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JB Stone
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 Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 4:42 am Post subject: |
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After engaging in fierce house-to-house fighting, marines with the First Battalion, Eighth Marines, moved in Tuesday to secure an Islamic cultural center in Falluja, taking aim at insurgents in nearby buildings.
A marine was pulled from the line of fire Tuesday after he and four others were wounded in street fighting.
| Quote: | In Taking Falluja Mosque, Victory by the Inch
New York Times ^ | 11/10/04 | Dexter Filkins
Posted on 11/09/2004 8:02:36 PM PST by saquin
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 9 - After nearly 16 hours of fighting, the United States marines thought they had finally won their battle for the green-domed mosque, which insurgents had been using as a command center.
Then a car drove up behind a group of the marines on Al Thurthar Street. Seven men bristling with Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades and black ammunition belts spilled onto the street, ready to fight at point-blank range. The marines turned and fired, and killed four of them immediately, blowing one man's head entirely away before he fell on his back onto the pavement, his arms spread wide.
Three more fled. Cpl. Jason Huyghe cornered two of them in a courtyard. One of them, he suddenly realized, was wearing a belt packed with explosives.
"I saw the guy roll over and pull something on his jacket," Corporal Huyghe said, "and he exploded."
The seventh man limped into the dark streets of the city and escaped.
The battle for Falluja does not fall into any neat category, and even the messy label of urban warfare does not capture the intensity and unpredictability of this battlefield. In some places, the insurgents appear to fire and fall back, perhaps trying to tease the marines into ambushes or dissolve into the grimy fabric of the city to fight another day.
But elsewhere, they hold their ground until the buildings around them are obliterated, or open fire abruptly from exposed positions and are literally cut to pieces. Nothing here makes sense, but the Americans' superior training and firepower eventually seem to prevail.
This fight started around 8 p.m. on Monday, with the troops, from the First Battalion, Eighth Marines, pinned down only 50 feet from where they had poured across Falluja's northern boundary. Under heavy fire, they called in artillery and airstrikes but were still there at 4 a.m., battling insurgents in a water tower 600 yards away. Finally, the Americans annihilated the tower with rockets, machine-gun fire from AC-130 gunships and other weapons, and started to move again.
Gradually, they worked their way toward the Muhammadia Mosque, which was about halfway to the center of the city. They had to fight for every inch of ground; one insurgent with an AK-47 could pin down the whole company. Insurgents were firing from an entire row of buildings, including the mosque. Tens of thousands of rounds cracked through the air in all directions.
At one point, 40 marines ran across a street in front of the mosque. One fell, and Cpl. Jake Knospler rushed to drag him away. "By the time I got to the street, two more marines were down," Corporal Knospler said later, his pant legs smeared with blood.
In fact, five marines were wounded in that one incident. The advance ground to a halt again: although the marines had four Abrams tanks, quarters were too close for their guns to be much good during most of the fight.
The confusion was such that at one point, a tank fired a phosphorous round that rained down on the American troops, breaking into a hundred flaming pieces and burning backpacks and gear but seriously hurting no one.
The wounds and the exhaustion were taking their toll on the marines. At one point, Capt. Read Omohundro, the company commander, turned to speak to the young man who was always at his side with the radio to find that only the man's aide was there.
"Where's Sergeant Hudson?" the captain asked.
"He's been shot, sir,'' came the reply.
In the end, the tanks fired at least eight rounds at the perimeter of the mosque; a dozen Howitzer shells followed. The marines opened the doors of the mosque for Iraqi security forces to clear out the interior; it was thought better to let the Iraqis go into the holy place, even though it had been transformed into a kind of barracks.
The Iraqis entered, their uniforms crisp and spotless because they had done none of the fighting until then, and fought with the insurgents and won.
The day was not all destruction. As the marines fought their way through a town seemingly empty of civilians, it was a surprise when the troops leaped into a house during a firefight to find a confused elderly man seated on the front porch. He was dressed in brown pajamas and he was alone. The marines gathered around him, with the bullets zinging past.
"Afwan,'' he said in Arabic, the word for "excuse me." "Afwan."
The marines moved on and left him standing on the porch. |
Seven men bristling with Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades and black ammunition belts spilled onto the street, ready to fight at point-blank range. The marines turned and fired, and killed four of them immediately, blowing one man's head entirely away before he fell on his back onto the pavement, his arms spread wide.
