Dodging bullets from the fighting in Fallujah's neighborhoods, U.S. troops laid cables, built toilets and settled in at the city's train station Tuesday, transforming it into a new forward base hours after U.S. and Iraqi forces captured it from insurgents. The night before, Marines launched their assault on the station, located in the desert just north of the city. Forces crept forward across the sand in tanks and armored personnel carriers to within 200 yards of the station's empty loading platforms — then opened fire with a barrage of tank rounds and .50 caliber machine-gun fire. The fight lasted hours, and Iraqi forces secured the station by midnight. A handful of U.S. commanders began moving in early Tuesday under a cold drizzle, and by dawn troops were lounging in chairs, drinking coffee and blinking under a warm sun in a station littered with shrapnel and shards of concrete. "It feels good to be here. I feel like we've really done something," said Corp. Keith Sharp, of 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. "The nicest thing is sitting and thinking about going back home," said the 23-year old from Gerber, Calif., as he ate rations. "And I've only been shot at once."
Several hundred yards away, U.S. Army and Marine troops were battling in Fallujah's warren of streets and alleys, carrying out the main thrust on a major offensive to wrest the city from the control of Sunni Muslim insurgents. Insurgents did not appear to put up great resistance at the railway station, firing about a half-dozen rocket-propelled grenades at the armored vehicles — sending Marines diving for cover but injuring none. Officers said they believed few rebels were in the buildings. On Tuesday, U.S. forces marched suspected insurgents into an abandoned waiting room at the one-time railroad station. "Stand up. Now," Marines shouted at the blindfolded men who flinched from their captors.
| Flinch and be damned. We haven't cut anybody's head off, have we? |
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