- UMM QASR (Reuters) - U.S.
and Iraqi forces battled in the southern Iraqi port town of Umm Qasr on
Sunday, with tanks and aircraft attacking targets where at least 120 Iraqi
Republican Guards were reported to be dug in.
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- After two air strikes by British Harrier jets, each dropping
one 500-pound bomb and sending columns of black smoke curling into the
air, some Iraqis could be seen waving white flags and surrendering.
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- A U.S. commander on the spot said there had been no U.S.
casualties in the battle and that two carloads of Iraqis had given up.
It was "hard to tell" if there were Iraqi casualties.
-
- Referring to the airstrikes on a building, Captain Rick
Crevier added: "It made sense for us to do this. Rather than send
men in there, we're just going to destroy it."
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- On Saturday, U.S. officials had said they had won control
of the strategic town, Iraq's only deep-water port.
-
- Referring to Sunday's battle, a British officer said:
"There are small pockets of resistance, but fighting in built-up areas
is a slow and painstaking process."
-
- Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie McCourt, at the Qatar
command headquarters of U.S. and British forces in the Gulf, said: "We
are in no rush, the overall plan stands as it is."
-
- At a Baghdad news conference, Iraq's Information Minister
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said: "The heroic Iraqi fighters in Umm Qasr
will throw the infidel British and American mercenaries to certain death."
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- Reuters correspondent Adrian Croft said the firefight,
which lasted through the morning, erupted after U.S. forces came under
fire. Marines opened up with bursts of heavy machine gun fire in an area
where they had set up a headquarters in the town.
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- 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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- After the bombing runs, Staff Sergeant Nick Lerna, with
the ground troops attacking the Iraqis, said: "Once the building was
hit there was a lot of movement...people started popping out everywhere."
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- He said the Iraqis were a "much larger force than
we expected."
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