U.S.-Led Assault Marks Advances Against Falluja
By DEXTER FILKINS and ROBERT F. WORTH
Published: November 10, 2004
FALLUJA, Iraq, Wednesday, Nov. 10 - After two days of street-to-street fighting, the American-led assault on Falluja had wrested at least a third of the city from insurgents on Tuesday, capturing the mayor's office, two mosques, a commercial center and other major objectives in the heart of the downtown and advancing past the main highway through the city.
The insurgents continued to fight and withdraw to new positions as American and Iraqi military forces - relying heavily on artillery and air support - pushed in from the north. Battles continued in the south Falluja neighborhoods of Resala and Nazal as the insurgents appeared to be retreating along a central corridor toward the southern fringes of the city.
At the Pentagon, Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, the commander of day-to-day military operations in Iraq, said in a video teleconference from Baghdad that commanders anticipated "several more days of tough urban fighting" before the Falluja offensive was over. He said most of the military's objectives had been met "on or ahead of schedule" against a force of 2,000 to 3,000 insurgents. The military said that by Tuesday evening, at least 10 American service members and two Iraqi soldiers had been killed in the assault. In the 24-hour period ending at 2 a.m. Wednesday, 31 American and Iraqi troops had been wounded and more than 100 insurgents killed, officials said. In the first significant political fallout over the offensive, the country's most prominent Sunni party said it was withdrawing from the interim Iraqi government, and the leading group of Sunni clerics called for a boycott of the upcoming elections.
The last American attempt to stage an assault on Falluja, in April, bogged down amid outrage over reports of civilian casualties, and insurgents consolidated their control over the city in May.
American and Iraqi officials have said securing Falluja is a crucial step in ensuring that elections planned for January can be conducted safely.
After a day of violence in several cities across the country, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declared a daily curfew in Baghdad from 10:30 p.m. to 4 a.m., to last indefinitely, the first in the capital in more than a year. The Associated Press reported that a statement posted on an Islamic Web site in the name of eight known militant groups in Iraq, warned Baghdad residents to stay home on Wednesday "to avoid putting their lives in danger."
Thaier al-Naqib, the spokesman for Dr. Allawi, held a news conference at a military camp near Falluja where he read a statement from the prime minister calling for the insurgents to lay down their weapons.
"A peaceful solution to the city of Falluja is possible, and we can spare the rest of the city military confrontation," Mr. Naqib said. "The Iraqi military forces are ready to enter Falluja peacefully and lay their authority over it after armed men and terrorists lay down their weapons."
Although Dr. Allawi has said he made the best possible effort to reach a peaceful solution before ordering the offensive, leaders of Falluja have criticized the government for not giving the negotiations a chance.
In Falluja, Iraqi troops have generally not taken part in the main fighting, being largely relegated to following behind the Americans and searching houses and other buildings after the battles end.
When asked about the performance of new Iraqi security forces, General Metz said they had performed ably and that he had received no reports of discipline problems.
"They have assisted in clearing buildings and homes because it's a manpower-intensive battle in the urban terrain," he said. "And they have performed very well in all those clearing operations."
At least one enormous battle raged in the center of Falluja until midday Tuesday, as American marines and soldiers, followed by the Iraqi forces, ground their way south and captured the Muhammadia mosque, which insurgents had been using as a command center and bunker. Eight marines were wounded in the operation, and the military said it had killed many insurgents.
After nearly 16 hours of fighting, First Sgt. Ronald Whittington, with the First Battalion, Eighth Marines, appeared stunned after five of his men went down in a single moment after dashing through machine-gun fire to cross the road in front of the mosque.
"It was bad, bad," Sergeant Whittington said. "I don't know where the shooting was coming from."
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By evening there was a lull in the fighting, and American tanks and other units were patrolling along the main east-west road through Falluja, variously called Main Street, Highway 10 and, by the Americans, Route Michigan. Relentless airstrikes and artillery fire abated, at least momentarily.
First Lt. Lyle L. Gilbert, a spokesman for the First Marine Expeditionary Force, said American and Iraqi forces controlled at least a third of the city.
Military officials said the invading force also quickly overran Jolan, the northwestern sector thought to hold as many as 1,000 of the most hardened resistance fighters. The officials said surveillance showed the American-led force moving steadily southward along main arterials and passing through the twisting alleys of Jolan, which was thought to pose a special challenge because of its dense network of ancient streets.
