Fighting rages in Nasiriyah

US marines traded fire today with Iraqi forces amid the burning buildings of Nasiriyah, while others pushed north of the strategic city in a grinding bumper-to-bumper movement of weapons and supplies.

Clashing repeatedly with Iraqi fighters in front and behind, the convoy was moving day and night, headlights out, on a fighting drive towards Baghdad.

What the marines have been doing is “blue-collar warfare,” said Lt Col BP McCody, commanding officer of the Marine 3rd Battery, 4th Regiment. “There is no magic solution to it. It is just the hard-grinding work of patrols.”

At least one American was reported killed in the fighting. Two other marines were killed after they were accidentally run over by one of their vehicles as they slept.

At both the southern city of Nasiriyah and Diwaniyah in the south-central part of the country, the marines called in Cobra helicopters and other aircraft to pound Iraqi ground forces – attacks made possible after a two-day sandstorm finally cleared.

In Nasiriyah, marines and Iraqi forces exchanged tank and artillery fire in a clash that set the power plant and other buildings on fire and cast thick black smoke over the town.

A CH-46 Marine transport helicopter was forced to turn back after being fired on while trying to pick up casualties and deliver supplies to marines fighting in the city. Iraqis fired small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

Nasiriyah, located on the Euphrates River near a junction of roads that lead from Kuwait to Baghdad, has been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war, prompting marines to call the southern entrances to the city Ambush Alley.

Earlier this week, more than 25 marines were wounded in fighting at Nasariyah, and US officials said some or all of them were hurt when one marine unit mistakenly fired on another.

The continued battle for control of the city comes just days after US army units pushed on ahead towards Baghdad, leaving it to the marines to secure the rear.

Marines flying over the area have encountered bursts of anti-aircraft fire. They have also faced pockets of resistance from Iraqis in uniform and from people who looked like civilians in white pick-up trucks and taxis.

These Iraqis waved white T-shirts, then started shooting. The Fedayeen, Saddam Hussein’s hard-core loyalists, have also been spotted.

To the north of Nasiriyah, marines protected by tanks, artillery and air cover pushed north towards Baghdad with food, fuel and other supplies, trying to clean out irregular Iraqi forces along the way.

The marines waged a firefight at a cement plant seized by irregular Iraqi forces near Diwaniyah, field commanders in the area said. One marine died and one was wounded in the fighting.