U.S. Marines in fierce Nassiriya firefight -CNN

Reuters AlertNet ^ | 29 Mar 2003 16:07:53 GMT | Newsdesk

[11th_VA]

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Marines were in a fierce firefight with Iraqi fighters on Saturday in the southern city of Nassiriya, CNN reported.

Marines on one side of the Euphrates River were blasting Hellfire missiles from Cobra helicopters and 25 mm cannons at Iraqis holed up in apartment buildings on the other side, according to a CNN correspondent traveling with a contingent of Marines from the 2nd Division.

The network reported machine-gun fire coming from the Iraqi side of the river. The embattled city 235 miles (375 km) southeast of Baghdad has seen heavy fighting during the 10-day-old war as U.S.-led forces try to secure supply lines on the road to the Iraqi capital.

The Pentagon said on Saturday that troops from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division had been placed near Nassiriya to bolster security for supply lines.

[freebilly]

They're firing at us with machine guns. We're firing at them with Hellfire missles.

They're dead.

[L`enn]

Actually, on NPR believe it or not, came an oasis of unbiased reporoting. Their imbed interviewed a Marine on Tuesday and one Friday. One Tuesday the reporter asked the Marine, "The resistance you are finding, is it tough and persistant or just an annoyance?" The Marine answered "Its just an annoyance", then gives this example. The long stretches go by with calm, then somebody shows up with a rifle, and they dispatch him to Allah. Actually he had a hilarious story of a Toyota full of wahoos with a machine gun on the hood that took on a tank head on. The tank won.

Yesterday a Marine gave a description of the "resistance". Tanks are camped out. An Iraqi pops up holding a mortar launcher. The sniper picks him off. 20 min goes buy. Another dude pops up in the same spot, holding a launcher. Sniper picks him off. Half hour goes buy. 'Nother guy pops up, sniper picks him off. Marine says "They sure seem awfully stupid".

There is more or less NPR's detail of the "fierce resistance"

[Grampa Dave]

Actually this could be even worse. This is a Reuters story being paraded by CNN.

[Grampa Dave]

I have a friend who was a Marine Corp Sniper for 3 tours in Nam. He did his job so well that the Russians, the ChiComs and the NV Charlies had a bounty on his head. He killed every one of their snipers that came after him.

Any clymer who doesn't believe that we have Marine Snipers all over these areas wants us to lose because of some mental problem.

Does that mean that the snipers will get all of the bad guys? No, some will get a lucky shot in before they join Allah!

[irish guard]

>>>>>>>>>The CNN guy must be soiling his underwear at the incoming fire. Marines are trained and ready for it. <<<<<<<<<

This CNN guy should just do what Peter Jennings does and stay home to wash out his French panties and bra.

[Tom Bombadil]

Any clymer who doesn't believe that we have Marine Snipers all over these areas wants us to lose because of some mental problem.

I have been told that the "average" marine is taught to hit what they shoot at. In Afgahnistan, the opposing forces would fire willy-nilly and the marines would take them out one at a time.

[xkaydet65]

Interesting CNN tidbit. Just watched the afternoon anchor with Wesley Clark. Clark isoften named here as Clinton's favorite general. This time however he refused to follow the anchor's lead and criticize V Corps plans and actions. He explained how 3ID avoided combat in its advance and arrived in excellent shape at its present position. He explained that supplies and supply depots are being advanced with each day and that security is being increased.He said that the pause in ground advance provides Apaches and A10s the opportinity to further destroy the RG Medina. Each response was followed by a loaded questin from the anchor (???) and Clark, using the map displayed the anchor's ignorance.

Finally the anchor asked "Does West Point teach officers how to deal with the terrorism we've see?" Clark responded "That kind of training goes on throughout an officer's entire career. We are well trained and prepared to deal with this kind of war!" Just thought that a much maligned general deserved to be recognized when he done good.

[Truthsayer20]

Re: 22. LOL.

[MHGinTN]

The skirmishes are very one-sided. Let CNN continue to mischaracterize them. The hundreds of Iraqis killed will fall under the CNN radar and the propaganda efforts of CNN, tosew the seeds of doubt and angst will fail the more. I'm sick of Judy Woodruff looking worried and concerned when Iraqis are mowed down yet she perks up when coalition casualty segments run. Do ya think she's got a bias?

[JasonC]

Yes. The 3rd ID crossed just west of the city itself, turned left = west then northwest, and raced up both banks of the Euphrates.