Early in the day, the troops secured a park in the Jolan area that had been one of their major early objectives, military officials said.
But two residents who have remained in the city, Ahmad Abdul Jabbar and Talaat Naji, said the bulk of the American forces appeared to stay on a main north-south road on the eastern edge of Jolan, called April 7 Street, and bypass the neighborhood proper. Mr. Naji said there was only sporadic firing in Jolan.
The American military stopped short of entering Jolan during the military operation in Falluja last April. But Mr. Naji said he saw brisk fighting in the southwestern neighborhoods of Resala and Nazal.
The insurgents could be seen on radar images collapsing southward in a central corridor toward the more modern southern neighborhood of Shuhada, the military said. That area, known to American military planners as Queens, was the source of most of the mortars that rained down on marines and soldiers as they pressed southward in the invasion, officials said.
The advance paused after reaching Highway 10, with the troops on the city's eastern side perched on the edge of an industrial area used by insurgents to build bombs and store weapons, often under the cover of auto-parts shops.
The roads around Falluja remained empty, with American military units maintaining a tight cordon around the city. The remaining residents appeared to be staying home as well, military commanders said.
"The only people we've seen are men dressed in black carrying weapons," said Col. Michael D. Formica, the commander in charge of the isolation effort. "I do not want these guys to get out of here," Colonel Formica said of the insurgents. "I want them killed or captured as they flee."
General Metz said most adversaries were now fighting in small units and were unable to mount a unified defense of the city.
"We felt like the enemy would form an outer crust in defense of Falluja," he said. "We broke through that pretty quickly and easily. We also then anticipated him breaking up into small three- to six-person detachments or squads, which we've seen throughout the day."
"There are leaders in Falluja that are orchestrating the battle to the best of their ability, which appears not to be very good. They seem to be, again, fighting in very small groups, without much coherence to the defense," General Metz said.
He acknowledged that terrorist-style attacks across the Sunni region of Iraq outside Falluja were a counteroffensive to the American and Iraqi mission in Falluja.
"Things in the south and the far north are very calm, and it's this former-regime part of the country, formerly known as the Sunni Triangle, Ramadi to Baghdad and up to Samarra and Tikrit, is where we're seeing the most of the activity, and I think it is associated with our operation in Falluja," General Metz added.
more than 100 insurgents killed, officials said.
Yeah, WAY more.....
"There are leaders in Falluja that are orchestrating the battle to the best of their ability, which appears not to be very good.
Darn. |
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Kimmymac
Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Posts: 816
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 4:57 am Post subject: |
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French military strategist? They have that in France?
Uh, ya just raise your hands and wave something white, frogs.
I am sure they know the drill by now, I don't think they need any strategeryexperts to tell them how to surrender.
_________________
The last refuge of scoundrels is not patriotism; it is finicky liberal humanitarianism.--Martin Paretz |
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JB Stone
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 11:53 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Battle rages in centre of Falluja
US armour in Falluja
Marines have come under fire from mosques - and have fired back
US marines have taken the mayor's office in central Falluja in a morning of fierce fighting, and say they now control 70% of the Iraqi city.
Reporting from the mayoral compound, the BBC's Paul Wood says a battle is still raging in the city centre while US-led forces control the perimeter.
According to US estimates, hundreds of rebels were killed on Wednesday alone and at least one more marine died.
Relief groups say they are deeply worried about the fate of civilians.
As for casualties on the insurgents' side, I can tell you that they are dying
Lt Lyle Gilbert
marine spokesman
Our correspondent says no civilians can be seen on the streets, shops are shuttered and black smoke is rising all around.
Fadhil Badrani, a journalist in Falluja who reports for the BBC World Service in Arabic, says the city now looks like Kabul, the Afghan capital largely reduced to rubble after years of warfare.
One marine officer, Maj Francis Piccoli, said the rebels were hemmed into a strip of the city bordering the east-west motorway which splits Falluja.
"There's going to be a movement today in those areas," he added.
New casualties
Marines backed by tanks met little opposition when they blasted their way into the mayor's compound, which also houses a police station, at around 0400 local time (0100 GMT), Paul Wood reports.
URBAN WARFARE
Techniques, tactics and the history of fighting in cities
However, they came under sustained fire around dawn from the minaret of a mosque, says our correspondent, whose reports are subject to military restrictions.
