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CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar (AP) -- Four U.S. Marines are missing after fierce combat in Nasiriyah, U.S. Central Command said Friday.
The whereabouts of the troops from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force are unknown, a spokesman for Central Command said.
American forces are "aggressively seeking to determine the status of these (missing) individuals," a Central Command statement said. The statement did not say when the Marines disappeared. No names were made public.
Marines and Iraqi forces traded tank and artillery fire throughout the day Friday in Nasiriyah. Several buildings, including the power plant, were ablaze.
Nasiriyah, a city of about 500,000 on the Euphrates River, has been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Helicopters flying over the area were drawing almost continuous small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
