IRAQ-CONFLICT: US marine confirmed killed

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Att.Editors: The following item is from the Qatar News Agency (QNA)

DOHA, Mar 21 2003 (IPS) - A US military spokesman today confirmed the death of a US marine troop during the US invasion of Iraq.

Captain Frank Thorp told reporters at al-Sayliya base in Qatar on Friday that the US Marine has been killed in Iraq, becoming the first reported combat war casualty.

The slain soldier, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, was moving in the ground assault in southern Iraq, said Lt. Col. Neal Peckham, a British military spokesman in Kuwait.

News reports, meantime, said the soldier was killed by Iraqi gunfire while US and British forces were advancing towards strategic oil installations in southern Iraq.

Earlier, 8 US and 4 British personnel were confirmed dead when the military helicopter they were boarding crashed.