According to marines, the rebels waved a white flag at one stage but opened fire from three directions when a marine interpreter tried to begin talks. The marines then called in air strikes.
The US military's last official casualty toll for Falluja, released on Tuesday evening, gave 10 US soldiers dead along with two Iraqi government troops.
"As for casualties on the insurgents' side, I can tell you that they are dying," marine spokesman Lt Lyle Gilbert told AFP news agency. "A lot of them are dying and this is a good thing."
The marine battalion our correspondent is accompanying suffered at least one fatality on Wednesday and several marines were seriously injured.
In other developments:
* Militants launch sustained gun and rocket attacks in Mosul as US aircraft fly low above the northern city
* Three relatives of the Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi are abducted in Baghdad
* Roadside bombs near the northern city of Kirkuk kill six Iraqi national guardsmen
* One US soldier is killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad
Iraqi protests
Lt Gen Thomas Metz, the multinational ground force commander in Iraq, said troops were achieving their objectives on, or ahead of, schedule but warned that "several more days of tough urban fighting" lay ahead.
Many rebel leaders including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi appear to have fled before the assault began, he added.
In Washington, President George W Bush praised the US-led forces in Falluja for their "hard work... for a free Iraq".
However, Iraq's largest Sunni-led political party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, pulled out of the interim government in protest at the Falluja assault.
The main association of Sunni clerics also voiced its disapproval, calling for a boycott of elections due in January.
'Total destruction'
The United Nations refugee agency and the International Committee of the Red Cross have expressed concern about the civilians in Falluja.
Most of the city's 300,000 civilians fled the city before the offensive began, but up to 50,000 are estimated to remain there.
FALLUJA ASSAULT FACTS
Up to 15,000 US and Iraqi troops involved
Estimated 3,000 Iraqi insurgent and foreign fighters in city
Estimated 50,000 civilians remain out of usual population of some 300,000
Paul Wood notes that despite efforts by US forces to select targets carefully, their use of heavy artillery and tanks is bound to lead to civilian casualties.
A un-named man claiming to be a rebel fighter told the BBC's Today programme that the destruction in Falluja was "total".
"The Americans are bombing everywhere - everything is destroyed," he said. "The water is cut off, the electricity was cut off. Everything is destroyed. I , for example, haven't eaten for six days."
The assault on Falluja is aimed at stabilising Iraq ahead of January's poll.
The Sunni Muslim city has been a hotbed of resistance to US-led troops since the toppling of Saddam Hussein last year.
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Marines tighten grip in Falluja
·Three of Allawi's relatives 'kidnapped'
· Fighting in city centre
· 'Iraqi flag above police station'
Staff and agencies
Wednesday November 10, 2004
US marines today said that they had taken control of 70% of Falluja in the third day of a major offensive to retake the insurgent stronghold.
The Iraqi flag was raised over the main police station in the centre of the city, which has become the focus of fighting as the US forces push down from the north, Sky News reported.
Major Francis Piccoli, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said insurgent fighters were holed up in a strip of the city flanking the major east-west highway that splits Falluja.
"There's going to be a movement today in those areas. The heart of the city is what's in focus now," he said.
Meanwhile, three members of the family of the Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, have been kidnapped by gunmen.
A spokesman for the Iraqi interim government said Mr Allawi's first cousin, the cousin's wife and another family member were taken from their home in Baghdad yesterday morning. Read more here
In Falluja, where Mr Allawi had given permission for the offensive, US army and marine units pushed south overnight.
They have been meeting resistance from scattered groups of insurgents. Some armoured US units have stayed behind in the north, which they claimed was now "secured and under control", and were also guarding the central thoroughfare.
Fighting was ongoing in the centre but the insurgents were believed to be falling back toward the southern end of the city, perhaps for a last stand.
There were air strikes overnight, which included a US helicopter attack on an insurgent rocket launcher nest in the south-west of the city, which is around 40 miles west of Baghdad.
There was a lull in fighting overnight but the battle was rejoined early this morning. It has been reported that marines in the city's centre were trying to draw out insurgents, to discover their positions and then move in on them.
The US military said at least 71 militants were killed in intense urban combat in the city's deserted and narrow lanes, but the number was expected to rise sharply once US forces account for those killed in airstrikes.
As of last night, 10 US troops and two members of the Iraqi security force had been killed, a toll that equalled the number of American troops who died when marines besieged the city for three weeks in April. During that three-week battle, reports claimed between 300 and 600 civilians died.
