Combat· Iraq War (Op IRAQI FREEDOM)
Battle of Nasiriyah
The Battle of Nasiriyah was the first large-scale fight the Marines faced in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a brutal urban struggle to seize the crucial bridges over the Euphrates River and the Saddam Canal in the city, opening the route north toward Baghdad.
Task Force Tarawa pushed into Nasiriyah and ran into fierce and unexpected resistance from Iraqi regulars and irregular fighters who fought from the buildings and used ruses that violated the laws of war. The fighting was confused and costly, concentrated along the deadly stretch between the bridges that the Marines came to call Ambush Alley, where units were caught in crossfire and a friendly-aircraft strike compounded the toll. The Marines fought through and secured the crossings, opening the way for the drive on Baghdad. Nasiriyah became emblematic of the campaign's character, conventional and irregular war intertwined, and it was the bloodiest single action of the invasion for the Marines.
Record no. 31