So Just How and Where Did Those 8 Marines Die on Saturday?

[leftchick]

This original story sounds like they were trying to enter Fallujah and came under attack. The link is gone for this story...

<snip>
The U.S. military said nine Marines were also wounded in the fighting in Anbar province west of the capital which includes the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. The statement gave no further on how or where they were killed.


The deaths came as U.S. forces are gearing up for a major assault on Fallujah, seen as the toughest bastion of Sunni Muslim guerrillas, ahead of crucial elections due by Jan. 31.


Fierce clashes erupted Saturday in Fallujah as an American military convoy entered the southeastern industrial Shuhada neighborhood and nearby Nueimiya village — an apparent probing foray on the city's edges. Explosions and gunfire rocked the area and smoke was seen billowing in the air, witnesses said.


Marines responded with heavy artillery fire after insurgents shot mortar shells from positions in the southeast of the city. About 4 p.m. a Marine Harrier jet bombed a mortar position inside Fallujah and strafed it with machine-gun fire, "neutralizing the target and any threat," said Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert

...Now the New story today seems to imply they were not in Fallujah but 'south of Baghdad' and it was a car bombing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12454-2004Oct30?language=printer

<snip>

Eight of the Marine deaths and the nine injuries occurred when a car bomb detonated next to a truck southwest of Baghdad, Maj. Clark Watson of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force told the Associated Press. The attack took place in Anbar province, which extends west from the capital to the borders of Syria and Jordan. A ninth Marine was also killed Saturday, officials, who gave no other details, said.


Anbar province includes the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, against which U.S. forces are preparing a major offensive. On Saturday, they unleashed an artillery barrage and an airstrike on targets in the city. U.S. military patrols elsewhere in Anbar are frequently ambushed by roadside bombs and, increasingly, cars laden with explosives.

.... Seems to be some story sanitizing again from Iraq.