Posted on 03/24/2003 4:24:29 PM PST by Dont Mention the War
Five American prisoners of war and at least eight dead GIs - three of whom had apparently been executed - were put on display for Iraqi TV cameras in sickening images broadcast around the world by an Arab news network, reports the New York Post.
Iraqi forces ambushed US troops at a key Euphrates River crossing on the march toward Baghdad, killing an estimated 16 Americans and capturing at least five in two clashes that resulted in the largest number of US casualties of the four-day-old campaign to take down President Saddam Hussein's government.
Iraqis took their first American prisoners, and US forces encountered the fiercest resistance yet as they pushed to within 100 miles of the doorstep to Baghdad.
American forces began the battle for the Red Zone, the area around Baghdad that is defended by the Iraqi Republican Guard and is one of the most treacherous regions of the country for the invading allied forces.
US Marines carried a wounded comrade to safety in An Nasiriyah. Fighting came when Iraqis feigned surrender and then opened fire.
It was a bloody Sunday for US forces in Iraq, with at least nine Marines killed and 12 soldiers dead or captured after heavy urban skirmishes. An unknown number of Iraqi soldiers were killed. "Clearly, they are not a beaten force," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. "This is going to get a lot harder."
For the umpteenth time. When will we learn to never ever accept "surrender" from these animals? Genghis Kahn knew just how to deal with them.
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