| Subject: Marines Pursue Iraqi Army, Shoot Shadows |
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Date Posted: 10:42:55 04/06/03 Sun
Marines Pursue Iraqi Army, Shoot Shadows
06.04.2003 [09:36]
ROSS SIMPSON/Associated Press
They knew the remnants of an Iraqi army division were out there. But in a three-day pursuit that brought them within four miles of Baghdad, all the Marines found were wrecked trucks, abandoned uniforms and frightened civilians.
The men of the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division moved so quickly — the lights of Baghdad could be seen from where they stopped Saturday — that none of them slept for three days.
They were very short on water; on Saturday, the temperature hit 104 degrees.
Their mission is to hunt down the Al Nida division of the Republican Guard and keep it from getting into Baghdad to reinforce Iraqi troops waiting there for the U.S.-led coalition.
The Marines have come under sporadic mortar fire, but rarely see Iraqi troops.
As darkness fell Friday, the unit gathered into a defensive formation. Connected by radio, sentries manning guns atop their Humvees check in with each other periodically in hushed voices: "Gun 1, this is gun 2. What do you see?"
One gunner in a Humvee thinks he's seen about 20 Iraqis jump into a trench, and opens fire. Several other gunners start pounding the same area. After several minutes, shouts of "Cease fire, cease fire!" come across the radio. They've been shooting at shadows.
On the road Saturday, the Marines come across an Iraqi armored personnel carrier that had been hit by a Hellfire missile from a U.S. attack helicopter. The hull was ripped open like a tuna can and inside were the melted barrels of several AK-47 assault rifles. But there were no bodies.
The quick move has left food supplies low and the Marines were forced to tap their emergency supplies Saturday. One Marine, Lance Cpl. Michael Gary, took two bottles of water from a truck in the convoy. A sniper, Gary had been out all day hunting the Iraqis that had been hitting the unit with mortar fire.
"Hey, I'm desperate, I'd steal from my mother," Gary said.
Shortly afterward, Gary was approached by an Iraqi man and his young daughter who looked far worse off. He made eye contact with the girl, and handed over one bottle.
Late Saturday, an elderly Iraqi approached the Marines, pointed at a lieutenant and said, "Good, good."
Asked if he was afraid of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein he gestured toward Baghdad and said: "Saddam — he's still there."
ROSS SIMPSON/Associated Press
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