During this offensive, marine reports said 25 American troops and 16 Iraqi soldiers were wounded. Also today, a US soldier was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad. There were also reports of fighting in the northern city of Mosul.
Faced with overwhelming force, resistance in Falluja did not appear as fierce as expected, but US commanders said they still expected several more days of fighting.
US and Iraqi troops captured two key landmarks yesterday - a mosque and a neighbouring convention centre that insurgents used for launching attacks, according to a Los Angeles Times reporter embedded with US forces.
| Quote: | 2 members of Allawi's family said abducted
11/10/2004, 6:12 a.m. ET
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Two members of the Iraqi prime minister's family were abducted from their Baghdad home, his spokesman said Wednesday, and militants said they would be beheaded in two days if their demands are not met.
From Our Advertiser
Interim government spokesman Thair al-Naqeeb said in a statement that militants had snatched interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's two relatives from their home in the western Yarmouk neighborhood Tuesday evening.
Al-Naqeeb identified the missing as the prime minister's cousin, Ghazi Allawi, and the cousin's daughter-in-law.
"Ghazi Allawi is 75 years old. He has no political affiliation, and is not holding a government post," the statement said.
A posting on an Islamic Web site by a group calling itself Ansar al-Jihad group claimed responsibility for kidnapping three Allawi relatives, and threatened to behead them in 48 hours if their demands aren't met.
They demanded that Allawi and his government release all female and male detainees in Iraq, and lift the siege on Fallujah.
"We promise Allah and his messenger that if the agent government doesn't respond to our demands within 48 hours, they (the hostages) will be beheaded."
The group claims to have kidnapped Allawi's cousin, the cousin's wife and another relative. The claim's authenticity couldn't be verified.
Hundreds of Iraqis have been kidnapped in recent months, mainly by groups demanding ransom payments.
More than 170 foreigners have been kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's regime fell in April 2003. More than 30 foreign hostages have been killed. Many of the kidnappers pursue political motives such as the withdrawal of foreign companies and troops from Iraq.
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Mosques bombed as fighting rages in Falluja
Wednesday 10 November 2004, 14:25 Makka Time, 11:25 GMT
The US says its forces met tough resistance
Related:
Clashes flare across Iraq
'Scores of civilians' killed in Falluja
Hospital hit as fighting rages in Falluja
Sunni party quits interim government
Police stations hit in Baquba
Almost half of the mosques in the Iraqi city of Falluja have been destroyed as US warplanes launch air strikes and fierce fighting on the ground continues.
An Iraqi journalist told Aljazeera that US forces on Wednesday resumed attacks on the city, targeting Julan in the northwest to al-Jughaivi in the northeast.
Fadil al-Badrani said there are an estimated 120 mosques in the city.
"Almost half of the city's mosques have been destroyed after being targeted by US air and tank strikes," al-Badrani added.
Fierce clashes also erupted between armed fighters and the US forces thrust deeper into the city in the early hours, he said.
Machinegun, mortar and rocket fire shook the city as planes made several bombing runs over Julan district in the space of 15 minutes, a Reuters reporter said.
Smoke was rising from houses just beyond Falluja's captured rail station, where marines and Iraqi forces have a base.
Marines said their opponents showed no signs of giving up, even though US forces penetrated to the centre of the city, west of Baghdad, after an offensive launched on Monday night.
Resistance strong
A tank platoon that moved along Falluja's main street saw fighters who had just come under mortar fire climb onto rooftops and fire rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and machineguns.
"There are lots of them. We took heavy fire," Gunnery Sergeant Ishmail Castillo told Reuters. "They opened up on my tank. They don't look like they are going to cave in."
US troops encountered fierce resistance in the city
Castillo said his tank had killed six guerrillas and that two marines were wounded in fighting. "One of the marines was hit in the head by RPG shrapnel," he said.
"They hit us from one area and then another right afterwards. There is in-depth organisation. There were small-arms attacks all night," he said.
Al-Badrani said US forces had taken some casualties. "Two US military tanks have been so far destroyed in Julan neighbourhood where the most violent clashes are taking place," he said.
"Three US armoured vehicles have been also destroyed in other parts of the city. The clashes are very violent. Fighters have showed up from other neighbourhoods and streets the US forces are unfamiliar with.
