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| Iraq |
| U.S. Forces Fight at Nassiriya |
| 2003-03-23 |
| U.S. Marines battled for control of the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya on Sunday, taking "significant" casualties in a fight to open a route north to Baghdad. Reuters Correspondent Sean Maguire, traveling with the Marines First Regiment south of the city, said he could see explosions and huge plumes of smoke over Nassiriya. "It looks like artillery, or possibly air strikes," Maguire said. "There's lots of smoke rising." Maguire quoted military officials as saying the Marine battalion spearheading the fight had suffered significant casualties in the battle, but said they did not give details. FoxNews said they were wounded, and had been medevac'd... The firefight at Nassariya blocked an advance by U.S. forces, who had earlier reported securing two key bridgeheads to enable them to cross the Euphrates and strike northwards toward the Iraqi capital. Maguire said military officials believed that the bridgeheads were now secure but that the area in between was not. Maguire said there was heavy U.S. helicopter traffic over the area, and that hundreds of U.S. military trucks and armored personnel carriers had stopped their advance. That would account for the "artillery or possibly air strikes," wouldn't it? U.S. officers also said that the 11th Division of the Iraqi army had "capitulated." That report could not be confirmed, and no details on the alleged surrender were available. Thought they threw in the towel day before yesterday? Or was that just their commander? Iraqi officials on Saturday denied U.S. statements that the commander of the 51st Division had surrendered and a U.S. commander said his forces had fought and defeated elements of the 51st around the southern city of Basra. Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told a news conference in Baghdad that foreign invaders headed to Nassiriya had been "taught a lesson they will never forget." Yeah: concentrate on killing the bad guys, instead of trying to talk 'em out. Once you kill enough, the rest will come out... "We have placed them in a quagmire from which they can never emerge except dead," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 i heard the commander who surrendered may actually have been a brigade commander, not the divisional commander. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-03-24 08:41:59 |