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MAJOR_Baker
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Los Angeles Times
April 27, 2004
Pg. 1
Mosque Targeted In Fallouja Fighting
By Tony Perry and Rick Loomis, Times Staff Writers
FALLOUJA, Iraq â †A fierce battle Monday in a rubble-strewn neighborhood of this Sunni Muslim stronghold left one Marine and at least eight insurgents dead, casting a new shadow over prospects for a peaceful solution to the military standoff here.
During the two-hour midday fight, in which at least eight U.S. troops were wounded, a Marine tank demolished the 150-foot-tall minaret of a mosque, from which machine-gun fire had been raining onto Marines 200 yards away.
At one point, the combatants exchanged rifle fire 30 yards apart.
The insurgents were close enough to hurl grenades on top of a building where Marines were briefly pinned down.
Farther back, on the roof of a U.S. military compound, Marine snipers cranked up the volume on their CD player so they could listen to the music of Metallica as they fired at their foes.