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MSNBC:Casualties grow as troops head north

Iraqi civilians, journalists among the reported dead

http://www.msnbc.com/news/888496_asp.htm?0cv=CB10

NBC NEWS AND NEWS SERVICES

March 25 — As coalition forces make their way through Iraq, the number of combat casualties is growing. Soldiers are not the only victims — two Western journalists are among the dead, along with Iraqi civilians and at least five Syrian workers whose bus was hit by an errant U.S. missile in western Iraq.

IN THE SOUTH of Iraq, coalition forces have faced a pattern of deadly ambushes and ruse attacks by Iraqi militiamen in civilian clothes.

U.S. officials have said nine Marines were killed near Nasiriyah on Sunday when one Iraqi unit indicated it was giving up, then opened fire when the Marines approached. U.S. military sources said about 40 were wounded. The Marines were stationed at Camp Lejeune, a base spokeswoman confirmed.

Also on Sunday, at least 10 members of the 507th Maintenance Company went missing in Iraq. Five of them were seen later in Iraqi video being interrogated.

On Tuesday, a Navy corpsman was killed near Nasiriyah, putting the total number of confirmed U.S. casualties at 18. The official total of dead and missing British troops, including non-combat deaths, rose to 20 after two soldiers were killed in action near Zubayr in the south of Iraq.

Mechanical failures and accidents have resulted in the death of 21 coalition troops.

IMMIGRANT AMONG THE DEAD
One of the first two U.S. casualties in Iraq included Jose Gutierrez, an immigrant from Guatemala who lived in California. The 22-year-old lance corporal was killed in ground combat Friday.

An orphan who grew up on the streets while Guatemala was enmeshed in civil war, he found a new family when at age 14 he traveled to the United States by train, foot and bus. He enlisted partly to thank the United States for his new life, his foster brother said.

“He joined the Marines to pay back a little of what he’d gotten from the U.S.,” Max Mosquera said. “For him it was a question of honor.”

The U.S. suffered its first combat casualty on Thursday when a Marine from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was shot in the stomach as his company advanced on a burning oil pump station in the Rumeila oil field outside Basra.

COALITION POWS
Iraq has also taken a number of U.S. soldiers prisoner. Two pilots of an Apache helicopter were held by Iraq after their helicopter went down near Karbala as it targeted Iraq’s elite Republican Guard.

The men, identified as Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr., 26, of Lithia Springs, Ga., and Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams, 30, of Orlando, Fla., appeared on Iraqi TV on Monday.

“I just wanted to know that he was alive,” said Young’s father, Ronnie Young, on NBC’s “Today” on Tuesday. “It’s not the best situation in the whole world but it is somewhat better than the alternative.”

At least seven American soldiers have been taken prisoner by Iraq since the weekend.

IRAQI DEATHS
About 500 Iraqi fighters have been killed in the last two days by the 3rd Infantry Division’s tanks and mechanized units as they swept through southern Iraq, estimated Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Preston of V Corps, who oversees the 3rd Infantry Division.

Preston said U.S. forces ran into “a lot” of Iraqi tanks and anti-aircraft weaponry and “thousands and thousands” of weapons around the city of Najaf.

’This could have been very ugly, but they’re not very motivated,” Preston said of the regular Iraqi army recruits. “I think a lot of them wanted to go home.”

Later Tuesday, a Reuters reporter traveling with the 1st Marines Division said around 30 Iraqis who may have been on their way to reinforce the southern Iraq city of Nasiriyah were killed in what appeared to be a bombing raid by U.S.-led forces to support some of the toughest battles of the war thus far.

Two western journalists were killed on Saturday in Iraq. Australian cameraman Paul Moran died in northern Iraq when a car bomb went off. The blast was blamed by Kurdish officials on militant Islamic group Ansar al-Islam, which Washington has linked to al Qaida.

The same day Terry Lloyd, a senior journalist from the British Independent Television News, was killed after coming under fire on way to Basra. Two more ITN journalists went missing on Sunday after their car came under fire near Basra the day before.