When the Marines arrived, the Army expected them to use the same bridge. Apparently they instead pressed into the city center, trying to clear a different bridge a bit farther east, on the direct route north toward Kut, their distant objective once across the river.

Why the Marines didn't use the western bridge, then hook around east along the north bank, to take the eastern bridge they seem to want from both sides at once, is unclear. They may be doing so, but it was not the first thing they tried.

[MHGinTN]

Even Clarke is growing tired of being connected to the CNN anti-american bias. Much is said of the fog of war, but conflict tends to clarify who's the enemy, foreign and domestic.

[Rockpile]

I've definitely seen guys from 2/8 and they may have the whole 8th Regiment their now. I was wondering if when the war started that maybe 2/8 was the BLT on the current Med Flot and they just sent them through the Suez Canal to Kuwait. Just guessing.

[JasonC]

My understanding is that 4 "line" Marine regiments have been sent, plus some corps level units (recon and light armor, helos, air, etc). So it is about 1 1/2 divisions worth. One regimental team is from the east coast I believe, the rest from the west coast = 1st Marine division. The 1st MEF is a corps level HQ. The 1st Marine division is its major permanent subunit, but it is designed to command other attached forces.

[montag813]

Marines on one side of the Euphrates River were blasting Hellfire missiles from Cobra helicopters and 25 mm cannons at Iraqis holed up in apartment buildings on the other side

We should do as the Israelis have successfully done. Why such precise weaponry? Just take out the entire building. Once the fighters realize they can't use civilian buildings as shields, they will be flushed out into the open where they may be more easily killed. This was the lesson of Jenin. The initial civilian casualties are worth it...many more lives are saved by setting an early example of our rules of engagement.

I can't comprehend why the U.S. does not allow Israeli IDF forces to fight with themselves and the Brits & Aussies. No army in the world has more experience fighting in these conditions than the IDF. There are NO Arab troops in the coalition this time around. Are we more concerned with offending Arab nations than we are with our own men's lives?

[chilepepper]

I think it is time to analyse the "buzzword" media bias, which i believe masks what is really going on...

media bias implies merely reporting things with a bias toward the iraqis, but what the media is doing is much more sinister than that: what the media is doing is pushing an agenda which is to create dissension and treachery among the folks back in the US, and around the world and hence allow the US Troops to be defeated, either militarily, politically or diplomatically

This goes far beyond mere media bias and is actually pushing the world socialist agenda by engineering worry and concern among those who need to stand firm against this tremendous fight against Iraq, terrorism central

[Grampa Dave]

I will not say there is such a thing as an average marine. I have too many Marine friend who might average me.

Having qualified that. The Marines are combat proficient and know how to shoot to kill with minimal rounds.

If you have flock of turkies, you aim at them one at a time. Kill that turkey and find your next target.

The Marine Snipers pride themselves on one round equals one dead enemy.

[Southack]

"I can't comprehend why the U.S. does not allow Israeli IDF forces to fight with themselves and the Brits & Aussies."

Well, at least you can admit your own shortcomings.

The U.S. doesn't allow the Israelis to fight with them in Iraq because the Islamic Iraqis *can not* ever view the Jewish Israelis as liberators. Moreover, Kuwait and other Arab/Muslim countries would be forced to wage war against Israel, thus making our bases in the area more problematic than they need to be.

Plus, we don't *need* any help.

Our military, contrary to the pablum that gets mentioned by the talking heads on TV every day, is far and above the most powerful, precise, and quickest military to *ever* be fielded in combat in the entire world's long history.

We fight where we want. We win wherever we want. We fight on our timeline. We fight in our preferred manner. We fight using the rules of our own choosing.

The only reasons to allow other nations to slow us down with their military "aid" are to reduce our costs and prop up our geo-political positions.

[pierrem15]

It's hard to appreciate just how bad and ignorant the reporting is. For example, there was a story in the NY Slimes on Thursday that described how a supply convoy of Marines held up in the sandstorm came under attack. It described the Marines as "frightened" because this light-skinned convoy (no armor) was attacked by an Iraqi armored column (no s--t).

In the end, the Marines used their pre-plotted artillery kill-boxes to attack the Iraqi's while waiting for air support. The next day the reporter surveyed the smoking carcasses of the Iraqi's and pronounced this to be "luck."

What should have been reported was that a company of Marine light infantry destroyed an entire Iraqi armoured column using its training in the worst of all possible visibility.

Luck my a$$.

[kesg]

They really can't tell the story the way because it doesn't exactly fit their world view.

[12B]

Where did the 82nd come from?