Marine News Breaks [Archive] - Marine Corps

thedrifter

09-13-05, 01:19 PM

September 19, 2005

Around the Corps

Compiled from military and other public sources.

Iraq

Corps: al-Qaida hasn’t taken over town

Published reports that al-Qaida forces have taken over the Iraqi city of Qaim are false, a Marine official in Iraq said on Sept. 9.

Witnesses and residents in Qaim, as well as people living in the surrounding villages, said Abu Musab Zarqawi’s al-Qaida forces brazenly took control of the city, according to a Sept. 5 Washington Post report.

The report cites witnesses as saying al-Qaida forces have taken to the streets there, prominently displaying Zarqawi’s black banner from the rooftops and posting a new sign at the city’s entrance that reads, “Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Qaim.”

Other statements posted in the city’s mosques describe the “Islamic Republic of Qaim” as having been “liberated from the occupation,” according to the report.

Numerous Internet news sources reported that the city has been placed under a system of strict Islamic justice known as Shariat’s Law. They say sources within the city tell of the burning of a movie theater, CD store and beauty parlor, as well as a woman’s bullet-riddled body left in the street, bearing a sign that read: “A prostitute who was punished.”

The city of Qaim — which sits only two miles from the Syrian border, at which U.S. forces have long been fighting to stem the influx of foreign fighters to Iraq — was the target of airstrikes aimed at disrupting the insurgency there during the final five days of August, according to a 2nd Marine Division release.

The division’s spokesman, Capt. Jeff Pool, told the Post he had no knowledge of increased enemy activity in Qaim, and the Post quoted a military spokesman in Baghdad who promised to “look into the reports.”

But Maj. Neil Murphy, a spokesman for II Marine Expeditionary Force, told Marine Corps Times that reports detailing an all-out al-Qaida takeover in Qaim were a “crock of crap.”

“Sure, anyone can hang up a poster. That does not mean anything,” Murphy wrote in an e-mail response to questions. “We have a battalion there. [The insurgents] are continually moving to try and find safety, but we are rooting them out and we’ll root them out of Qaim, too.”

Japan

31st MEU BLT quells ‘riot’ during exercise

More than 200 leathernecks serving with 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit’s ground combat element, participated in a noncombatant evacuation operation drill at a facility called Combat Town on Okinawa, Japan, according to a Sept. 2 Corps release.

During the scenario, Marines evacuated role players portraying panicked citizens at a mock American embassy on a small island overrun by Marines posing as insurgents.

As the Marines processed eligible citizens for evacuation, those who were found ineligible began protesting.

“Rioters” ripped signs from the ground and threw rotten fruit. Marines in full riot gear marched into the area armed with shotguns, batons and pepper spray.

The exercise mirrors one of the capabilities that each of the Corps’ seven MEUs must attain before earning its designation as “special operations capable.”

Florida

Recon Marines finish scuba course

Reconnaissance Marines and sailors from throughout the Corps recently concluded a 35-day training evolution at the Marine Combatant Diver Course in Panama City, Fla., according to a Sept. 6 Corps release.

The training required the elite Marines to complete 15 surface swims over more than 60,000 meters of water and master the use of the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, or scuba.

The course culminated in an exhausting 6.2-mile underwater swim that required the recon Marines to plot an azimuth and navigate the route with a compass designed specifically for underwater use.

The school enrolls Marines in the reconnaissance community, but also accepts Air Force combat controllers and air rescue personnel into the classes.