Eleven Lejeune Marines K.I.A.

[wrbones]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,82132,00.html <br />
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Eleven Lejeune Marines Reported Killed in Iraq

[Osotogary]

God Bless their Immortal Souls.
Gary

[wrbones]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/888496.asp?0cv=CB10








SOLDIERS HAVE NOT been the only victims — two Western journalists are among the dead, along with Iraqi civilians and at least five Syrian workers whose bus was hit by an errant U.S. missile in western Iraq.
Cpl. Evan James of La Harpe, Ill., disappeared underwater while attempting to cross the Saddam Canal in southeastern Iraq on Monday, said Gunnery Sgt. James Howard of the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center in Peoria, Ill.
His body was recovered Tuesday. James’ death put the total number of confirmed U.S. fatalities at 19.
Another Marine involved in the same mission — Sgt. Brad Korthaus, 29, of Davenport, Iowa — was still missing late Tuesday, Howard said. Korthaus was a member of the same Peoria-based reserve unit, Howard said.

‘HE IS A SURVIVOR’
Two other Marines made it across the canal in the same mission. Howard said the Marines were on a mission to secure a water
point as part of the war in Iraq. Korthaus is engaged and was planning a wedding upon his return.
His father said his family is hopeful that he is alive. “He is a survivor,” Steve Korthaus said.
Earlier on Tuesday, a Navy corpsman was killed near Nasiriyah. The official total of dead and missing British troops, including non-combat deaths, rose to 20 after two British soldiers were killed in action near Zubayr in the south of Iraq.
The two British soldiers killed in the friendly-fire incident died after an encounter with a British tank near Basra in southern Iraq, a military commander said Tuesday.
The men died Monday evening when their Challenger II tank was mistakenly targeted by another Challenger crew, Col. Chris Verdon said in a Ministry of Defense statement. Two other soldiers were seriously injured and have undergone surgery, Vernon said.

‘IT IS WITH REGRET ... ’
‘Regardless of the careful planning and measures taken in the type of operations in which we were engaged and in the heat of battle, there is always a risk that incidents such as this might happen.’
— COL. CHRIS VERNON
British Ministry of Defense The Ministry of Defense identified the men killed as Corp. Stephen John Allbutt of Stoke-on-Trent, and Trooper David Jeffrey Clarke of Littleworth.
“It is with regret that I have to announce the death of two soldiers of the Queen’s Royal Lancers, part of the 1st Royal Regiment of Fusiliers battle group,” Vernon said in the statement.
“Regardless of the careful planning and measures taken in the type of operations in which we were engaged and in the heat of battle, there is always a risk that incidents such as this might happen,” Vernon said.
Elsewhere in the south of Iraq, coalition forces have faced a pattern of deadly ambushes and ruse attacks by Iraqi militiamen in civilian clothes.
U.S. officials have said nine Marines were killed near Nasiriyah on Sunday when one Iraqi unit indicated it was giving up, then opened fire when the Marines approached. U.S. military sources said about 40 were wounded. The Marines were stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., a base spokeswoman confirmed.
Also on Sunday, at least 10 members of the 507th Maintenance Company went missing in Iraq. Five of them were seen later in Iraqi video being interrogated. Mechanical failures and accidents have resulted in the death of 21 coalition troops.




‘HE JOINED ... TO PAY BACK A LITTLE’
One of the first two U.S. casualties in Iraq included Jose Gutierrez, an immigrant from Guatemala who lived in California. The 22-year-old Marine lance corporal was killed in ground combat on Friday.





An orphan who grew up on the streets while Guatemala was enmeshed in civil war, he found a new family when at age 14 he traveled to the United States by train, foot and bus. He enlisted partly to thank the United States for his new life, said his foster brother, Max Mosquera.
“He joined the Marines to pay back a little of what he’d gotten from the U.S.,” Mosquera said. “For him it was a question of honor.”
The U.S. suffered its first combat casualty on Thursday when a Marine from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was shot in the stomach as his company advanced on a burning oil pump station in the Rumeila oil field outside Basra.

COALITION POWS
Iraq has also taken a number of U.S. soldiers prisoner. Two pilots of an Apache helicopter were held by Iraq after their helicopter went down near Karbala as it targeted Iraq’s elite Republican Guard.
The men, identified as Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr., 26, of Lithia Springs, Ga., and Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams, 30, of Orlando, Fla., appeared on Iraqi TV on Monday.
“I just wanted to know that he was alive,” said Young’s father, Ronnie Young, on NBC’s “Today” on Tuesday. “It’s not the best situation in the whole world but it is somewhat better than the alternative.”
At least seven American soldiers have been taken prisoner by Iraq since the weekend.

IRAQI DEATHS
About 500 Iraqi fighters have been killed in the last two days by the 3rd Infantry Division’s tanks and mechanized units as they swept through southern Iraq, estimated Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Preston of V Corps, who oversees the 3rd Infantry Division.




Preston said U.S. forces ran into “a lot” of Iraqi tanks and anti-aircraft weaponry and “thousands and thousands” of weapons around the city of Najaf.
’This could have been very ugly, but they’re not very motivated,” Preston said of the regular Iraqi army recruits. “I think a lot of them wanted to go home.”
Later Tuesday, a Reuters reporter traveling with the 1st Marines Division said around 30 Iraqis who may have been on their way to reinforce the southern Iraq city of Nasiriyah were killed in what appeared to be a bombing raid by U.S.-led forces.
Two western journalists were killed on Saturday in Iraq. Australian cameraman Paul Moran died in northern Iraq when a car bomb went off. The blast was blamed by Kurdish officials on militant Islamic group Ansar al-Islam, which Washington has linked to the al Qaida terrorist network.

Daily update: The Iraqi battle zone

The same day Terry Lloyd, a senior journalist from the British Independent Television News, was killed after coming under fire on way to Basra. Two more ITN journalists went missing on Sunday after their car came under fire near Basra the day before.

[wrbones]

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Location: &quot; And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free...Whom the Son...