Marines press fight in insurgency hotbed

IRAQ IN TRANSITION: OPERATION NEW MARKET

By Michael Martinez
Tribune correspondent
Published May 27, 2005

HADITHA, Iraq -- Guerrillas kept up their resistance Thursday night to an offensive by about 1,000 Marines and Iraqi forces seeking to quash an insurgent stronghold in the country's far western reaches.

A firefight with extensive explosions unfolded after nightfall in the southern part of town, but casualty reports were unavailable early Friday morning, said Maj. Plauche St. Romain, intelligence officer of the 3rd Battalion of the 25th Marine Regiment.

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