Marines engaged in week-long heavy fighting in Ramadi

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By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer

Marines stationed in Ramadi, Iraq, have been engaging insurgent forces for nearly a week, blasting enemy positions in the volatile southeastern section of the city with bombs and artillery.

Ramadi had been relatively quiet early this year, after an informal cease-fire declared by insurgent groups for national parliamentary elections in mid-December.

But since February, violence in Ramadi has surged, with bold insurgent attacks on the city’s government center — the headquarters of the al Anbar provincial governor — and other Marine outposts in the city.

In one battle on Tuesday, Marines fired on insurgents moving a weapon into a vehicle at an abandoned train station in the southeastern part of the city — previously an insurgent hotspot and no-go area for Marine patrols.

“Coalition forces engaged the insurgents with artillery, killing several insurgents and destroying the weapon,” stated a Marine press release issued Thursday from Multi-National Force-West headquarters in Fallujah.

Later that day, troops saw more insurgents taking up positions on a rooftop in the same area despite the earlier strike. So U.S. troops dropped an “air delivered munition” on the building, the release said.

Reports on Tuesday from the Iraqi ministry of the interior said a key lieutenant of al Qaida in Iraq mastermind Abu Musab al Zarqawi was arrested by Iraqi police in Ramadi on Monday.

Marines and Army troops also raided a mosque in Ramadi on Tuesday, recovering 7.62mm ammunition and “a communications device,” the Marine release said.

[Panzerman]

Man. They never let us use anything bigger than a 40mm grenade unless we had permission from the CG or something. Those dudes from 3/8 must be having a blast.

[SGRock]

Strange how this has not made headlines in the mainstream media. Probably not many civilians killed by Americans; maybe not very many troops killed or wounded to make a difference to those "journalists". Kick some ass fellas!

[Panzerman]

Ramadi's too hot for most journalists. I think I only saw two while I was there, one of them being Oliver North.

[USMC Chuter]

Panzer's exactly right. I saw Ollie North once, and some chick journalist doing a story about living conditions on the base.. Not once did I see journalist in Ramadi. Nice to see they've unleashed the arty there finally. What a shithole.