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Politics : The Liberation of Iraq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: eims2000 who wrote (220)	3/21/2003 4:30:32 PM
From: Tech Master	Respond to of 908

Allies Suffer First Casualties in Iraq By The Associated Press As the United States and Britain pushed into Iraq (news - web sites), the allies also suffered their first casualties. Two U.S. Marines died in combat and another dozen American and British Marines were killed in a helicopter crash that appeared to be accidental. A U.S. Marine was the first to die in action. His company was advancing on a burning oil pump station when he was shot in the stomach, a comrade said. President Bush (news - web sites) was informed of the death early Friday and expressed his regrets. He was from the U.S. 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said Lt. Col. Neal Peckham, a British military spokesman in Kuwait. He died in the sweep on the Rumeila oil field in southern Iraq, where acrid smoke blackened the sky. U.S. Central Command gave no other details. The second Marine, also from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, died Friday at about 4 p.m. while fighting enemy Iraqi forces near Umm Qasr, a strategic port which came under allied control Friday. The eight British and four U.S. Marines died when their CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed and burned about nine miles south of the Iraqi border town of Umm Qasr. Military officials said no hostile fire was reported in the area. The pilot was Capt. Ryan Beaupre, 30, of St. Anne, Ill., his sister Alyse said. Her family was notified early Friday morning, she said. Beaupre had been based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., but Marine officials in Illinois and at Camp Pendleton could not immediately confirm that he was among the casualties. At a Washington news conference, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed gratitude for their sacrifice. "The world will be a safer place because of their dedicated service," he said. There are six CH-46 squadrons, each comprising 10 or so Sea Knights, at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego and the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base in northern San Diego County. "No matter where those Marines are from, it's a terrible sad night," said Lt. Greg Scott, a spokesman for the San Diego-based Third Marine Aircraft Wing, which provides air support for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. The accident occurred as U.S. Army and Marine units, joined by their British counterparts, surged across the Kuwaiti border into southern Iraq on Thursday and Friday, working at first to secure the region's oil wells. The Marines use the Sea Knight, a bus-like helicopter with two large rotors, to fly troops from ships at sea or base camps to forward positions. The helicopter is from the Vietnam-era and has been beset in recent years by mechanical troubles that have forced more frequent inspections and driven up operating costs. Lt. Col. Ben Curry, a British Royal Marines spokesman in Kuwait, told Sky News that the British servicemen were from 3 Commando Brigade.