Posted on 03/27/2003 12:22:05 AM PST by HAL9000
SOUTH OF AL KUT, Iraq - As the Marines rolled through the night toward an expected battle with Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard on Wednesday, an unlucky bus rushed headlong toward them on Highway 7.The Marines opened fire from machine guns mounted on their Humvees, badly damaging the bus and killing 20 of the 22 Iraqis inside. The Iraqis wore makeshift uniforms and had two pistols between them.
Apprehensive about possible suicide attacks and guerrillas in civilian clothes, the 4th Amphibious Assault Battalion of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force has done a lot of firing on the road to al Kut, but met little organized resistance.
By Thursday morning, the 4th was 30 miles south of al Kut, where a division of the elite Republican Guard is reportedly waiting. In a steady rain, the Marines stopped along the highway to refuel and regroup before pushing on.
On Wednesday morning, about 100 miles to the west, uniformed Iraqis using old Soviet-era tanks had launched a probing attack on U.S. forces north of An Najaf. The Army's 3rd Infantry Division responded with artillery and tanks. In the end, 40 Iraqis were killed and 14 Iraqi vehicles, including Soviet-made T-55 and T-62 tanks, were destroyed.
The fighting, which caused no American casualties, was one of the largest skirmishes on a day when allied forces remained largely dug in, their supply lines still drawn thin and harassed by enemy sniping and attacks.
"I'm worried we're running out of supplies," said Col. John P. Gardner, the commander of the Army's 7th Combat Support Group as it set up camp south of An Najaf and waited for supplies to catch up across a route choked by sand and threatened by sporadic guerrilla attack. "We need the rest of our people to get here, but it's too dangerous."
After taking longer than expected to reach An Najaf, the support group Wednesday faced shortages of food and water. Support crews scheduled to follow close behind were held back by limited visibility and fighting along the supply route, where Iraqis waited to pounce on any convoy driver unfortunate enough to get into a wreck.
The support group found its refuge by moving two families of nomads off their land. They gave the nomads receipts for later reimbursement, but could not tell them how or where to cash them.
Befuddled, the families left behind their dogs, chickens, tents, bowls and pots. All day and night, the dogs howled, the puppies whimpered and the chickens squawked until they found partially eaten MREs discarded by the soldiers.
In central Iraq, civilian casualties were still a concern as Marines moving up Highway 7 went from gunfight to gunfight as they moved toward al Kut, where they believe they will face elements of the Iraqi Republican Guard.
At Ash Shatra, at least two civilians were killed and several injured when a missile of unknown origin hit a vehicle on Tuesday. Local farmer Hassan Abed said he was traveling in a large group of 35 to 40 people as well as goats and sheep when their vehicle was hit. Marines treated the injured, which included an elderly woman, a woman who appeared to be her daughter and a baby
Marines found Iraqi forces waiting in ambush there, firing across fields in what became a two- to three-hour firefight. Cobra attack helicopters firing Hellfire missiles joined M1 tanks and an artillery barrage in a counterattack Wednesday.
Other Marine elements south of Al Kut also had to deal with harassing fire and attempted suicide attacks. In one incident also on Highway 7 south of al Kut, two vehicles carrying propane tanks rushed the Marines in what Marines suspected might be a suicide attack.
Marines stopped the two trucks, one an 18-wheeler and one a flatbed. The drivers emerged firing pistols and were killed.
More American forces also headed into Iraq from Kuwait. The 2nd Brigade of the Army's 101st Airborne Division left Camp New York in 25 vehicles loaded with troops wearing bio-chemical suits.
Two platoons of armored Humvees rolled with the convoy, armed with anti-tank missiles and 40 mm grenade launchers. There were also medics, and truck after truck filled with water, gasoline, food and spare parts to replenish troops already in the north.
Said Capt. Kenneth Hutchison: "Unless there's a mass surrender in the next 48 hours, these guys are definitely going to be a part of the Baghdad plan, whatever it is."
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(Peterson of The (Biloxi, Miss.) Sun-Herald, is with the Marine Corps' 4th Amphibious Assault Battalion near al Kut; Brown is with the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division. Thomma reported from Washington. Knight Ridder Newspapers correspondents: Meg Laughlin with the 7th Combat Support Group of the Army's V Corps, near An Najaf; Scott Canon of The Kansas City Star, with V Corps near An Nasiriyah; and S. Thorne Harper of The Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer, with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division, near An Najaf contributed to this report.)
This will be a critical battle for the bridge over the Tigris River.
Displaying the bravery and strategic thinking that has enabled the Muslim warrior to win crucial victories against nightclubs and busloads of schoolchildren.
You just gotta love the media. When our troops encounter soldiers who fight back, our war plans have gone disastrously awry and we're stuck in a quagmire. When our troops encounter soldiers who don't fight back, we're trigger-happy Rambos pillaging the countryside and terrifying children and puppies. Gosh, it's almost as though the media don't want us to be fighting this war at all.
This seems like a good move to me; trust none of them
The Iraqis wore makeshift uniforms and had two pistols between them.
Clue.
Huh? How is it an "unlucky bus"? They were rushing at the Marines in a war zone! After all the Marines have been through, I don't blame them, especially if the Iraqis were wearing "makeshift uniforms".
Kinda sad, about the bus, being damaged and all. Badly damaged bus......... I love this reporter.... ha ha ha.
Excuse me? They're nomads! How can it be "their land"?? Either they are squatters who don't own squat or they are freaking tourists. Lovely vouchers, though. Hope they get the t-shirts...
To the reporters, it's not just a war. It's class struggle. Rich Americans versus poor unlucky nomads and buses.
Now, THAT'S the Corps I know and love.
Semper fidelis,
LH
That gets my vote for Quote of the Day.
Come on, the bus charged the Marines. With that kind of aggressive behavior, it obviously has some SUV in its ancestry—it got what was coming to it. Worry about the puppies, man, the puppies!
The fact that there are even enemy soldiers in the first place means we've already lost. In a world of peace and justice, things would be different. </sarcasm>
What kind of uniforms? Makeshift American-like uniforms? If they were in the Saddamite army, they would have official uniforms on, they wouldn't need makeshift ones... right?
Made in China, just like ours...
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