"US forces entered central Falluja city at around 12.00 (Iraqi local time) but were fiercely attacked by the fighters," al-Badrani said.
"They withdrew from the area after half an hour, heading for their positions in the northern parts of the city," he added.
Residents told al-Badrani the crews of two US tanks deserted their vehicles in Julan leaving them to be seized by fighters.
Resistance
Marine tanks that pushed through central Falluja on Tuesday night met tough resistance.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday evening that at least 10 US and two Iraqi soldiers had died in the offensive unleashed by 10,000 US soldiers and marines and 2000 Iraqi troops.
Up to 10,000 US troops are
participating in the offensive
US marines poured hundreds of rounds into rebel positions and blasted buildings with tank shells on Tuesday, but also took casualties with bloodied troops stretchered away.
American aircraft destroyed one building in Falluja with a laser-guided bomb after US and Iraqi forces came under fire from insurgents inside, the US military said.
Explosions could be heard across Falluja after nightfall, but large-scale fighting appeared to have eased.
"I think we are looking at several more days of tough urban fighting," said the US commander in charge of day-to-day military operations in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Thomas Metz.
Children dying
The assault on Falluja, where residents say wounded children are dying from lack of medical help, food shops are closed and power is cut, angered Muslim clerics who urged Iraqis to boycott January elections seen as vital to peace.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who on Tuesday imposed a night curfew on Baghdad for an indefinite period, got a personal taste of the clerics' anger at a Ramadan iftar meal the same day.
"You have to stop fighting for four or five hours," Adnan al-Dulaimi, a Sunni official in the Religious Affairs Ministry, urged Allawi before the evening meal, a pool reporter said.
Iyad Allawi's (R) actions have
been criticised by Muslim clerics
"There are a lot of injured that have to be taken care of. Give them time to rescue the injured. There are civilians getting killed in Falluja. You are responsible for their lives in front of God," Dulaimi declared.
"As you know, we tried every alternative before resorting to military force," Allawi replied. "We have nothing against the civilians of Falluja ...They are the sons of this country."
Boycott call
In a move which could undermine the 27 January polls, the influential Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) urged a boycott.
"The clerics call on the ... people of Iraq to boycott the coming elections that they want to hold on the remains of the dead and the blood of the wounded from Iraqi cities like Falluja and others," said Harith al-Dhari, its top official.
Residents say scores of civilians died and for those struggling to live in the city, life is grim.
Many of the city's 300,000 people had fled to escape air strikes and artillery bombardments preceding the assault. The US military said about 150,000 residents had left.
Those left behind say they have no power and use kerosene lamps. They keep to ground floors for safety, some living in shattered homes because it is too dangerous to move.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, USMC:
"THE INSURGENT DETERGENT, WHEN YOU NEED TO GET THE REALLY TOUGH DIRT OUT"
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JB Stone
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | US 'making good progress' in Fallujah
(Filed: 10/11/2004)
American forces now hold about 70 per cent of the Sunni rebel stronghold of Fallujah with the strongest foothold in the northwest and west of the Iraqi city, US military sources say.
US forces expect to control Fallujah shortly
Tank regiments battled their way through to the Euphrates River while American fighters fought insurgents in Fallujah's alleys and streets after a swift advance.
The northwestern neighbuorhood of Jolan, which has been the seen of some fierce fighting, was now "secured and under control," although Marines were expected to continue house-to-house searches for fighters and weapons.
Key civic buildings had been retaken, including Fallujah's mayoral office.
Several mosques, bridges and military buildings have also been secured and several caches of arms and explosives discovered.
"Insurgent-reinforced strongholds in and around the city have been destroyed, including insurgent defensive positions on the outskirts of the city," a statement by the US military said.
Only small pockets of fighters" are still fighting, it added
Residents said US troops appeared to be in control of about 40 per cent of Fallujah, and had only taken part of Jolan.
Eleven US troops and two Iraqi soldiers have been killed, and nine Iraqi troops injured, in the firefight. Military experts expect the city to be under control within two or three days.
More than 70 militants have been killed, the US military said, but no civilian casualty figures were immediately available.
The onslaught follows the announcement of an indefinite curfew on the city two days ago.
Ayad Allawi, the interim Iraq prime minister, imposed a curfew on Mosul today, the country's third largest city after heavy fighting.
In Baghdad, kidnappers abducted two members of Mr Allawi's family - his cousin Ghazi Allawi, 75, and the cousin's daughter-in-law.
