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Huge U.S. Marine Column Closes in on Baghdad (eastern flank)
Reuters ^ | April 4, 2003 | Matt Green

Posted on 04/04/2003 9:03:22 AM PST by ewing

Waved on by Iraqi children in places, a huge armoured column of U.S. Marines closed in on Baghdad closed in on Baghdad Friday, the eastern flank of a pincer thrust that has already taken the airport to the east.

(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Government; Israel; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: baghdad; battleforbaghdad; control; east; easternfront; flank; iraqifreedom; troopmovement; viceisclosing; welcome
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To: Oldeconomybuyer; Grampa Dave; Dog Gone
Hay Dude... WE BE ROLLIN!!!

Lesee... If we be rollin into the industrial park, is zis where we find alla the "technickles" werkin on wepuns uv mass dessicration, er whut???

I thot the airport wuz southwest, not east! Wassup wid dis???

21 posted on 04/04/2003 9:24:13 AM PST by SierraWasp (Media Advisory: Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see!!!)
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To: ewing
Welcoming civilians? This can't be true:

Iraqi men smiling and waving to the incoming American troops. The Iraqi military has been encouraging the civilians to take up arms and fight American soldiers. The Iraqi civilians are not responding to the crumbling Iraqi government's call to arms.


22 posted on 04/04/2003 9:27:06 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
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To: adam_az
Why did they name the Marine column after THIS guy???

Because they'd all like to marry Elizabeth Hurley?

23 posted on 04/04/2003 9:28:09 AM PST by Scott from the Left Coast
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Chocolate bars for the kids?
24 posted on 04/04/2003 9:28:18 AM PST by ewing
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To: ewing
The ground forces have been handing out food and candy bars from their MREs.
25 posted on 04/04/2003 9:30:18 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
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To: ewing
Don't eat the Amerianers food it will make your mustache fall off!
26 posted on 04/04/2003 9:31:31 AM PST by TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa
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To: TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa
Easter comes a bit early this year in Baghdad..
27 posted on 04/04/2003 9:35:47 AM PST by ewing
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To: TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa

"Its a trap!"
28 posted on 04/04/2003 9:36:02 AM PST by Rebelbase
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To: TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa
Really going to pi$$ off the children giving them GI chow!!! Yikes!!!
29 posted on 04/04/2003 10:00:09 AM PST by RetiredArmy
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
@22 Re Photos: Corrected captions:

1. Remaining Media Division veterans retreat in Soviet T22 trailer.

2. US GI, knowing he is doomed, surrenders to chanting Iraqi children

3. Iraqi children: All your American chocolate belongs to us!!

30 posted on 04/04/2003 10:03:30 AM PST by RetiredArmy
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To: TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa
No, it will only take centuries to undo all this neoconservative, imperialistic destruction of all that is good and decent in the world, the genocide daily of innocent women and children, the stalled, stagnated quagmire of a failed invasion against the wishes of the UN, only if we fail to elect a Democratic president and return control of Congress to the rats in 2004.

At least that's what Kerry and Kucinich tell me.

31 posted on 04/04/2003 10:19:12 AM PST by Sender
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To: TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa

QUAGMIRE ALERT

V


32 posted on 04/04/2003 10:21:02 AM PST by Beck_isright (If Susan Sarandon pooped in the woods, would ELF boycott her?)
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To: ewing
What's with the unnecessary excerpts all over this site? They're a nuisance.

Huge U.S. Marine Column Closes in on Baghdad

2 hours, 15 minutes ago
Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By Matthew Green

SOUTHEAST OF BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Waved on by Iraqi children in places, a huge armored column of U.S. Marines closed in on Baghdad on Friday, the eastern flank of a pincer thrust that has already taken the main airport to the west.


AP Photo
Slideshow


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Special Coverage

 

But further down the road to the capital, a reporter with the U.S. television network ABC who was near the head of the column reported stiff resistance from Iraqi irregular forces and fighters in civilian dress.

