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http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/News_Release.asp?NewsRelease=20050511.txt
NEWS RELEASE
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
7115 South Boundary Boulevard
MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101
Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894
May 10, 2005
Release Number: 05-05-11
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARINE COMBAT OPERATIONS IN AL ANBAR PROVINCE
CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, Iraq – Marines, Sailors and Soldiers from Regimental Combat Team-2, 2nd Marine Division, are continuing combat operations in northwestern Al Anbar province.
The offensive is aimed at eliminating terrorist and foreign fighters from the area. The region, a known smuggling route and sanctuary for foreign fighters, is also used as a staging area where foreign fighters receive weapons and equipment for their attacks in the more populated key cities of Baghdad, Ramadi, Fallujah and Mosul.
Soldiers from the Army's 814th Multi-Role Bridge Company constructed a pontoon bridge across the Euphrates River where intelligence reports indicate the enemy is located 9 May. Marines crossed over from the southern banks to the north and are now operating in the northern Jazirah Desert and are in pursuit of the enemy.
Terrorists attempted to launch a counter-attack seven kilometers from Camp Gannon, in Al Qaim May 9. Terrorists attacked a Marine convoy with small arms fire, RPGs, roadside bombs and two suicide car bombers. One car bomb damaged an armored humvee. The second suicide car bomber was destroyed by a Marine M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank. No Marines were killed in the attack. The two car bombers died in the engagement.
Ten terrorists, who surrendered to the Marines, are at a nearby detention center.
Coalition and Marine Corps aircraft are participating in the operation.
More information will be released as it becomes available.
For additional information regarding this release, contact the II MEF public affairs office via email at CEPAOWO@cemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1401264/posts
They Came Here to Die (gripping Marine battle Operation Matador)
Washington Post ^ | May 11, 2005 | Ellen Knickmeyer
Posted on 05/11/2005 3:28:06 PM PDT by Choose Ye This Day
JARAMI, Iraq, May 10 -- Screaming "Allahu Akbar'' to the end, the foreign fighters lay on their backs in a narrow crawl space under a house and blasted their machine guns up through the concrete floor with bullets designed to penetrate tanks. They fired at U.S. Marines, driving back wave after wave as the Americans tried to retrieve a fallen comrade.
Through Sunday night and into Monday morning, the foreign fighters battled on, their screaming voices gradually fading to just one. In the end, it took five Marine assaults, grenades, a tank firing bunker-busting artillery rounds, 500-pound bombs unleashed by an F/A-18 attack plane and a point-blank attack by a rocket launcher to quell them.
The Marines got their fallen man, suffering one more dead and at least five wounded in the process. And according to survivors of the battle, the foreign fighters near the Syrian border proved to be everything their reputation had suggested: fierce, determined and lethal to the last.
"They came here to die," said Gunnery Sgt. Chuck Hurley, commander of the team from the 1st Platoon, Lima Company, of the Marines' 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment, that battled the insurgents in the one-story house in Ubaydi, about 15 miles east of the Syrian border.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...