They were taken from their home yesterday by armed men, government spokesman Thair al-Naqeeb said.
A militant group calling itself Ansar al-Jihad claimed on the internet that it had carried out the kidnapping and would behead the hostages within 48 hours unless the siege of Fallujah was lifted and prisoners were freed.
The claim's authenticity could not immediately be verified. |
US to control Fallujah soon
10/11/2004 14:33 - (SA)
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Fallujah - United States marines expect to take complete control of the Iraqi rebel bastion of Fallujah within 48 hours if their assault continues on course, a US military officer said on Wednesday.
"If everything goes as planned we will take full control of the city in the next 48 hours," the officer said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officer said the marines would need up to a week to make the north-east corner of Fallujah safe "and at least 10 days to clear the city."
"For now we are clearing pockets of resistance," the officer said. "We had lots of IEDs," military speak for homemade explosive devices, left for unwary troops, and a favourite technique of insurgents in Iraq.
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NOTE THE SOURCE....
| Quote: |
FALLUJAH, November 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein’s alleged gassing of the Kurds in1988 .
“The US occupation troops are gassing resistance fighters and confronting them with internationally-banned chemical weapons,” resistance sources told Al-Quds Press Wednesday, November10 .
The fatal weapons led to the deaths of tens of innocent civilians, whose bodies litter sidewalks and streets, they added.
“They use chemical weapons out of despair and helplessness in the face of the steadfast and fierce resistance put up by Fallujah people, who drove US troops out of several districts, hoisting proudly Iraqi flags on them. Resistance has also managed to destroy and set fire to a large number of US tanks and vehicles.
“The US troops have sprayed chemical and nerve gases on resistance fighters, turning them hysteric in a heartbreaking scene,” an Iraqi doctor, who requested anonymity, told Al-Quds Press.
“Some Fallujah residents have been further burnt beyond treatment by poisonous gases,” added resistance fighters, who took part in Golan battles, northwest of Fallujah.
In August last year, the United States admitted dropping the internationally-banned incendiary weapon of napalm on Iraq, despite earlier denials by the Pentagon that the “horrible” weapon had not been used in the three-week invasion of Iraq.
After the offensive on Iraq ended on April 9 last year, Iraqis began to complain about unexploded cluster bombs that still litter their cities.
Media Blackout
A US tank pushing its way in Fallujah streets
The sources said that the media blackout, the banning of Al-Jazeera satellite channel and subjective embedded journalists played well into the hands of the US military.
“Therefore, US troops opted for using internationally banned weapons to soften the praiseworthy resistance of Fallujah people.
“More and more, the US military edits and censors reports sent by embedded journalists to their respective newspapers and news agencies,” the sources added.
Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Al-Shaalan had said Tuesday, November9 , would be decisive.
“Al-Shaalan declaration meant nothing but the use of chemical weapons and poisonous gases to down Fallujah fighters,” observers told Al-Quds Press.
The reported gassing stands as a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurdish community in the northern city of Halbja in 1988 .
While the West insisted that Saddam was the one behind the heinous attack, the ousted president pointed fingers at the then Iranian regime. |
“The US troops have sprayed chemical and nerve gases on resistance fighters, turning them hysteric in a heartbreaking scene,” an Iraqi doctor, who requested anonymity, told Al-Quds Press.
Yeah....like WE made them hysterical...???
Well, at least the guys who covered the presidential campaigns still have their jobs.....  |
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noc
PO1
Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 492
Location: Dublin, CA
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 5:58 pm Post subject: |
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This time we will finish it!
November 09, 2004, 1:39 p.m.
Into Fallujah
Finishing the Job.
http://www.nationalreview.com/editorial/editors200411091339.asp
This time we're for real. Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld said Monday that we wouldn't have started this latest fight for Fallujah unless we were going to finish it.
The administration made one of the biggest mistakes of the war in April, when it pulled back Marines who may have been days away from taking Fallujah. The decision was understandable, given the political circumstances (outrage at the alleged slaughter in the city). But it turned out to be a disaster, emboldening our enemies and giving them a sanctuary. Conditions are different now. There is an Iraqi government in power and it, rather than an American occupation authority, has taken the decision to seize the city. Iraq has sent emissaries to surrounding Arab capitals, to try to tamp down the outrage — feigned and otherwise — against the assault. Iraqi government officials are also aggressively mounting a public-relations campaign within Iraq to defend and explain the action. Finally, Iraqi military units will be part of the offensive, in a key test of their readiness.
