Land Corporal Ronald Jones breathed a sigh of relief after four months of "treacherous fighting" in Iraq's insurgent stronghold of Fallujah as he prepared to go back home. "I am very happy, very pleased. It's nice going back home," Jones, 23, told AFP as he boarded a Landing Craft that took him to aircraft carrier USS Essex which will return him to his base in Okinawa, Japan. "It's tough looking over your shoulder every second. It's tough to get up every morning to look out for what happens," said Jones of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) that has been relieved of duty in Iraq.
The 2,200 marines and sailors of MEU, who arrived in Kuwait over the past two weeks after four months in Iraq, will board three ships of the US Navy's Essex Amphibious Ready Group on a four-week voyage to Japan.
MEU was responsible for a wide range of missions in Iraq's western province of Al-Anbar which included assistance and security for the January 30 elections, limited-scale raids against insurgents and border security.
"The MEU conducted numerous limited-scale raids and knock operations, capturing more than 150 insurgents and seizing more than 60 weapons caches," said Captain Burrel Palmer, MEU spokesman.
Some 50 members of the force were killed, including 27 in a helicopter crash in western Iraq on January 27, while 221 others were wounded, Palmer told reporters.
MEU was assigned to the "largest area of operations in Iraq," a 33,000-square-mile (85,000-square-kilometer) area, almost the size of South Carolina, and was among the first troops that launched a major offensive on Fallujah late last year.
"MEU was one of several battalions to go in first" into Fallujah, the base for hundreds of die-hard insurgents before the US onslaught, commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Michael Ramos said.
"The resistance was difficult at times ... They were willing to die for their cause. They were trying to kill as many Marines as they can," Ramos told AFP aboard the Landing Craft.
"We fought against a treacherous enemy. They would hide behind innocent people ... They were certainly fanatical and very determined" to fight, he added.
Besides controlling security in Iraq's most restive areas, MEU was also assigned to patrol the 800-kilometer (500-mile) long borders with Jordan and Syria from where the United States says most foreign fighters came.
"We have caught too many people, smugglers and fighters, who crossed into Iraq from Syria ... The Syrians have now set up a border post every 1,000 meters," Palmer said. Ramos said he saw many foreign fighters killed in Fallujah.
"I saw a lot of (dead) insurgents from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and several other countries. The majority of foreign fighters are Syrians," he said.
US-led coalition forces in Iraq use Kuwait as a transit point for their rotation and Kuwait Naval Base, the only one of its kind in the emirate, serves to offload and onload troops and machinery for the coalition. Kuwait, a staunch Washington ally, is home to between 18,000 and 20,000 US troops who are permanently stationed here, said Captain David Tippet, spokesman for the US army in the oil-rich Gulf emirate.
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