1st Marine Division

Thomas J. Murphy Jr., 67, college athletic directorThomas J. Murphy Jr., a former assistant athletic director, swimming and lacrosse coach at Loyola College, died Friday of cancer at his New Windsor home. He was 67.Mr. Murphy, known as "Murph," had been assistant athletic director of the North Baltimore college from 1989 until retiring in 1995. He had been varsity swimming and diving coach for Loyola's men's and women's swimming programs from 1964 to 1989. In 1993, he was inducted into the Loyola College Athletic Hall of Fame.

Russell Harr, a retired Pepsi-Cola merchandising manager who served in the Army and Marine Corps, died of cancer Monday at Franklin Square Hospital Center. He was 72. Mr. Harr, a longtime Essex resident who moved to Crofton in 1997, was born in Woodman, Ky. He was raised in Rarden, Ohio, where he attended public schools. He worked as a farmhand before enlisting in the Army in 1947. He served in Korea as a military policeman before being discharged in 1950 with the rank of corporal. His decorations included the Army of Occupation Medal and Korean Service Medal with bronze service stars.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bombing in the Adhamiya neighborhood here in the capital killed at least five Iraqis and wounded 38 yesterday, a hospital director said. Just outside the northern city of Kirkuk, a shell fired into an arms depot at a U.S. military base touched off an enormous explosion that sent a black cloud of smoke over the skyline. According to an initial report, no one was injured, a military spokesman said. And fighting continued to rage in the holy city of Kufa between U.S. soldiers and militiamen loyal to a rebel Shiite cleric.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces backed by tanks and helicopter gunships battled yesterday to contain a widening Shiite rebellion, pushing deep into the holy city of Najaf and encircling the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City. U.S. commanders in Najaf said they had killed 300 members of the rebel militia loyal to renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr since fighting flared there Thursday. But the figure could not be independently confirmed, and a spokesman for al-Sadr said the toll was 36. Two Marines were killed Thursday, U.S. officials said, bringing to three the number of U.S. deaths in the worst fighting in more than two months.

Burton N. Cox Jr., a retired civil engineer and Korean War veteran, died Sept. 15 of prostate cancer at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 84. Mr. Cox, the son of a salesman and a secretary, was born in Baltimore and raised in Mount Washington. He was a 1943 graduate of Polytechnic Institute and earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1946 from Villanova University, where he had been a member of the Marine Corps unit of the Navy's V-12 program. Commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marines, Mr. Cox went to work in 1946 for Rummel, Klepper & Kahl — now RK&K — at a time when the firm had eight employees.

President Bush closed his remarks to the nation last night by noting the war-related death of a Maryland Marine whose sacrifice, he said, helped "fight a great evil and bring liberty to others." The mention of Cpl. Jason David Mileo, 20, of Pasadena in the president's speech did not surprise his father, Phillip Hall of Centreville. Hall said he was aware that the president was going to mention his son in the address aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. But he missed the speech because of a misunderstanding over its time.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's prime minister urged Iraqis yesterday to accept the need for U.S. troops to stay in Iraq after his government takes over, on a day that claimed the lives of five U.S. soldiers in an ambush in Baghdad. Addressing the nation for the first time in a televised speech, Iyad Allawi warned of a "major disaster" should U.S. troops withdraw before Iraq's own army and police are strong enough to secure the country. Allawi urged Iraqis not to support the "evil forces" attacking U.S. forces and said American soldiers would be needed for a long time to come to ensure security.

TIKRIT, Iraq - American troops have uncovered huge weapons caches in Saddam Hussein's tribal hometown of Tikrit in recent days, a discovery that bolsters the theory that the deposed president may have planned his last stand there. U.S. troops patrolling through the town cemetery on Tuesday stumbled across a huge system of bunkers and trenches among the graves that held ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and SAM 6 and SAM 7 surface-to-air missiles. Earlier this week, 50,000 rifles and rocket launchers - many still in their crates - were uncovered in unused patient wards at the local military hospital.

Norman Charles Craig, a Marine who fought in the Korean War, died in his sleep Monday at his West Baltimore home. He was 73. Born and raised in West Baltimore, Mr. Craig graduated in 1949 from Frederick Douglass High School, where he had been a member of the school's boxing team. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1951 and, after completing basic training, was sent into combat with the 1st Marine Division in Korea. During his tenure in Korea, Mr. Craig participated in some of the most furious fighting of the war, including the assault on Pork Chop Hill.