U.S. Forces Seize Western Iraqi Airfields 
March 21, 2003 09:07 AM EST   ............................................................................................MAP of Baghdad
U.S. Forces Seize Important Iraqi Ground
Copter Crash Kills 12 Coalition Marines
Marines Take Strategic Port in S. Iraq
U.S. Takes Control of Southern Iraq Port
U.S. Confirms 2nd Marine Death in Iraq
'Shock and awe' air strikes launched
Entire Division of Iraqi Army Surrenders
Turkey Moves 1,000 Soldiers Into N. Iraq
Fires Rock Baghdad After Aerial Assault
Marines say ‘Saddam is done’

U.S. Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary
Unit help an Iraqi soldier with water from a canteen
in southern Iraq, on Friday, March 21, 2003. Some
200 Iraqi soldiers surrendered to the U.S. 15th
Marine Expeditionary Unit just after an hour after it
crossed the border into Iraq from northern Kuwait
 (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
WASHINGTON - American forces seized important airfields in western Iraq as a U.S. Marine became the first combat death while fighting for control of a southern oil field. 

The airfields known as H-2 and H-3 in far western Iraq were taken without much resistance from Iraqi troops, defense officials said on condition of anonymity. But they called control of the installations "tentative." 

They are important partly because Saddam Hussein is believed to have Scud missiles there. 

Likewise, in the south, troops have "passed through" the Rumeila oil field but it may be too soon to say they have complete control of it, one senior Pentagon official said. 

A U.S. Marine with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, was killed in a gunfight as his unit advanced on the oil field, officials said earlier Friday. 

An important part of the war plan laid out by the war's commander, Gen. Tommy Franks, was to drop special forces at sites around Iraq to seize sensitive facilities such as oil wells, airfields and suspected chemical and biological weapons sites. 

The airborne assaults were planned to come nearly simultaneously with, and in some cases in advance of, the bombing campaign and ground assault. 

The H-3 airfield, 240 miles from Baghdad, has been one of Iraq's primary air-defense installations. Allied pilots bombed it in September. 

Retired Navy Rear Adm. Stephen H. Baker said at the time that destroying radar at H-3 "would allow allied aircraft mounting major raids on Iraq a clear route into the country." 

President Bush was informed of the combat death early Friday and expressed his regrets. 

Hours earlier, eight British and four American soldiers died in a U.S. Marine helicopter crash that a British military spokesman said was an accident. 

Eight of the 14 B-52 bombers at Fairford air base in western England took off Friday as night approached in Iraq, portending a third night of air strikes, which have been limited so far but apparently effective in shaking Iraq's leadership. 

American and British troops encountered both hostile fire and white flags in their sprint across the desert, with some 200 Iraqi soldiers surrendering to the U.S. 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit just over an hour after it crossed the border from northern Kuwait. 

Iraqi defenders offered stiff resistance in some pockets, firing intense artillery barrages that were answered in kind. 

But in Safwan, just across the Kuwait border, Iraqis watched and in some cases helped as U.S. Marines rigged chains to giant portraits of the Iraqi president and tore them down. Townspeople mostly hid from the occupying force. Some patted their stomach to beg for food. 

Maj. David "Bull" Gurfein, pumping his fist in the air, led a milling crowd of citizens in chants of "Iraqis, Iraqis, Iraqis!" A young man in a headscarf told Gurfein: "No Saddam Hussein. Bush!" 

Holding back on a massive air assault, the allied force has been using limited airstrikes and a lightning-fast ground assault as efforts intensify to get Iraqi soldiers, even the Republican Guard units considered loyal to Saddam Hussein, to give up. 

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said direct talks were taking place with Iraqi forces and it was possible the "full force and fury of a war" could be averted. 

"There are communications in every conceivable mode and method, public and private," he said after meeting lawmakers Thursday night. 

A Democratic lawmaker expressed similar optimism. "The behavior of those who've not surrendered would suggest that they might," Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., said after being briefed by military officials. 

American officials said they had strong indications no one was in charge of Iraq's government and armed forces. 

But a decree issued in Saddam's name offered Iraqis rewards for killing or capturing the invaders - the equivalent of $14,000 for killing one and $28,000 for taking one alive. 

Military officials said no hostile fire was reported in the area of the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crash, which was in Kuwait about 9 miles south of the Iraqi border town of Umm Qasr. 

The crash happened as U.S. Army and Marine units, joined by their British comrades in arms, surged across the Kuwaiti border into southern Iraq on Thursday and Friday, working at first to secure the region's oil wells, several of which had been set afire. 

Opening the ground action, Marine expedition and Army special forces were sent into Iraq to put forces in a better position to protect the oil-rich Basra region after Iraqis set a small number of oil wells on fire, military officials said. Later, the bulk of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and the Marine Corps' 1st Expeditionary Force rumbled across the border into Iraq. 

Many of the troops passed burning oil wells that sent plumes of acrid, black smoke into the dusty desert sky. 

Small numbers of U.S. and British special forces were operating surreptitiously in other parts of the country and U.S. war planes stepped up attacks on Iraqi air defenses in the north and south in hopes of making it easier and safer for coalition aircraft when the massive aerial assault begins, officials said. 

Two of the officials said Thursday's strikes involved a smaller number of Tomahawks than Wednesday's opening volley, which numbered approximately 40.