Thousands of Marines pushed north toward Baghdad in "seek and destroy" missions Sunday, trying to open the route to the Iraqi capital and stop days of attacks along a stretch that has become known as "Ambush Alley." Charging into previously unsecured areas, the Marines tried to provoke attacks in order to find Iraqi fighters and defeat them. A chaplain traveling with them handed out humanitarian packages to distrustful Iraqi civilians encountered along the way.
Army supply trucks appeared on the Marine route north for the first time Sunday, supporting field reports that Army and Marine forces were meeting for the first time in the ground invasion, which had the Marines trekking north along Route 80 — known as the "Highway of Death" — and Army forces punching their way across desert terrain. Rank-and-file Marines, ordered to intercept and question each civilian they see along the route after an Iraqi army officer attacked a group of Americans in a suicide bomb attack Saturday, also handed out ration packets. For hungry Iraqis, this gift was the only thing that could convince them the Marines were not there to hurt them. "I had one of them tell me they'd heard to be a Marine you had to eat a baby, or kill someone," one Marine said about enemy prisoners of war.
Frightened Iraqis scrambled into their homes at the sight of the Americans, Marines said. One old woman clutched her mule with one hand and smacked her dogs forward with the other, trying to get them to attack the approaching American soldiers. Like many other exchanges, that encounter ended with smiles and gratitude for the rations. |