thedrifter
03-22-03, 06:46 AM
March 21, 2003
War’s initial day ends with key seizures, first casualties, report of friendly fire incident
By Sean D. Naylor and C. Mark Brinkley
Times staff writers
DOHA, Qatar — In the first full day of ground fighting in Iraq, U.S. and British forces secured key oil facilities, a U.S. Army cavalry unit raced 100 miles north across open desert toward Baghdad, other U.S. troops fought Iraqi tanks, destroying 11.
Also, sometime during the night a Marine Cobra attack helicopter fired a Hellfire anti-tank missile into a U.S. Marine M1A1 Abrams tank. All four crew members survived, although one was injured.
No other details were available.
U.S. forces also suffered their first combat death and had its first serious experience with a friendly fire incident. The military provided no details on the combat death, except to say the victim was a Marine.
U.S. Marines had encountered some resistance as they advanced on and eventually took port facilities at Umm Qasr in southern Iraq.
In the same area, British Royal Marines of the 40 Commando staged a night air and amphibious assault on the Al Faw peninsula at southernmost Iraq. The battalion-sized Royal Marine unit secured the oil-pumping terminal there, encountering only light resistance, said a British military spokesman, Royal Air Force Group Capt. Al Lockwood.
Gaining control of the terminal “stops the threat of pollution,” Lockwood said.
Officials had worried the Iraqis would pump oil into the Persian Gulf from the terminal on Al Faw.
Sempers,
Roger
War’s initial day ends with key seizures, first casualties, report of friendly fire incident
By Sean D. Naylor and C. Mark Brinkley
Times staff writers
DOHA, Qatar — In the first full day of ground fighting in Iraq, U.S. and British forces secured key oil facilities, a U.S. Army cavalry unit raced 100 miles north across open desert toward Baghdad, other U.S. troops fought Iraqi tanks, destroying 11.
Also, sometime during the night a Marine Cobra attack helicopter fired a Hellfire anti-tank missile into a U.S. Marine M1A1 Abrams tank. All four crew members survived, although one was injured.
No other details were available.
U.S. forces also suffered their first combat death and had its first serious experience with a friendly fire incident. The military provided no details on the combat death, except to say the victim was a Marine.
U.S. Marines had encountered some resistance as they advanced on and eventually took port facilities at Umm Qasr in southern Iraq.
In the same area, British Royal Marines of the 40 Commando staged a night air and amphibious assault on the Al Faw peninsula at southernmost Iraq. The battalion-sized Royal Marine unit secured the oil-pumping terminal there, encountering only light resistance, said a British military spokesman, Royal Air Force Group Capt. Al Lockwood.
Gaining control of the terminal “stops the threat of pollution,” Lockwood said.
Officials had worried the Iraqis would pump oil into the Persian Gulf from the terminal on Al Faw.
Sempers,
Roger