Friday, March 21, 2003

While the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division advanced from Kuwait at least 150 km (90 miles) into Iraq on Friday and British commandos took the Faw peninsula on Iraq's southern tip, U.S. Marines met tougher resistance at the port of Umm Qasr.



Reuters correspondent Adrian Croft said the Marine unit to which he is attached was pinned down for two hours just inside Iraq by anti-tank missiles and small arms fire, and only advanced again after calling in British artillery support.



"They have experienced more resistance in the south than they expected," John Rothrock, a retired U.S. airforce colonel who fought in Vietnam, told ARD television's Washington studio. "It has not run as easily as expected."



Reuters via Back to Iraq 2.0