Battle of Phase Line Bullet The Battle of Phase Line Bullet was one of the clashes which led to the destruction of the " Tawakalna " Iraqi Republican Guard Division , on February 26 , 1991 , by a simultaneous attack of two US Armored Divisions ( 1st and 3rd ) , an Infantry Division ( the 1st ) and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment . The battle was one of the rare examples of a US armored force repulsed by a screen of Iraqi entrenched infantry , APC s , and Iraqi T - 72 tanks during Desert Storm . The incident involved American friendly fire casualties . Background . The initial skirmishes between American and Iraqi Republican Guards units took place earlier that day around pre - established line 73 Easting , some 30 miles west of Wadi al Batin , where the 2 ACR managed to destroy two Iraqi Armored Brigades . The skirmishes in this sector were still going on when the 3rd Armored Division , positioned north , made the first contact with a brigade of the Tawakalna Armored Division around 3 : 30 PM . Weather conditions were extremely poor , hampering visibility and identification of targets . Flank screen maneuver . As the usual practice for armored reconnaissance , a troop of M3 Bradley s ( Alpha Troop ) , belonging to the 4th squadron of the 7th Cavalry Regiment , was scouting ahead of the main tank force . The flank screen maneuver took place along the southern boundaries between the 2 ACR and 3rd Armored Division operational areas . Task Forces 4 - 34 and 4 - 32 were advancing from the rear . The general movement of the US forces followed an eastward direction . The fumes of hundreds of oil wells set on fire by the Iraqis , combined with an intense shamal , forced the US vehicles to use thermal sights . Surprising contact . At 3 : 00 PM , the 14 Bradleys strong troop received information from the GHQ of the 3rd Armored Division that no enemy unit remained between them and the Kuwaiti border . Suddenly , they found a screen line of Iraqi APCs straight ahead , barely 300 meters to the east . The poor weather , along with burning oil fumes , reduced the visibility conditions to almost zero . The enemy screen line was part of the 9th Armored Brigade of " Tawakalna " Division . A burst of small - arms and heavy machine gunfire , RPG s and Sagger missiles erupted . Initially , the American commander thought they were engaging dismounted infantry supported by BMP s , but later he realized that they were also receiving main - gun tank rounds . The US vehicles retaliated by firing TOW missiles , 25 mm cannon and machine gun fire . The contact lasted for about two hours , until the Bradleys , battered by enemy and friendly fire and running out of ammunition , were forced to withdraw . US Abrams tanks from TF 4 - 34 , positioned in the rear echelon , fired in support of the IFVs , destroying at least one T - 72 and several Iraqi APCs . They also hit three Bradleys ( A - 24 , A - 31 and A - 22 ) , with two American KIAs . The 2 ACR also became entangled in the fighting from the rear right . Another Bradley ( A - 36 ) was first disabled by a 12 . 7 mm round from an NSVT heavy machine gun which penetrated the transmission and later shattered by a large caliber shaped charge impact in the turret ' s front . Bradley A - 35 also took some damage from a mix of ricocheting 12 . 7 mm bursts and indirect fire , but was able to be driven out , while A - 33 suffered two injured and its radio station hit by 12 . 7 mm fire . During the process of rescuing casualties from A - 24 , Bradley A - 26 , commanded by Sergeant Major Ronald Sneed , was near - missed by a T - 72 main round , which spattered the vehicle with splinters . While providing cover for A - 21 who was attempting to assess the situation with A - 36 , Bradley A - 22 , commanded by Staff Sergeant Meyers , was struck in the turret by an M - 1 tank from TF 4 - 34 resulting in one KIA . The gunner of A - 24 was also killed by a friendly tank round . The disabled A - 22 , A - 36 and A - 24 were left abandoned on the battleground , while A - 31 , although heavily damaged , was able to pull back . All the remainder Bradleys were raked by machine gun fire and shell splinters , but they were still marginally operational . Aftermath . The U . S . forces were unable to find a breach in the northern Iraqi lines until the first hours of February 27 . That morning , the 7th Cav scouts found the hulls of 18 APCs , mostly BMP - 1 , and six T - 72s disabled or abandoned by their crews . The clash is one of the few recorded actions where a US assault was fenced off by Iraqi dug - in armored vehicles . The commander of Alpha troop , Captain Gerald Davie , later acknowledged that the cause of the fiasco was that " we were ten times too close to the enemy than we would choose to be " .