Iraqis Welcome U.S. Marines in Shatra
By Sean Maguire
SHATRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iraqis shouting "Welcome to Iraq" greeted Marines who entered the town of Shatra Monday after storming it with planes, tanks and helicopter gunships.
A foot patrol picked its way through the small southern town, 20 miles north of the city of Nassiriya, after being beckoned in by a crowd of people.
"There's no problem here. We are happy to see Americans," one young man shouted.
The welcome was a tonic for soldiers who have not always received the warm reception they expected after U.S. and British leaders told them the Iraqi people were waiting to be freed from repression under President Saddam Hussein .
"It's not every day you get to liberate people," said one delighted Marine...The ambushes have slowed the advance on Baghdad. This Marine unit retraced its steps back south down Highway 7 to Shatra after bypassing the Iraqi forces there in their rapid advance last week.
IRAQI GENERAL, FEDAYEEN FLEE
Planes dropped precision-guided bombs on four targets during the morning raid.
Tanks and armored personnel carriers then moved to the edge of the town and helicopter gunships raked the rubble-strewn target sites with heavy machinegun fire.
The targets were the local Baath party headquarters and "associated planning sites," Marine officers said.
Having entered the town, the Marines searched without success for the body of a comrade who was killed last week and whose corpse was believed to be in a hospital in the town.
They trampled over the ruins of a local headquarters of Saddam's Baath party.
Another Baath party building across the street had been set ablaze by looters who carried away sofas from inside.
Intelligence reports had suggested that Ali Hassan al-Majeed, or "Chemical Ali," the cousin whom Saddam has put in charge of the southern front, was in the town.
But Majeed, who earned his nickname for overseeing the use of poison gas against Kurdish villagers in 1988, was nowhere to be seen.
The Marines had also received intelligence reports that an Iraqi general was holed up inside the town but arrived just too late to capture him, military officials said.
"He got away just before we got here," said company commander Capt. Mike Martin. "We believe there are about 200 to 300 Baath party loyalists and Saddam Fedayeen irregulars in the town," he added.
The Fedayeen paramilitary forces had also fled.
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By Sean Maguire
SHATRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iraqis shouting "Welcome to Iraq" greeted Marines who entered the town of Shatra Monday after storming it with planes, tanks and helicopter gunships.
A foot patrol picked its way through the small southern town, 20 miles north of the city of Nassiriya, after being beckoned in by a crowd of people.
"There's no problem here. We are happy to see Americans," one young man shouted.
The welcome was a tonic for soldiers who have not always received the warm reception they expected after U.S. and British leaders told them the Iraqi people were waiting to be freed from repression under President Saddam Hussein .
"It's not every day you get to liberate people," said one delighted Marine...The ambushes have slowed the advance on Baghdad. This Marine unit retraced its steps back south down Highway 7 to Shatra after bypassing the Iraqi forces there in their rapid advance last week.
IRAQI GENERAL, FEDAYEEN FLEE
Planes dropped precision-guided bombs on four targets during the morning raid.
Tanks and armored personnel carriers then moved to the edge of the town and helicopter gunships raked the rubble-strewn target sites with heavy machinegun fire.
The targets were the local Baath party headquarters and "associated planning sites," Marine officers said.
Having entered the town, the Marines searched without success for the body of a comrade who was killed last week and whose corpse was believed to be in a hospital in the town.
They trampled over the ruins of a local headquarters of Saddam's Baath party.
Another Baath party building across the street had been set ablaze by looters who carried away sofas from inside.
Intelligence reports had suggested that Ali Hassan al-Majeed, or "Chemical Ali," the cousin whom Saddam has put in charge of the southern front, was in the town.
But Majeed, who earned his nickname for overseeing the use of poison gas against Kurdish villagers in 1988, was nowhere to be seen.
The Marines had also received intelligence reports that an Iraqi general was holed up inside the town but arrived just too late to capture him, military officials said.
"He got away just before we got here," said company commander Capt. Mike Martin. "We believe there are about 200 to 300 Baath party loyalists and Saddam Fedayeen irregulars in the town," he added.
The Fedayeen paramilitary forces had also fled.
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