Troops Caught Behind Lines, Spy on Enemy

The Iraqis were not alone for those 36 hours when they took and held the border town of Khafji. Lurking there among them, sometimes just footsteps away, were 12 U.S. reconnaissance Marines.

A day and a half of daring, of stealth, of close encounters of the breathless kind were described Thursday after the abandoned coastal city was retaken by Saudi forces and the two six-man Marine “recon” teams were withdrawn.

The Marine task force commander, Col. John Admire, recounted the behind-enemy-lines action to a correspondent, whose dispatch was passed through military censors and made available to all other reporters in the war zone.

Admire said the two six-man recon teams were on routine intelligence-gathering patrols in Khafji, about 10 miles from the Kuwaiti border. That was Tuesday. Suddenly, Iraqi tanks and foot soldiers swept into the deserted town--which in peaceful times had a population of 20,000.

The recon Marines held their ground, lay low and quietly radioed information on the rapid Iraqi advance.

“By the time they determined that they were surrounded, it was too late,” Admire said.

Not such a strange condition, truly, for recon Marines, whose caliber and training are among the highest of the corps’ ground troops and whose specialty is operating in enemy territory--”Indian country,” as they call it.

Admire said the two teams avoided detection by slipping into abandoned buildings. They ate only what food they carried, burned classified codes and messages in case they were captured and called in coordinates for friendly artillery fire to ward off Iraqis who ventured too near.

Twice, Iraqi soldiers entered buildings on the ground floor while the Marines held their breaths on the floors above. “The Marines could hear the footsteps. They could hear them enter, and then leave,” Admire said.

The recon teams not only survived undetected during the 36 hours but were also credited with providing U.S.-led coalition forces with radio reports on Iraqi movements.

“They did their job,” the Marine commander said. “This is the way it is supposed to work.”

Capt. John Borth was one of the Marines who moved into Khafji to pull the recon teams out on Thursday. “They were relieved to see us; they looked real tired and worn out,” he said.

One Marine suffered a shrapnel wound in the thigh.

The exploits of the recon teams, although obtained secondhand from commanders rather than from the Marines themselves, offered a rare glimpse into the hair-raising world of America’s commando-style ground forces in the Persian Gulf War. Besides the recon Marines, Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces teams are operating in the region. Because of the clandestine nature of their work, they are seldom seen.

The occupation of Khafji was part of a larger Iraqi attack that began Tuesday night at three places on the Saudi-Kuwaiti border, resulting in 11 Marine deaths and reports of heavy Iraqi losses. Even though the forces were disengaged by Thursday night, field commanders said they detected “a lot of movement” among Iraqi border troops into the night.

U.S. warplanes responded with attacks so heavy they caused aerial gridlock.

Pilots said that the skies were thick with the screech of coalition planes and that the ground shook from their ordnance. One flier reported having to circle for 20 minutes just to get clearance to make a bombing run.

“My biggest danger was running into another U.S. aircraft,” said Lt. Col. Dick White, commander of a Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier “jump-jet” squadron. “It was almost like trying to get to the checkout during a close-out sale on ladies’ lingerie.”

White, a colorful talker, also described his feelings at finally engaging Iraqi ground positions in close combat: “It’s almost like you flipped on the light in the kitchen late at night and the cockroaches start scurrying, and we’re killing them.”