Operation Matador Ends, Marines Continue To Monitor Area

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2005 – Operation Matador is over, Marine officials in Iraq announced today.

The seven-day operation concentrated on cities near the border with Syria. Pentagon officials said many foreign fighters allied with terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slip across the porous Syrian-Iraqi border. The operation concentrated on the Euphrates River cities of Karabilah, Ramana and Ubaydi, a Marine statement said.

Nine Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2 died in the operation. Forty more were wounded. The statement said the joint-service team's Marines, soldiers and sailors "killed more than 125 terrorists, wounding many others and detaining 39 terrorists of intelligence value."

Coalition officials were concerned about the region even before fighting in Fallujah in November. The area - part of Iraq's Anbar province - is laced with smuggling routes that go back generations. Tribal loyalties extend on both sides of the border, and families often control smuggling "territory" and charge for services, said Pentagon officials.

Marine officials said terrorists use the area as a staging ground for attacks against Iraqi and coalition targets in Ramadi, Fallujah, Baghdad and Mosul.

The operation began May 7, and Marines killed about 70 terrorists in the first 24-hour period. "Operation Matador confirmed existing intelligence assessments focused on this region north of the Euphrates River, including knowledge of numerous cave complexes in the nearby escarpment," the Marine statement said.

The Marines will continue to monitor the area, officials said. Servicemembers discovered numerous weapons caches containing machine guns, mortar rounds and rocket materials in towns along the Syrian border. "Six vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices and material used for making other improvised explosive devices were also found," the statement said.

"Regimental Combat Team 2 started and ended this operation as planned, accomplished its mission and secured all objectives," said Maj. Gen. Richard A. Huck, 2nd Marine Division commander, quoted in the statement. "Coalition and Iraqi security forces will return again to this area in the future."

In the northern part of Iraq, soldiers of 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division's Stryker Brigade Combat Team seized a large weapons cache May 12. Soldiers found the weapons during a cordon-and-search operation southwest of Qayyarah. The cache included 16 rocket-propelled grenade rounds, a mortar round, one case of fuses, two bags of charges, one pound of C4 explosives and a case of ammunition.

only a 125 enemy killed? A success?

That's only the KIAs, there were "many more wounded". But the evalution of the marksmanship kinda depends on how many there were to begin with.

Many of the terrorist casualties would have been inflicted by artillery and other support weapons, including the bombs of Marine Air, Navy Air and Air Force. Rockets and missles from those and from Army and Marine air assets.

It really sucks when the only air assets over the battlefield belong to the other side.

I don't know where you get your information, but there was no "crossfire" incident. My brothers died from enemy fire and from a roadside explosion. We lost a lot of good Marines who we already miss and we will continue the mission in their honor. Even by your numbers if these "six fallen heros" had not died there would have been more than one Marine killed. Also, the Washington Post's Ellen Knickmeyer wrote a bogus article. Don't believe a word of it.

"I don't know where you get your information, but there was no "crossfire" incident. My brothers died from enemy fire and from a roadside explosion. We lost a lot of good Marines who we already miss and we will continue the mission in their honor. Even by your numbers if these "six fallen heros" had not died there would have been more than one Marine killed. Also, the Washington Post's Ellen Knickmeyer wrote a bogus article. Don't believe a word of it."

Marine. Thank you for serving. I assume you are under the 2DIV in Al Anbar at this point. I retract the statement regarding the "cross-fire", based on follow up info I got from some more reliable sites that indicated supposedly six Marines in 3/2 where KIAed when their Humvee I believe went over a IED. I was going from post to posted articles dealing with the operation during that week and obviously did not post later after known that those Marines in that particular squad became Angels because of a mine or IED.
Thank you for responding on this matter. To much info coming in to quick. And I was trying to support in that thread the fact that our Marines where not failing in any way.........in my response to one of our members who made it sound like the kill ration was not good enough. One Marine or soldiered KIAed is to high, so my comments where to indicate even though we may have lost 9 Marines, that it was foolish to believe our Marines did not complete a succesfull operation. I hope this explaination is a satisfactory answer to your repy to me.
Thank you for the correction, that I should have went back and reposted once I knew there was no cross fire incident.

Uncle to LCpl Steve H&Q S-2 2nd LAR, at Camp Korean Village.
Semper Fi to you Marine.

I know you were not speaking badly of them. There was a lot of bad intel being put out there and I wanted to make it clear there were no crossfire incidents. The majority of kia were from my plt., but 3/2 also made a costly sacrifice. I saw the post about marksmanship training in bootcamp. What that person has to realize is that a town is one of the worst places to fight. We came up against armor piercing rounds coming through the floor. 125 is no small number, especially in that situation. Of course there were wounded bad guys etc. It,s hard to rack up a body count when they run and hide. May the Lord keep your nephew safe.

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