Marines Repel Large Attack in Ramadi, Iraq

Marines Repel Large Attack in Ramadi, Iraq, U.S. Military Says

April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Marines in western Iraq damaged a mosque in Ramadi after coming under what the U.S. military said were coordinated attacks involving heavy machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

A series of attacks, which also involved ``multiple homicide car bombs'' and small-arms fire, were directed at Marines in central Ramadi from locations including the Fatemat Mosque yesterday afternoon, the U.S. Army said in a statement from Baghdad received this morning. Marines responded with tank fire aimed at the minaret of the mosque, ending that attack.

``This is the fourth time in three-and-a-half weeks that the Ramadi Government Center has received attacks from the Fatemat Mosque,'' Lieutenant Colonel Stephen M. Neary, commander of 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, said in the e-mailed statement. The Army ``respects all religious sites but we always maintain the inherent right of self-defense.''
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..."There were at least 46 U.S. military deaths between March 30 and April 14, compared with 31 between Feb. 27 and March 30, according to Department of Defense tallies."

Four Marines died in fighting in Iraq's western al-Anbar province on 15, the Army said in a statement on April 16.

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