Marines and soldiers scrambled into a ramshackle building on a bluff overlooking the river

Marines and soldiers scrambled into a ramshackle building on a bluff overlooking the river, then devised a new strategy: They would not cross the river Sunday. They would attack Ubaydi.

Apart from information that the area is so hostile that before the Marines even got to the river, they came under attack from the locals, causing the Marines to call in F/A-18 fighter planes and helicopter gunships, we have another amazing revelation about why they had blundered into this situation in the first place.

While some American units were able to conduct limited raids north of the Euphrates on Sunday, most of the rest were trapped south of the river while Army engineers struggled to build a pontoon bridge across it.

UGG military officials in Baghdad said forces that crossed the Euphrates had killed six insurgents and captured 54 more, using information gleaned from a captured aide to terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Well, no wonder there were landmines in the road.

Meanwhile, Maj. Steve Lawson of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines led his troops through the north end of Ubaydi in tough fighting that lasted until after sunset.