As-Saliyah (Qatar), Mar 26: US Marines have confiscated more than 3,000 chemical suits and masks from a hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah that had been used by Iraqi paramilitaries, the US military said here today. Marines seized the hospital yesterday, which according to Colonel Ron Johnson had served as a storehouse for weapons used by Iraqi fighters dressed in civilian clothes. In addition to the chemical suits, Marines found more than 200 weapons, stores of ammunition and Iraqi military uniforms, and captured around 170 prisoners in the operation, the statement issued by the US Central Command said here.
US forces had been fired on from the hospital in fighting with Iraqi forces in the city on Monday, it added. The Marines yesterday sustained heavy Iraqi fire but managed to cross the Euphrates river at Nasiriyah on their way north to Baghdad and a battle there to unseat President Saddam Hussein.

US officers said today the Nasiriyah remained unsecured and that Marines were still encountering hostile fire north of the city.

Bureau Report