ABCNews.com: Firefight in Nasiriya

ABCNews.com ^ | March 23, 2003 | abcnews.com

[mikegi]

U.S. Marines are engaged in heavy house-to-house fighting in a southern Iraqi city and have called in at least eight medical evacuation choppers. The news came as Iraqi forces apparently searched in Baghdad for what they said was a downed coalition pilot.

ABCNEWS' John Berman said a battalion of some 1,000 Marines was engaged in an intense firefight in the southern city of Nasiriya, and helicopters had been called in to evacuate wounded allied soldiers from the battle zone.

Berman, embedded with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said the exact number of people evacuated was not immediately available.

Nasiriya is considered a strategic city on the main highway to Baghdad.

ABCNEWS' Aaron Katersky reports from Kuwait that an air-rescue mission has been launched.

"The Marines are dispatching a helicopter rescue and recovery crew to an undisclosed area where a sergeant says there are a lot of casualties," Katersky said. "It's not clear how many are dead, what service they're from, or what kind of operation they were engaged in.

But again, we do know that an operation, a rescue and recovery operation is now being undertaken, based here at this air base," he said.

"I'm told it is not just regular [Iraqi] army people but militia, people in plainclothes doing the fighting," Berman said.

Allied planes conducted aerial strafing runs in the battle and dropped several bombs, he said.

Iraqi commanders dispatched Fedayeen counterinsurgency fighters from Baghdad to Nasiriya over the past two weeks, military sources told ABCNEWS. The fighters were meant to bolster regular army soldiers, whose loyalty to Saddam Hussein is considered questionable, the sources said.

The Fedayeen fighters were to be used in urban combat and to threaten potential defectors with death if they didn't fight, the sources said.

One of Saddam's cousins is known to command the Nasiriya area, and is believed to be surrounded by handpicked loyalist troops.

[mikegi]

Hope our Marines are ok.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Changing out of uniforms in the hope that we start shooting civilians for the camera. Time to start dropping leaflets indicating that soldiers fighting in civilian clothing will be tried as spies and summarily shot.

[ChinaThreat]

You are correct about executing these bastards. It is perfectly legal under the Geneva Convention. Combatants dressed in civillian garb pose a breach of this convention and it allows for summary execution.

[ChinaThreat]

No trial required by the way.

[mware]

ABC reporting video on arab tv, showing dead americans said it looks like they were executed.

[cyncooper]

ABC reporting video on arab tv, showing dead americans said it looks like they were executed.

I am watching MTP right now and Jim Mik(etc) just reported the same to Tim Russert. Said Al-Jazeera showed the tape and these were apparent U.S. prisoners who were executed. Less than 10 in number is all they know at this point.

[lavrenti]

If true, this was yet another very bad career move by what's remains of the civilian/military structure in Iraq.

We've cut them enormous amounts of slack so far.

[A2J]

I thought we had secured that town. What gives?

[lavrenti]

This was particularly evil and stupid.

Unleash Hell.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

I'm starting to wonder myself. Damn! One cannot trust the office holder in this country. We hear all the rah! rah! then suddenly we are bogged down. Troops streaming towards Baghdad-100 to 160 miles away-then bogged down. Cities captured then fighting for the cities, then capture of the bridge leading into the city.(we have either captured the city or we have not.) The office holder had better be as straightforward as is possible.

[mikegi]

I thought we had secured that town. What gives?

I think that we're bypassing towns for the most part. Kind of an island-hopping campaign. That leaves groups of Iraqi soldiers where fighting can continue for a while. Anyway, I have a problem with minute-by-minute reporting of casualties since it exaggerates individual tragedies. The media implies that each death is a failure of the military.

What's important is the success of the campaign.

[Attillathehon]

Something else is worrying me and that is the lack of refugees crossing the borders. The UN has set up refugee camps for thousands and not one single person is leaving. At the same time, I've heard reports that there thousands of Iraqi soldiers missing. Could those soldiers be hiding in private homes which would explain the lack of refugees. Also pose a serious threat to our military entering the cities.

[CarmelValleyite]

Unleash hell is right!!!!! Let's step up the action from the air.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Seems simple enough to me. Our main forces are racing towards Baghdad and soon will confront the RG divisions stationed outside the city, after they have been softened up by aerial bombardment. As cities are encountered, (Basra, Nssiriah, etc.) a contingent of troops hangs on to conduct the assault against the defenders inside. I imagine it is the media that mistakenly concludes that these cities have been "taken" after they have seen the main forces moive on. Dummies.

[CarmelValleyite]

You could be absolutely correct. Saddam's troops will sink to the lowest depths in this battle and commandeering civilians and holding THEM hostage, using them as shields, is certainly probably part of the plan.