdadi, the most wanted man on earth, Operation Kayla Mueller. Nobody was going to be unduly verklempt if at the end of the day al-Baghdadi ended up in a bag rather than a cell at Gitmo.
On the night of 26 October 2019, roughly 100 JSOC operators from Alpha Squadron, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (SFOD-D—alternatively known as the Combat Applications Group, Task Force Green, Army Compartmented Element, or simply “the Unit”) and the 75th Ranger Regiment approached al-Baghdadi’s compound outside Barisha in the Idlib Province in Syria. They ingressed aboard eight MH60 and MH47 helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.
Uncle Sam was about to unleash his righteous fury. Vengeance should likely not be the driving force behind the affairs of nations. However, in this case the long arm of Donald Trump was about to squash al-Baghdadi like a cockroach.
The mission launched from Al Asad Airbase in Iraq with an enroute time of around 70 minutes. After transiting Turkish-controlled and Russian-monitored airspace the Delta operators surrounded the compound. The aircraft took fire during the infil, but supporting gunships effectively addressed these threats as they arose.
In short order, US forces had al-Baghdadi’s compound surrounded. They called out in Arabic for those within the building to surrender. Al-Baghdadi and his lunatic followers chose a different path.
The Ammo
Today’s installment will be a little different. Instead of discussing the weapons used on the raid, presumably HK 416 assault rifles, we will discuss the ammunition. The US Special Operations Command is notoriously and rightfully tight-lipped concerning the guns and gear they use on their top secret ops.
I have no way of knowing just what sorts of ammo saw service on Operation Kayla Mueller. I don’t personally know anybody who was there. However, balance of probability the 5.56mm weapons used on the raid were likely fed Mk 262 Mod 1 ammunition.
Back in my day the published maximum effective range for the M16A1 rifle firing M193 55-grain FMJ ammunition was 460 meters. In the arid wastes of Iraq and Afghanistan, US troops frequently found themselves needing to reach out farther than that. Snipers and designated marksmen required a 5.56mm cartridge that could shoot to 700-800 meters while retaining enough energy to reliably do the deed. The solution came from the AMU.
The Army Marksmanship Unit represents the finest rifle shooters on the planet. These folks run custom guns and enjoy the resources to wring the absolute best performance out of their gear. They did the original leg work to develop a .223 round firing a 77-grain Open-Tipped Match bullet.
Back in 1996 Black Hills Ammunition won their first government contract producing 80-grain .223 ammo for use out to 600-meters by the AMU. This unique load performed exceptionally well and resulted in purchase requests from other military shooting organizations. In 1999 the folks at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, reached out to Black Hills about developing a similar round for use in their Mk12 Special Purpose Rifles.
What followed was a lot of trial and error. Candidate bullets included the 77gr Nosler HPBT, the 73gr Berger, and the 77gr Sierra MatchKing. The MatchKing grew a cannelure and won the day. Black Hills switched to 5.56x45mm cases and earned the military designation Mk262 Mod 1.
The open-tipped match design is not intended to expand like a conventional hollowpoint. The OTM geometry puts the center of gravity as far as possible to the rear. After review by the Navy JAG the Mk262 Mod 1 round was determined to remain in compliance with the internationally-recognized Hague Convention.
Boys Will Be Boys
Once downrange, assaulters found that Mk 262 Mod 1 ammo ran really well out of their short-barreled close quarters weapons. They then began stealing it from the snipers. Black Hills and Uncle Sam ramped up so there was plenty to go around. This milspec load maximizes the performance of 5.56mm weapons.
Black Hills will happily sell American civilian shooters the same stuff. It comes packed 460 rounds in a standard steel .30-caliber GI ammo can in 20-round cardboard boxes. It is also sold in red commercial packaging. Each case comes with an individual spec sheet unique to that lot personally signed by Jeff Hoffman, the President of Black Hills Ammunition.
This sheet documents the results of ten-shot groups taken from this same lot fired at 300 yards. My lot averaged 1.769 inches or 0.563 MOA. Before the recent Covid apocalypse this premium ammo ran about a buck to a buck and a half per round.
Uncle Sam is planning to bin his 5.56mm weapons in favor of something firing 6.8mm. This heavier round offers longer reach and greater downrange thump. However, I shall mourn the passing of the 5.56×45. It’s lightweight, fun to shoot, and easy to hump. Black Hills Mk 262 Mod 1 is quite literally the most capable 5.56mm ammunition on the planet.
The Rest of the Story
The Delta assault force blew a hole in the wall of al-Baghdadi’s compound and swept the place. They secured 11 noncombatants, mostly children. Five ISIS zealots wearing suicide vests, four women and a man, then approached the D-boys in a threatening manner. Warning shots were supposedly fired before the Delta guys dropped them all.
Al-Baghdadi, for his part, scooped up a pair of handy children, donned his own explosive vest, and retreated into a dead-end tunnel underneath the compound. The Delta guys then deployed their secret weapon, the fur missile.
Conan, a Belgian Malinois military working dog, entered the dark tunnel without hesitation. As Conan closed in on al-Baghdadi with lethal intent the scumbag touched off his vest, killing both himself and the two children he’d dragged along. Conan was injured by some exposed power cables but recovered and has returned to full duty.
The strike team spent two hours onsite recovering critical intelligence materials and mopping up enough of the demised ISIS leader to verify via DNA assay. What little remained of al-Baghdadi was subsequently afforded a proper Muslim burial at sea. That was substantially more than his soulless mob offered their thousands of victims. Good riddance.
Great article, as usual, but the best metaphor is “fur missile”. I definitely need to remember that one.
Unfortunately, my personal fur missile is a cowardly dud.
“Back when I wore the uniform this M16A1 rifle firing 55-grain M193 ammo represented the state of the art in Infantry weapons. We’ve come a long way since then.”
Brought back some memories… In 1986 when I first enlisted, most units – including mine – were still using the M16A1(we also sported the 1911, Grease Gun and 90mm!) When I deployed to Bosnia in December of 1995 I was carrying an A2. By the time I retired in 2010 it was the M4 – and an entirely unrecognizable Army from when I joined 23 and half years earlier! Damn, I’m getting old…
I think dallas pd showed the way that we should treat scumbags.
A bomb robot with a bomb. This concept needs refined into a tracked drone the size of a shoebox. Get on it needs and save doggies for love by their humans.
Love your articles Doc. You are the best gunwriter in the industry today, bar none, and I have read all of them. Your articles are always well-researched, entertaining and fresh. I am getting tired of all the rehashed mediocrity in gun mags today. You are the singular reason I have kept my subscription to some of them, and you can tell your editors I said so. It is time to publish some books of nothing but your articles. I respect the unstated personal courage it took to tell this story in exactly this way. We all know the jackals are already amongst us. Another of your attributes I admire immensely. You personify the American warrior spirit. Keep ’em comin’ my brother!
Thank god for America and great men and doggies.
The CCP controlled asshole in the Oval Office is allowing- by design ISIS minded “immigrants” to filter across our Southern border. He wants to create havoc in this country in order to justify raping the 2nd amendment.
Great article as usual. For those so inclined, Ranger Up makes some tee shirts commemorating this operation such as “He Died Like a Dog” and “Zero Bark Thirty”. Carry on.
The special forces are a great opps we need more people like them. Iam 57 and proud to be a American.in this great country
Great research…thank you! A shame Conan didn’t get to maul that coward.