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2 Marines Killed in Assault on Small Iraqi Town
By KIRK SEMPLE
11/14/05 "New
York Times" -- -- CAMP AL QAIM, Iraq, Nov. 14 - Two
American Marines were killed today and at least seven were wounded
as about 2,000 American and Iraqi troops stormed Ubaydi, a small
town on the Euphrates River in western Iraq, and encountered stiff
armed resistance and a labyrinth of mines and booby-trap bombs,
Marine commanders here said.
An Iraqi army soldier was also wounded in the operation.
But American troops, backed by armored vehicles and fighter jets,
were overpowering the fighters, killing at least 46 in the first six
hours and detaining more than 100 suspected insurgents, according to
Col. Stephen W. Davis of the Marine Corps, who was commanding the
operation from this military base south of Ubaydi.
The assault, the latest in the American command's campaign to ferret
out insurgents operating in western Anbar Province, began at dawn
and was continuing through the afternoon. It involved about 1,500
American troops from the Marine Corps and the Army, and about 500
Iraqi Army soldiers, Colonel Davis said.
Military officials offered no details on the American casualties
except to say the majority were caused by hidden bombs that
detonated as troops were searching streets and buildings while
simultaneously responding to small-arms fire and rocket-propelled
grenade attacks.
The assault on Ubaydi, located about 10 miles east of the Syrian
border, follows a similar operation last week to clear the towns of
Husayba and neighboring Karabila. All three towns had become
strongholds of the insurgency, military officials said, as well as
key command centers for the smuggling pipeline that secreted foreign
fighters and munitions from Syria to central Iraq.
The weeklong Husayba-Karabila operation ended on Saturday. In
contrast to most other American military sweeps in Anbar Province,
the marines in Husayba and Karabila remained in both towns following
the operation and immediately set about building permanent garrisons
there. Each garrison will be manned by at least two battalions, at
least one of which will be Iraqi Army, officials said. Joint
American-Iraqi squads have already begun to patrol the streets.
Residents, most of whom abandoned the towns in advance of the
assault, began to return to their homes over the weekend.
"Allowing the people not to be controlled by insurgents and allowing
them to live freely and not in the grip of fear is what will win the
insurgency," said Capt. Conlon Carabine, commander of India Company
of Third Battalion, Sixth Marine Division, after his marines
finished clearing the last house in their sector of Karabila this
weekend.
He said that the Iraqi security forces will give "legitimacy" to the
strategy.
"The Americans can't occupy this country," he said. "The Iraqi
government is going to have to beat this insurgency."
Marines saw some fierce street-to-street fighting on the first day
of the Husayba assault on Nov. 5, but resistance quickly tapered off
throughout the week. Marine commanders braced for a resurgence in
opposition, but there was little.
Captain Carabine said marines captured many insurgents during the
operation while pre-assault raids and strikes killed members of the
"high-level leadership." He also allowed that some rebels probably
melted into the civilian population or managed to slip through the
loose cordon of troops that surrounded the two towns during the past
week.
Military intelligence officers did not offer an assessment of
whether the resistance in Ubaydi on Monday was composed, in part, of
fighters who had fled Husayba and Karabila.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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