Ambush reignites fighting in Fallujah (1 Marine killed, 7 wounded)
Tempest
Marine Killed, seven wounded, in separate incidents
By Pamela Constable
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4733925/
Fierce fighting erupted here Tuesday between U.S. Marines and
anti-American guerrillas. A group of Marines was ambushed at dawn in a
marsh where they were guarding a downed helicopter, and U.S. fighter
jets and gunships attacked another area at dusk after a Marine patrol
came under attack.
The renewed combat came after three days of relative calm, during
which U.S. forces stopped attacking so civilians could leave the
embattled city, emergency aid convoys could enter and political
leaders could try to negotiate an end to the fighting, which began
when the Marines surrounded Fallujah eight days ago. More than 3,000
U.S. troops are now deployed in and around this city of 300,000, about
35 miles west of Baghdad.
Officials said one Marine was killed and seven others wounded Tuesday
in combat around Fallujah.
'Right into an ambush'
The day's fighting began in a swampy village area about 14 miles
southeast of the city, where an Army H-53 helicopter had crash landed
at about midnight. A squad of 45 Marines in nine armed Humvees was
quickly sent out to guard the site, officials and squad members said.
Just after sunrise, the troops were snacking in their vehicles when
mortar fire erupted from the high reeds around them. They gunned their
engines while firing back and tried to flee, but their path was
blocked by a canal and they had to return and run a gantlet of rifle
and grenade fire.
"We walked right into an ambush," one sergeant said Tuesday afternoon,
using his finger to diagram the incident in the dust of a hangar where
his exhausted troops sprawled. "The firing kept getting worse, but the
elephant grass was so tall we couldn't see where it was coming from.
We had to do a U-turn and go back through the same ambush, with guns
blazing from behind the bushes."
With many vehicles heavily damaged, the convoy limped several miles to
the highway checkpoint that serves as the Marines' emergency medical
station, where several men were treated for shrapnel wounds and other
injuries.
At mid-morning, when the squad returned to the Marine base camp in an
abandoned factory in Fallujah, word of the ambush spread quickly.
Grim-faced men hugged each other and swore. A Navy chaplain called in
squad members in groups of 10, and they huddled around him on
cardboard boxes in a dark corner of the factory.
"I talked to them about reaction to stress, how it's a poison that
gets into our soul and we have to find ways to let it out," said the
chaplain, Wayne Hall. "I told them the most important thing right now
is for them to keep watching out for each other, both out there in
battle and asleep here at night."
Frustration and confusion
Many Marines here expressed frustration that the ambush had occurred
while they were under orders not to attack and said they were eager to
return to full combat. They also said they were worried that the
three-day lull had given the insurgents time to regroup and resupply.
"Nobody likes to sit still," said one sergeant who was pacing in the
Marine compound. "There was a feeling that we had them on the run
three days ago, and now we're just sitting here while the diplomats
talk and the bad guys lay ambushes for us."
Another Marine, his face flushed with anger, approached an interpreter
on the base and said, "I just want to know why my friends are being
hurt. Don't the Iraqis know we are here to help them build something
new and better now that Saddam is gone?"
Yet troops from the ambushed squad said they had found some Fallujah
residents to be friendly and cooperative. A private said he had been
camped for days on one city block and been treated kindly by the
neighbors.
He said some families had run out of food and water and were grateful
when the troops shared theirs.
Ready to resume offensive
Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine
Regiment here, said his forces were ready to resume the offensive but
would not do so unless the negotiations failed and they were ordered
back to full combat.
"Marines are warlike men, but we understand that the military is an
instrument of the political process," he said. "We are standing fast,
and we are prepared to do whatever we are instructed. We are being
shot at, but the insurgents are playing to our strength. Every time
they unmask and pop up, we are able to destroy them."
After a relatively quiet afternoon, the Marines rushed back into
action at dusk after troops patrolling the city in armored assault
vehicles reportedly were attacked by rocket and mortar fire. In
retaliation, AC-130 gunships and F-14 jets were called in, and
machine-gun fire and loud booms were heard as they flew over the city.
In addition to Tuesday's assaults on U.S. military targets, Marine
officials said, insurgents attacked several convoys carrying both
relief supplies and negotiators into the city, firing at the vehicles
and laying explosive devices along their route.
"It is clear . . . that the terrorists rooted in Fallujah are willing
to harm the people of Iraq to carry out their agenda," the Marines
said in a statement.