A heavy firefight broke out between US Marines and Iraqi forces dug in at
the southern Iraqi town of Umm Qasr today, one day after US officials said
they had won control of the strategic port.
Reuters correspondent Adrian Croft said the Marines opened up with heavy
bursts of machine-gun fire in an area where US forces had set up a
headquarters in the town, which is Iraq's only deep-water port.
A US commander at the scene, quoting a captured Iraqi officer, said dozens
of Republican Guards were holding out for port workers in the sandy
residential area, which is laced with electricity pylons, cranes and low
sandy-coloured buildings.
"There's a serious firefight going on here now," Croft said.
"There are at least two Iraqi positions about 1 kilometre south of the new
port."
The Marines called in two M-1 Abrams tanks which fired at least four times
on a building from which gunfire had been directed at their forces.
One direct hit inflicted heavy damage on the three-storey building in a
compound where the Iraqi flag was still flying.
The tanks also used heavy machineguns to rake several buildings and a line
of trees where Iraqi forces were believed to be dug in.
Captain Rick Crevier, commander of Fox Company of the 2nd Battalion 1st US
Marine Regiment, said a captured Iraqi officer had told them that 120
Republican guards were dug in.
Captain Crevier also said tanks were being directed to another area.
"We've got (Iraqi) dug-in troops in that vicinity," he added.
Live television showed US troops lying on their bellies about 300 metres
from the building under attack. Black smoke billowed from the target area
and one tank could be seen advancing slowly towards the building.
Earlier, Arabic television al Jazeera's correspondent in Umm Qasr said
Iraqis appeared to be staging "a counter attack" in the port city.
The battle came one day after US military officials reporting seizing
control of Umm Qasr, despite pockets of resistance in residential areas of
the town.
The Marines said yesterday that US and British forces had taken between 400
and 450 Iraqi prisoners in fighting around the town, and in the nearby Faw
peninsula, which controls access from the Gulf to Iraq's tiny coast.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington on Friday that US
and British forces had already captured Umm Qasr.
MORON, sorry...MORE ON...
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/23/1048354475245.html
