[GZG News Fiction] NAC Marines gain access to Bradley

       NAC Marines Fight to Gain Access to the City of Bradley
		      Thursday, May 8, 2183

BRADLEY, Fliescher II (INN) -- According to an INN correspondent
accompanying
the 136th Gloucestershire Regiment, NAC Marines battled FSE and LLAR
forces
Wednesday to establish control of a north-south route accessing the
southern
section of this city after four years of hard fighting.  

The latest skirmish followed a day in which LLAR mercenaries killed and
wounded
over a dozen Marines in what a senior NAC officer called "the sharpest
engagement of the war this year." In addition, 13 soldiers from the
NAC's 3rd
Royal Maintenance Unit were unaccounted for, and several soldiers were
shown on
vidcasts from the LLAR as prisoners. 

The INN reporter said troop carriers from the maintenance unit capable
of
holding up to a dozen Marines were hit with infantry anti-vehicle
rockets on
Tuesday. Witnesses to the troop carrier attack said at least 20 Marines
were
killed outright.

But at a NAC Central Command briefing in Riverside on Wednesday, General
Daryl
Bishop said the number of dead was less than that. 

"I can tell you for a fact that we are definitely missing 13 soldiers
who are
unaccounted for, some of whom ended up on the LLAR vidcast," he said.
"We do
have a number of killed in the action outside of Bradley and a number of
wounded. On the other hand, we can account for 62 dead or wounded enemy
fighters."

Bishop said the enemy soldiers were composed primarily of LLAR mercenary
forces
with a few FSE platoons scattered about, and that the engagement was one
of the
"few times that we've seen the FSE forces fight this year."

"But our Marines were successful. They defeated the enemy, and we have
entered
the city," he said. 

The Marines destroyed at least eighteen tanks, several antiaircraft and
artillery batteries "along with a number of infantry," Bishop said. 

In Bradley, FSE General Gaston Malot said LLAR and FSE forces have
turned back
dozens of attempts by NAC troops to capture the city, destroying over
170 tanks
and armored personnel carriers in the process. He indicated that the
current
incursion into Bradley would be repulsed in due time.
	
The Marines entered the city Wednesday afternoon after the 13 soldiers
were
captured in an LLAR ambush on a NAC supply convoy. 

After that attack, the captured soldiers were shown on LLAR vidcast out
of
Bradley. Two of them, including a female soldier, appeared to be
wounded. Some
pictures showed what were said to be dead NAC soldiers, some of whom
appeared
to have been shot in the forehead. 

On New Albion, Crown Prince Randall Ferguson said any LLAR units
involved in
mistreating prisoners "will be treated as war criminals," and Bishop
said
showing POWs on the vidcasts was a "clear violation" of the UNSC
Conventions. 

Alberto Borecelli, one of the FSE's ambassadors to the United Nations,
said
that the FSE follows the interstellar guidelines for the humane
treatment of
POWs.

"We will respect carefully the international humanitarian law and the
UNSC
Conventions," he said. "I hope that the NAC Army will respect [this]
also." He
would not discuss the LLAR position on POWs. The LLAR ambassador was
unavailable for comment.