"We have reached our objective just south of Baghdad, but we have paid the price. We have taken some casualties," ABC reporter Mike Cerre, who was near the head of the 1st Marine Division column, told viewers.

"We have been under fire for the last five hours, but we are now in front of the outskirts of the industrial area of Baghdad," he added.

Marines traveling north toward the capital with tanks and armored personnel carriers, were keen to get on with the job.

Fresh from a battle for the town of Kut, 105 miles south east of the Iraqi capital, they said they planned to isolate the capital and start picking off its defenders.

"We've got them on their heels, we're going to continue to exploit our successes," Marine Captain Matt Watt told Reuters as the U.S. Central Command spoke of members of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s vaunted Republican Guard surrendering.

"We are going to try to isolate Baghdad," Watt, of the Marine Mechanized Infantry, said on the road from Kut to the capital. "We're going to surround Baghdad and start taking chunks out of where the enemy are."

Military experts said this was critical if U.S. forces were to prepare the ground properly before entering the city itself.

"They have to secure a perimeter now, both to prevent the enemy from getting out and also to avoid any attempts by outside units to strike from the rear and return to Baghdad," French defense analyst Francois Gere told Reuters.

SMILES AND WAVES

As the column moved north, civilians smiled, waved or flashed thumbs-up signs from their mud-walled homes near the banks of the Tigris River.

Civilian traffic was sparse, most of it moving away from Baghdad. What civilian vehicles there were -- brightly painted trucks or white-and-orange taxis -- displayed white flags.

The Marines, wary of attack, watched from behind their guns. Tanks, their turrets swiveled to the side of the road, scanned the column's flanks.

Watt said one U.S. Marine had been killed and about four wounded in Thursday's attack on Kut, a town where military planners had expected stiff opposition from the Republican Guard.

A U.S. military spokesman at Central Command war headquarters in Qatar said members of the Baghdad division of the Guard, which had been defending Kut, had surrendered.

"Just last night there was a (military field) report of about 2,500 soldiers of the Baghdad division surrendering, stripping off their uniforms," Captain Frank Thorp told Reuters.

 

Watt said Marines destroyed enemy forces in the town, including several T-62 tanks and pickup trucks mounted with machineguns, the vehicle of choice of paramilitary forces loyal to the Iraqi leader.

"We are going to have to at least occupy the suburbs of Baghdad to form a ring round it," U.S. Marine Sergeant Brian Mayhew predicted.

"I'm hoping for a siege," he said, betraying a feeling of apprehension. "I don't want to go into Baghdad. I don't want to risk it."




33 posted on 04/04/2003 10:27:07 AM PST by Sabertooth
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To: Beck_isright
We have met the ememy.....And they have our chocolate!
34 posted on 04/04/2003 10:29:26 AM PST by TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa
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To: ewing

We will crush the mercenaries!

35 posted on 04/04/2003 10:53:02 AM PST by byteback
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To: bvw
All your gravitas are belong to us
36 posted on 04/04/2003 11:00:53 AM PST by talleyman (Moose lips sink ships)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Those kids are gonna be pissed when they actually TASTE those MRE crackers.... :-)
37 posted on 04/04/2003 11:21:12 AM PST by RadojeS (Bolje grob nego rob!)
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To: Sabertooth
But

Main Entry: 1but
Pronunciation: 'b&t
Function: conjunction
1 a : Word that inevitably follows good news in a Reuters dispatch

38 posted on 04/04/2003 2:25:45 PM PST by Constitutionalist Conservative (http://c-pol.com)
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To: Sabertooth
"I don't want to go into Baghdad. I don't want to risk it."

Nightime raids against Iraqi troops would probably work in the favor of the U.S. troops.

39 posted on 04/04/2003 2:54:46 PM PST by Tom Bombadil
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To: adam_az
They've got us completely surrounded....from the inside?
40 posted on 04/04/2003 6:40:30 PM PST by stilts
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