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Saddam guerillas thwart river crossing { March 23 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14312-2003Mar23.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14312-2003Mar23.html Saddam's Guerrillas Thwart U.S. River Crossing Reuters Sunday, March 23, 2003; 11:02 AM By Sean Maguire NEAR NASSIRIYA (Reuters) - U.S. Marines battled Iraqi guerrillas for control of the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya on Sunday, taking "significant" casualties in a fight to open a route north to Baghdad, U.S. officers said. Reuters Correspondent Sean Maguire, traveling with the Marines First Regiment south of the city, said he could see explosions and huge plumes of smoke over Nassiriya, on the Euphrates river about 225 miles southeast of Baghdad. "It looks like artillery, or possibly air strikes," Maguire said. "There's lots of smoke rising." After nightfall, fires were still burning near the bridges. U.S. field officers said the Marine battalion spearheading the fight had suffered significant casualties in a battle with irregular guerrilla fighters known as Saddam's Fedayeen. They gave no details but a CNN television correspondent at Nassiriya quoted eyewitnesses in the battle as saying they had seen at least 10 American bodies around an amphibious assault vehicle that had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Al-Jazeera television aired Iraqi footage of at least four corpses that appeared to be those of U.S. servicemen and of five U.S. prisoners it said were taken in fighting near Nassiriya. The firefight with the Fedayeen at Nassiariya blocked an advance by U.S. forces, who had earlier reported securing two key bridgeheads to enable them to cross the Euphrates and strike northwards toward the Iraqi capital. Maguire said U.S. officers believed the bridgeheads were now secure but that the area in between was not. U.S. troops captured the northern ends of the two bridges in the east of Nassiriya early on Sunday, opening the way for large forces to cross and head north toward the Tigris river and Baghdad. But units of Saddam's Fedayeen, an irregular militia force of loyalists to President Saddam Hussein, counterattacked. "They've been fighting all day. They're using guerrilla tactics," one officer said on Sunday evening. SURRENDER REPORT Maguire said there was heavy U.S. helicopter traffic over the area, and that hundreds of U.S. military trucks and armored personnel carriers had stopped their advance. U.S. officers also said that the 11th Division of the Iraqi army had "capitulated." That report could not be confirmed, and no details on the alleged surrender were available. Iraqi officials on Saturday denied U.S. statements that the commander of the 51st Division had surrendered and a U.S. commander said his forces had fought and defeated elements of the 51st around the southern city of Basra. Iraqi Information Minister Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told a news conference in Baghdad that foreign invaders headed to Nassiriya had been "taught a lesson they will never forget." "We have placed them in a quagmire from which they can never emerge except dead," he said. Speeding columns of the U.S. Third Infantry have covered nearly two-thirds of the 300 miles from the Kuwaiti border in two days before running into Iraqi resistance near Najaf on the southwest bank of the Euphrates. A strike north across the river toward the Tigris river and Baghdad could create a pincer movement on the capital. U.S. officers believe units of President Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guards face them near Najaf -- the Medina Division -- and at other cities south of Baghdad, like Kut on the Tigris, where the Baghdad Division is thought to be based. © 2003 Reuters

300 iraqi troops killed najaf { March 25 2003 } 4000 pows held Americans dig wait { March 30 2003 } Basra defenders burrow { March 24 2003 } British left behind Fed marines singing hotel california { March 31 2003 } Fierce fight edge forward { March 31 2003 } Heat wave challenge { April 1 2003 } Iraq mobile launchers { March 23 2003 } Iraqi resistance pause troops { March 29 2003 } Marine hanged public { April 1 2003 } Marines are hungry Resistance in Nassiriya Saddam guerillas thwart river crossing { March 23 2003 } Sandstorm bahdad 3 26 03 [jpg] Soldiers need smokes Taking pows 3 26 03 [jpg] Third infantry fiercest fighting { March 26 2003 } Troops meet setbacks { March 24 2003 } Troops seize oil fields Files Listed: 20

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