Posted on 04/08/2003 4:21:43 AM PDT by kattracks
U.S. says takes Baghdad's Rashid military airfield
BAGHDAD, April 8 (Reuters) - U.S. Marines said they had captured a military airfield on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad on Tuesday, which had apparently been abandoned by retreating Iraqi forces.
Marines met no resistance as they rolled tracked armoured vehicles up the runway at the Rashid airfield some 5 km (3 miles) from the centre of the capital, while infantry kicked down doors of office buildings to search for any Iraqi forces.
"We are just securing it, making sure there are no enemy forces left in it that might be straggling behind," U.S. Captain Matt Watt of 1st Marines Division's Lima Company, told Reuters at the airfield.
At a briefing at Central Command headquarters in Qatar, U.S. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks confirmed that the airfield was in U.S. hands.
04/08/03 07:17 ET
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