Marines recount Fallujah firefight

By: DARRIN MORTENSON - Staff Writer | Tuesday, April 27, 2004 11:45 AM PDT ∞

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- One Marine was killed and at least eight more wounded in Fallujah on Monday in a bloody street battle fought close enough that the combatants tossed grenades and fired pistols at each other, officials said.

"It was total chaos," said Navy Corpsman Jason Duty, 20, of New Concord, Ohio, one of the medics who pulled wounded men out of buildings and streets during the worst of the fighting. "It was just gunshots everywhere."

The midday fighting quickly escalated from an isolated ambush into a full-scale battle in which Marine Cobra helicopters raked a mostly abandoned Fallujah neighborhood with missile and machine-gun fire and a tank brought the towering minaret of a prominent mosque crashing to the ground.

The battle began as several recent battles have: after Marines left their lines to move deeper into the city.

According to 1st Sgt. Bill Skiles, the senior noncommissioned officer of Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, a platoon of about 40 Marines advanced about 200 yards beyond their lines before dawn Monday to clear buildings of snipers.

After the troops sneaked into their positions, the insurgents surrounded them on three sides, Skiles said, and opened fire on the houses in which the Marines were hiding, getting close enough to toss grenades through the windows.

He said the Marines were also pinned down by rebel snipers shooting from several buildings, including a nearby mosque that was later demolished by tank fire.

"They waited a few hours after we went in and then they attacked," said a stunned and angry Skiles several hours after the fighting Monday, staring off and shaking his head slowly from side to side as he repeated his words: "They waited, and then they attacked."

Duty and Skiles said the Marine killed and most of the wounded Monday were hit with shrapnel from grenades tossed by rebels into open windows. At least two of the Marines were also shot, said Duty, whose boots were black with the blood of his comrades as he recounted the fight.

Duty said he had to fire his pistol at gunmen just to get into the building where Marines lay bleeding, still fighting off insurgents, some of whom were only 10 yards away.

"I walk into a place like that -- everyone's down -- and you just don't know where to start," he said. "You just have to calm down and think, and then it all comes to you."

Skiles said Duty saved several of the Marines, and worked to save a fatally wounded Marine by continuing CPR in the back of a humvee as it sped through enemy fire over a jarring ride to a field hospital.

Marines cited the bravery of a lance corporal who was wounded in a rebel mortar attack nearly two weeks ago in which two other Echo Company Marines were killed, and was wounded again by shrapnel in Monday's fighting.

In both incidents, they said, he ignored his own wounds to help other wounded Marines. In Monday's battle, he fought off insurgents and ran back to the Marines' lines even while wounded in three places.

Skiles said the day brought the number of Marines wounded to 40 in the 140-man infantry company since they arrived in Fallujah in March. Four have been killed.

"The Marines fought bravely," Skiles said. "It's tragic when we lose another of our own because we're like a family here. I'm just a first sergeant who cares about my boys."

In a televised briefing a few hours after the fighting, U.S. military officials in Baghdad justified the Marines' move beyond their lines and denied that they had breached the so-called cease-fire in Fallujah.

The Marines have "an inherent right to self-defense," which includes the right to move further into the city to take out snipers, said Coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt.

"When fired upon, they will respond," Kimmitt said. "They have a responsibility to respond to save their fellow Marines from getting killed by insurgents."

Skiles said the politicians and military planners should let the Marines take the town.

After saying that during the cease-fire his men have been "shot at, sniped, and mortared" every day, Skiles said the only solution was to "terminate them (the rebels)."

"Let us finish it," he said, adding that the peace talks and cease-fire are only giving the insurgents time to get stronger.

"The insurgents are absolutely not going to learn any other way," he said. "It's all they understand. We're ready for a fight. And when we're comin', we're comin hard."

Staff writer Darrin Mortenson and staff photographer Hayne Palmour are reporting from Iraq, where they are with Camp Pendleton Marines. Their coverage is collected at www.nctimes.com/military/iraq.

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