lance corporal says he fired a warning shot into the road in front of an oncoming van.

The bullet ricocheted into the vehicle and struck four of its occupants, the report says, killing two. None of the reports contained direct testimony from Iraqis.

Marines from BLT one-two described other such incidents to me, but the corps did not release reports on them.

In that "recon by fire," Marines killed one more suspected insurgent in the canal. They detained two other men and a 16-year-old boy.

Staff sergeant Marino considered the day a success. He had brought his platoon and its Iraqi partners out alive.

MARINO: Everybody walked out of there without a scratch. You know? And we turned around and had four enemy kills, three persons under control. You can't ask for aThey struck hard, launching a full-on attack against the new army unit with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

The Marines got orders to head south to Kuwait and, eventually, home.

PALMER: But not all the Marines are going home. Three members of Charlie Company were killed by an IED in February. They were the BLT's only deaths during the 2006 tour in Iraq.

Marines make up about 18% of the 133,000 U.S. troops now deployed in Iraq.

The Marine Corps is a much smaller force than the Army, but it sends a greater percentage of its troops into combat, so the proportion of Marine casualties is higher: almost 30% of U.S. military deaths since the invasion have been Marines.

BROUSSARD: We would get off of post frozen, toes so cold we could barely