Posted on 03/31/2003 8:07:55 AM PST by JohnHuang2
Iraqis welcome U.S. Marines in Shatra
By Sean Maguire
SHATRA, Iraq, March 31 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iraqis shouting "Welcome to Iraq" greeted U.S. Marines who entered the town of Shatra on Monday after storming it with planes, tanks and helicopter gunships.
A foot patrol picked its way through the small southern town, 35 km (20 miles) north of the city of Nassiriya, after being beckoned in by a crowd of people.
"There's no problem here. We are happy to see Americans," one young man shouted.
The welcome was a tonic for soldiers who have not always received the warm reception they expected after U.S. and British leaders told them the Iraqi people were waiting to be freed from repression under President Saddam Hussein.
"It's not every day you get to liberate people," said one delighted Marine.
As they searched the town, the Marines pushed back the excited crowd. An interpreter urged local people through a loudspeaker on a Humvee not to hinder their movements.
But as night approached with the town not fully under their control, the Marines pulled back.
It had been a day of mixed fortunes.
It began with a pre-dawn raid to try to kill senior Iraqi officials believed to be directing guerrilla attacks on U.S. troops and their supply convoys.
The ambushes have slowed the advance on Baghdad. This Marine unit retraced its steps back south down Highway 7 to Shatra after bypassing the Iraqi forces there in their rapid advance last week.
IRAQI GENERAL, FEDAYEEN FLEE
Planes dropped precision-guided bombs on four targets during the morning raid.
Tanks and armoured personnel carriers then moved to the edge of the town and helicopter gunships raked the rubble-strewn target sites with heavy machinegun fire.
The targets were the local Baath party headquarters and "associated planning sites," Marine officers said.
Having entered the town, the Marines searched without success for the body of a colleague who was killed last week and whose corpse was believed to be in a hospital in the town.
They trampled over the ruins of a local headquarters of Saddam's Baath party.
Another Baath party building across the street had been set ablaze by looters who carried away sofas from inside.
Intelligence reports had suggested that Ali Hassan al-Majeed, or "Chemical Ali," the cousin whom Saddam has put in charge of the southern front, was in the town.
But Majeed, who earned his nickname for overseeing the use of poison gas against Kurdish villagers in 1988, was nowhere to be seen.
The Marines had also received intelligence reports that an Iraqi general was holed up inside the town but arrived just too late to capture him, military officials said.
"He got away just before we got here," said company commander Captain Mike Martin. "We believe there are about 200 to 300 Baath party loyalists and Saddam Fedayeen irregulars in the town," he added.
But the Fedayeen paramilitary forces had also fled.
Marines found a light still on and the telephone ringing when they entered what was thought to be their headquarters.
Hm. The "little people" sure are getting bold. Saddam's grip loosening?
According to Reuters.
Yeah, they did. It was James Carville seeing if they were ready to receive the fax of the daily talking points...
Yes, and with an absolutely straight face, too.
The ringing telephone - no doubt a telemarketer selling aluminum siding. "Hah-Loh?"
What'll be interesting to me is how long it will take a Liberated Iraq to spawn a SECOND revolution - once Iraqi TV becomes saturated with Di-Tech and Bowflex commercials.
Michael
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