- HUSAYBAH, Iraq (KRT) -- Six
Marines were killed and scores of insurgent Iraqis slain in a fierce 14-hour
battle Saturday between Marines and mujahedeen fighters who slipped into
this town near the Syrian border.
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- According to Marines, an estimated 300 Iraqis from Fallujah
and Ramadi launched an assault against the Americans in Husaybah around
8 a.m. local time, beginning with a roadside bombing and a flurry of 24
mortars.
-
- When Marines responded to the bombing, they were met
with small-arms and machine-gun fire as they neared a former Baath Party
headquarters.
-
- Marines responding to the call for help were mortared
and strafed as they made their way into the city. Additional Marines then
joined in the fight.
-
- Fighting continued late into the night as Marine Cobra
helicopter gunships strafed enemy positions near a downtown soccer stadium
and Marine helicopters continued to take wounded to their main base 22
miles away at Camp Al-Qaim.
-
- At least nine Marines were injured and about 20 Iraqis
captured, Marines said. The detainees were taken to Camp Al-Qaim late Saturday
night for questioning.
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- All of the Marines were killed in the first hour of the
fighting, four of them when they went to clear out a house where Iraqi
fighters were hiding.
-
- The battalion commander, Col. Matthew Lopez, said he
believed the Marines had crushed the insurgents' attack.
-
- "I don't think they expected us to retaliate as
hard as we did," said Lopez, 40, of Chicago, commander of the 3rd
Battalion, 7th Marines.
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- © 2004, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/world/8456408.htm
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