thedrifter
03-22-03, 07:18 AM
Sat, Mar 22, 2003
NEAR NASSIRIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces said on Saturday they had captured the southern Iraqi town of Nassiriya, where their initial advance deep into Iraq (news - web sites) was halted a day before.
"Nassiriya has fallen," said a U.S. military spokesman at U.S. Central Comand headquarters in Qatar. He declined to give further details.
A U.S. officer near Nassiriya said the forces had secured a bridge over the Euphrates river west of the city.
"We've established checkpoints at both ends," he said.
The bridge is a key crossing point for invading forces as they push toward Baghdad, about 200 miles away to the northwest through the fertile plain between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers -- an area known as Mesopotamia.
Reuters correspondent Andrew Gray, traveling with the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division and about a mile from the bridge, said he could hear explosions in the area, apparently from artillery or grenades.
Sempers,
Roger
NEAR NASSIRIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces said on Saturday they had captured the southern Iraqi town of Nassiriya, where their initial advance deep into Iraq (news - web sites) was halted a day before.
"Nassiriya has fallen," said a U.S. military spokesman at U.S. Central Comand headquarters in Qatar. He declined to give further details.
A U.S. officer near Nassiriya said the forces had secured a bridge over the Euphrates river west of the city.
"We've established checkpoints at both ends," he said.
The bridge is a key crossing point for invading forces as they push toward Baghdad, about 200 miles away to the northwest through the fertile plain between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers -- an area known as Mesopotamia.
Reuters correspondent Andrew Gray, traveling with the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division and about a mile from the bridge, said he could hear explosions in the area, apparently from artillery or grenades.
Sempers,
Roger