- UMM QASR (Reuters) - A heavy
firefight broke out between U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces dug in at the
southern Iraqi town of Umm Qasr on Sunday, one day after U.S. officials
said they had won control of the strategic port.
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- Reuters correspondent Adrian Croft said the Marines opened
up with heavy bursts of machine-gun fire in an area where U.S. forces had
set up a headquarters in the town, which is Iraq's only deep-water port.
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- A U.S. commander at the scene, quoting a captured Iraqi
officer, said dozens of Republican Guard were holding out in the sandy
residential area for port workers that is laced with electricity pylons,
cranes, and low sandy-colored buildings.
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- "There's a serious firefight going on here now,"
Croft said. "There are at least two Iraqi positions about one km south
of the new port."
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- The Marines called in two M-1 Abrams tanks which fired
at least four times on a building from which gunfire had been directed
at their forces.
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- One direct hit inflicted heavy damage on the three-story
building in a compound where the Iraqi flag was still flying.
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- The tanks also used heavy machineguns to rake several
buildings and a line of trees where Iraqi forces were believed to be dug
in.
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- Captain Rick Crevier, commander of Fox Company of the
2nd Battalion 1st U.S. Marine Regiment, said a captured Iraqi officer had
told them that 120 Republican guards were dug in.
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- Crevier also said tanks were being directed to another
area. "We've got (Iraqi) dug-in troops in that vicinity," he
added.
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- Live television showed U.S. troops lying on their bellies
about 300 yards from the building under attack. Black smoke billowed from
the target area and one tank could be seen advancing slowly toward the
building.
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- Earlier, Arabic television al Jazeera's correspondent
in Umm Qasr said Iraqis appeared to be staging "a counter attack"
in the port city.
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- The battle came one day after U.S. military officials
reporting seizing control of Umm Qasr, despite pockets of resistance in
residential areas of the town.
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- The Marines said on Saturday that U.S. and British forces
had taken between 400 and 450 Iraqi prisoners in fighting around the town,
and in the nearby Faw peninsula, which controls access from the Gulf to
Iraq's tiny coast.
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- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington
on Friday that U.S. and British forces had already captured Umm Qasr. Iraqi
Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf on Saturday dismissed Rumsfeld's
statement as "illusions and lies."
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- Croft said the port had been quiet during the night after
some bursts of artillery fire in the afternoon. Marines put on gas masks
during a brief alert on Saturday afternoon.
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- U.S.-led forces say they need the port to send humanitarian
aid to show ordinary Iraqis that Washington and London are serious about
helping rebuild Iraq after their planned overthrow of President Saddam
Hussein.
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- Military experts say the port might also help to resupply
U.S.-led forces if the war drags on.
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