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US marine killed in Iraq combat
( 2003-03-21 20:35 ) (7 )

Soldier from the 3rd Infantry Division fixes the Stars and Stripes to his vehicle. [AFP]

A US Marine has been killed in Iraq, becoming the first reported combat death of the war, defense officials said Friday.

The slain soldier, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, was moving in the ground assault in southern Iraq, said Lt. Col. Neal Peckham, a British military spokesman in Kuwait.

Peckham said he had no further details. MSNBC cable network reported that the soldier was felled by Iraqi gunfire during the advance on the Rumeila oil field.

The incident came hours after eight British and four US soldiers died in a US Marine helicopter crash. A British military spokesman said the crash was an accident.

American and British troops encountered both hostile fire and white flags in their race across the desert, with some 200 Iraqi soldiers surrendering to the US 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit just over an hour after it crossed the border from northern Kuwait.

Holding back on a massive air assault, the allied force has been using pinpoint airstrikes and a lightning-fast ground assault as efforts intensify to get Iraqi soldiers, even the Republican Guard units considered loyal to Saddam Hussein, to give up.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said direct talks were taking place with Iraqi forces and it was possible the "full force and fury of a war" could be averted.

"There are communications in every conceivable mode and method, public and private," he said after meeting lawmakers Thursday night.

A Democratic lawmaker expressed similar optimism. "The behavior of those who've not surrendered would suggest that they might," Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., said after being briefed by military officials.

American officials said they had strong indications no one was in charge of Iraq's government and armed forces.

Military officials said no hostile fire was reported in the area of the CH-46 Sea Knight crash, which was in Kuwait about 9 miles south of the Iraqi border town of Umm Qasr.

The crash happened as US Army and Marine units, joined by their British comrades in arms, surged across the Kuwaiti border into southern Iraq on Thursday and Friday, working at first to secure the region's oil wells, several of which had been set afire.

Opening the ground action, Marine expedition and Army special forces were sent into Iraq to put forces in a better position to protect the oil-rich Basra region after Iraqis set a small number of oil wells on fire, military officials said. Later, the bulk of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and the Marine Corps' 1st Expeditionary Force rumbled across the border into Iraq.

Many of the troops passed burning oil wells that sent plumes of acrid, black smoke into the dusty desert sky.

Small numbers of US and British special forces were operating surreptitiously in other parts of the country and US war planes stepped up attacks on Iraqi air defenses in the north and south in hopes of making it easier and safer for coalition aircraft when the massive aerial assault begins, officials said.

Two of the officials said Thursday's strikes involved a smaller number of Tomahawks than Wednesday's opening volley, which numbered approximately 40.

Officials said the surprise attack targeting Saddam benefited from electronic spying and other intelligence, special military operations and changes in technology that permitted military chiefs to more quickly reconfigure the cruise missiles for a special, pinpointed attack.

Coordination has never been greater among the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper.

Rumsfeld warned Iraqis to stay in their homes and listen to coalition radio broadcasts.

"The day of your liberation may soon be at hand," Rumsfeld said. "The days of the Saddam Hussein regime are numbered. We continue to feel there is no need for a broader conflict if the Iraqi leaders act to save themselves and to prevent such further conflict."

(AP)