Marines gain control of Iraq hospital

Hundreds of U.S. Marines stormed through dimly lit hallways of the largest hospital in western Iraq on Wednesday, taking control of a facility allegedly used by insurgents � and encountering a regional health infrastructure in serious decay.

Members of al-Qaida in Iraq had been using the Ramadi General Hospital, a seven-story building with some 250 beds, to treat their wounded and fire on U.S. troops in the area, the Marines said.

They said wounded Iraqi police officers who had been taken to the hospital were later found beheaded.

Though there was no resistance during Wednesday's operation, the Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment said they found about a dozen triggering devices for roadside bombs hidden above the tiled ceiling of one office. They knocked down dozens of locked doors and searched medicine chests and storage closets for additional weapons.

Hospitals are considered off-limits in traditional warfare. In western Ramadi, however, insurgents have fired on Marines from the rooftop of a women and children's hospital so often that patients were moved to a wing with fewer exposed windows.

The early-morning raid Wednesday exposed the wartime conditions that have endangered the wounded, sick and elderly in this city of 400,000 people. Doctors said they were struggling to provide basic care.

During Wednesday's raid, tensions were apparent between some doctors and Marines. The Marines, based in Camp Lejeune, N.C., said one member of their platoon had been shot in the arm near the hospital while handing candy to children at a nearby school. Some angrily accused doctors of harboring and helping insurgents.

Doctors said they knew nothing of insurgent activity or the explosive triggering devices found hidden in the hospital. They insisted they were bound by the Hippocratic oath to serve all patients.

Marines expressed frustration at the lack of cooperation.

"They don't play by the same rules that we do," said Pfc. Gilberto Rodriguez, 20, of Alexandria, Va., as he stood guard in a hallway. "Insurgents have free rein here. They can do whatever they want. They use whatever tactics are most effective."