A U.S. Marine has been killed in Iraq, becoming the first reported combat death of the war, U.S. defense officials said Friday.
The slain soldier, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, was moving in the ground assault in southern Iraq, said Lt. Col. Neal Peckham, a British military spokesman in Kuwait.
MSNBC cable network reported that the soldier was felled by Iraqi gunfire during the advance on the Rumeila oil field.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Friday the military campaign in Iraq was going well but that the war would not be won overnight.
Speaking at a news conference in Brussels, where he has been attending a summit of European leaders, Blair said there were signs of continuing Iraqi desertions and division at all levels of President Saddam Hussein's regime.
"But I should warn that our forces will face resistance and that the campaign, necessarily, will not achieve all its objections overnight," he added. (Albawaba.com)
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