NORTHEAST OF NASSIRIYAH, 25 March 2003 — A convoy of US Marines crawling up the highway toward this strategic town early yesterday turned off on to a dirt road along the Euphrates river, and came face to face not with gunfire but hunger.

Riflemen crowded into seven-ton trucks and Humvees were nervous, after news of casualties among their comrades in Nassiriyah had reached them the night before.

M-16 assault rifles at the ready, a round in the chamber, they had stopped along the road further south and spent the night on the lookout for enemy troops or snipers.

But two hours after resuming their drive north around 6:00 a.m. (0300 GMT), the sight that greeted them was one of despair, not danger.

Along the riverside, Iraqi civilians began to drift into sight, with no sign of emotion, either hostile or jubilant, just what looked like weariness. Men dressed in robes and headdresses begged for water.

Some held yellow humanitarian food packages from the military and waved peace signs.

Women in black, veiled and covered in dust, with their children huddled next to them, begged for food. Men yelled, pointing at their stomachs in a gesture of hunger.

The area is the ancestral homeland of the Marsh Arabs, which was drained by Saddam’s regime before and after the 1991 Gulf War, leaving many of them destitute.

The land is a patchwork of dried-up soil on one side and some acres of green meadow, crossed by large black pipes apparently intended for drainage. A large dried out bowl was probably once a lake.

Gunnery Master Sergeant Herman Medina, 45, from Texas, said, “We were coming across people who all seemed very hungry, very receptive to us, giving the thumbs up, some even clapping.

“I think they care about us because it seems they haven’t gotten anything from Saddam. They see us as a way to get food.”

Lt. Chad Roberts, 26, from Ohio, said, “I don’t think they were aware of the political ramifications. They were just happy to get food. I hope they’re better after we are here. There’s no reason for people to live in poverty like that.”

Tanks and armored vehicles and infantry in foxholes guarded the road, along with trailer vehicles carrying camouflaged speedboats.

Sgt. Joshua Morgan, 26, from California, said that passing through the Marsh Arab areas was significant because originally there were concerns Saddam would re-flood the region by blowing up dams.

Further along the river, four armed Marines had set up a checkpoint to stop Iraqi civilians. At gunpoint they were forcing middle-aged men to raise their hands and lift their robes to check for weapons.

These Marine riflemen, supported by some tanks, were from the First Battalion of the First Marine Division’s 5th Regiment.

They had been severely shaken by reports that 10 of their fellows had died in the fierce fighting at Nassiriyah and more been wounded.

Rumors had raced up the road that as many as 50 Marines had been taken captive. Corporal Chad Arva, from New York state, said, “I thought we were going to be toast. It’s going to be a long war — three or four months.”

His buddy, Enrique Pardes, a corporal from Wisconsin, said of the Nassiriyah campaign: “This is a setback. It’s part of war. I think this is normal. It depends on how things pan out in the next several days.”

The Marines had crossed the Euphrates south of Nassiriyah and were now heading for Najaf, some 250 km from Baghdad and more than half-way from the Kuwaiti border.

“The race to Baghdad is on,” said Gunnery Sergeant Jim Kirkham, from Texas.

But he added that they would be heading into what is considered to be a stronghold of Saddam’s Baath party, and would now be very wary of handing out food.