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thedrifter
04-09-03, 02:47 PM
Apr 9, 3:01 PM EDT

Lack of Resistance Surpises Some Marines

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Poised to leap out of his armored assault vehicle Wednesday, Cpl. Nate Decavelle instead leaned back on his backpack, crossed his ankles over his M-16 and yawned. "Where are the Iraqis at?" he asked.

Guerrilla attacks and ambushes largely have given way to cheering crowds in Baghdad as U.S. forces tighten their control over the capital - surprising many Marines who expected more of a fight.

The 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines had led some of the toughest attacks of the Marines' three-week push into Baghdad. The Battalion's Kilo company left for Wednesday's mission after holding a memorial service for two company members killed when an artillery shell hit their armored assault vehicle on Monday.

The service was held in the dimly lit library of a suspected chemical weapons facility taken by the Marines the day before.

"Eternal father, we pray for all Marines, both night and day," they sang, removing their camouflage helmets from their shaven heads.

Wednesday's operation started tensely, as word came over the radio of trouble encountered by other units. A taxi filled with ammo. A black Mercedes with five armed men inside.

A red car moved toward the Marines' "amtrak" - an armored amphibious assault vehicle - stopped and started again as its turrets turned toward it. "I've got the driver," Maj. Carl Maas said, sights pointed. The red car's driver finally got the hint and reversed.

"He's actually pretty lucky. The trigger's pretty stiff," Maas said, underlining the split-second decisions Marines have been making as to whether each oncoming car holds a suicide bomber or just a bad driver.

The mood lightened as Marines met with no gunshots, no rocket-propelled grenades.

Smiling Iraqi faces appeared on balconies and windows. Women wearing T-shirts and jeans waved - a change from the black chadors of the rural south of Iraq, through which the Marines has passed to get to Baghdad.

Four of five Marines riding in the guts of the amtrak fell into a doze. Among the four riflemen on top, Maas soon was throwing out conversational gambits.

"Anyone know the first words to `American Pie'?" he asked, sights still scanning rooftops.

Marines jumped off to clear buildings and stick M16 muzzles in abandoned sandbag bunkers lining Baghdad's streets.

Maas surveyed the crowd. "Some are happy to see us and some are not," 1st Lt. John Stevens remarked.

"A couple look a little concerned," Maas agreed. Curious women and children stopped to stare squarely in the line of sight of the armored vehicles.

The waving of white flags by Iraqis watching the convoy turned to enthusiastic twirling overhead by some.

Crowds clapped and cheered as Marines jumped out to secure a main Baghdad university. The crowds were running into buildings or jumping into university vehicles to hot-wire them before the Marines left.

"Time to loot," Maas said. Widespread looting took place across the Iraqi capital Wednesday as Saddam's forces lost their grip on the city.

Word that the regime was falling came as Marines rushed to the high part of a central square, the roof of a six-story hotel.

Marines had argued in advance about whether they would kick doors open or shoot locks off.

In the end, the Coral Palace Hotel proprietor slid open glass entrance doors for the Marines to slip through. Marines accepted cigarettes from the box of Gauloises he extended with murmured thanks.

Once on the hotel roof, the battalion members posed for a snapshot, Baghdad's skyline in the background. Below, Marines playfully tossed 120 mm artillery shells from a captured bunker until someone shouted at them to stop.

A rumor spread over the hotel TV on an Arabic station that Saddam had fled Iraq.

"Well, I guess that solves that problem," Sgt. Andy Stiltner, of Ridgeway, Colo., said - although the rumor apparently was false.


Sempers,

Roger

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