Word: basra
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...seeking to critically analyze their conduct. When such luminaries as Geraldo Rivera and Oliver North are sent to provide objective coverage on what will be our generation’s defining struggle, journalistic integrity comes under fire that is as unremitting as that raining down on the troops outside Basra...
...Saturday we were headed for Basra International Airport, which the Marines were to secure, when we were almost hit by what appeared to be a tank round. Fortunately, we had learned that the Iraqis are not very good at redirecting fire once they have nearly hit a target. As a further precaution, two Marines prepared to fire a shoulder-launched multipurpose assault weapon, a rocket that can take out a tank. As they stepped out, another enemy round went off. Missed again...
...time we got to the airport, having been delayed by a broken fuel pump, Basra International was deserted. The battle for the airport--McCoy would later describe it as "brutal"--was over. Before they fled, the Iraqis had set fire to the airport administration building and had strewn the runway with debris to prevent U.S. planes from using it. All that remained was a statue of a waving Saddam standing forlornly amid the wreckage...
...south, Alex Perry and photographer Christopher Morris traveled with a combat unit of the 3rd Infantry Division. Simon Robinson and photographer Robert Nickelsberg camped outside Basra with the 1st Marines Division. In the gulf, Meenakshi Ganguly watched bombers take off from the deck of the U.S.S. Constellation for runs at the Iraqi mainland. Brian Bennett, with the 332nd Expeditionary Wing, monitored troop movements from an air base south of the Iraqi border. Sally Donnelly was in Qatar to cover General Tommy Franks, while Terry McCarthy waited in Kuwait to join the second wave heading for Baghdad...
...senior officer also noted that Republican Guard units were moving south, perhaps because "things are getting bad in the south for them and they need to stiffen their defense." He said the local population was very near a "tipping point" toward the coalition in both Basra and Nasiriya. In Najaf, he said locals were helping coalition forces route out the paramilitaries and that locals were even physically attacking regime supporters...