“Fallujah will be part of a
larger operation to establish
order in the Sunni triangle,
in an attempt to create decent
conditions for a January election.”
There are two broad objectives in Fallujah. The first is to deny the insurgents their sanctuary. When we were pressing Fallujah in April, suicide bombings declined throughout the country. Since then, the city has become an incubator of murder. Fallujah will be part of a larger operation to establish order in the Sunni triangle, in an attempt to create decent conditions for a January election. Securing that political process is the second, and arguably paramount, objective. Despite simplistic accounts in the media, Sunni opinion in Iraq is not a monolith. Crushing the Fallujah rebellion will, the administration and Allawi hope, allow moderate Sunnis to be able to participate in the political process without intimidation.
That process is in better shape than is widely acknowledged. The Shia and the Kurds are 80 percent of the population and broadly on-board the new Iraq. Elections will be crucial to providing legitimacy to the new order and creating a measure of political stability. But elections have powerful enemies. The word is that the U.N. bureaucracy in New York is doing all it can to delay or derail them, although the U.N. official on the ground in Iraq, Carlos Valenzuela, is doing heroic work.
When Allawi addressed some of the Iraqi troops, telling them they need to liberate a city held "hostage" by radicals and terrorists, they yelled in response "may they go to hell!" "To hell they will go," replied Allawi. Victory in Iraq depends on that kind of national will prevailing in a battle for the country's, and the region's, soul. |
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sleeplessinseattle
LCDR
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 430
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Kimmymac wrote: | French military strategist? They have that in France?
Uh, ya just raise your hands and wave something white, frogs.
I am sure they know the drill by now, I don't think they need any strategeryexperts to tell them how to surrender. |
Hey! Surrendering can be tough - you may accidentally get shot...then where would your vaunted French sensibilities be? 
_________________
"We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail." -- President Bush 2001
Thanks W, Swifties, POWs & brave soldiers everywhere fighting for America and for freedom |
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sleeplessinseattle
LCDR
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 430
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 8:34 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=ajhpbq6MJ6vA&refer=europe
| Quote: | "Iraqi Major General Abdul Qader Mohan told reporters in a televised briefing today that the military found a house in Fallujah that was used to execute foreign hostages, a hallmark of the al-Zarqawi network...The U.S. and Allawi's administration have repeatedly said Fallujah harbors terrorists associated with Zarqawi, whose group has claimed responsibility for attacks across Iraq and the beheadings of foreign hostages from such countries as the U.S., the U.K. and Japan.
The house found by Iraqi troops contained black clothing used by the kidnappers, and records of names, Mohan said, without disclosing additional information." |
Uh, I hope Zarqawi, his bloody kitchen knife and his sickie thugs are in pieces on the bottom of a tank tread. Further, I commend their souls to the devil... 
_________________
"We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail." -- President Bush 2001
Thanks W, Swifties, POWs & brave soldiers everywhere fighting for America and for freedom |
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JB Stone
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | 
Rebels stage Fallujah fightback
By Lech Mintowt-czyz, Evening Standard
10 November 2004
Fresh fighting erupted today in areas of Fallujah declared "cleared" by US forces.
After battling to the centre of the city yesterday, American commanders had thought they controlled at least its northern third - with rebel fighters fleeing to southern districts to regroup.
But at first light intense machinegun, mortar and rocket exchanges opened up in the north-western district of Jolan.
The area, said yesterday to have been taken in a "smooth" operation, with lighter resistance than expected, came once more under intense artillery and air bombardment.
Air strikes arrived at a rate of six every 15 minutes. Explosions again rocked an area already said to have had half its buildings flattened in two days of solid shelling.
Smoke rose from houses just beyond Fallujah's captured railway station, where marines and Iraqi forces have a base, and from Hay al-Askari district.
Major Clark Watson said his forces were determined to wipe out resistance.
"We've reached the heart of Jolan," he said. "We have pushed through four square kilometres, but it's too early to say we are controlling it. That will take time because there will always be pockets of resistance."
As periods of savage fighting became interspersed with calm through the day, helicopters were also called in to allow further advances by Marine infantry and Iraqi troops.
"There are still many snipers in buildings," said Alaa Abboud, an Iraqi soldier fighting in Jolan. "We're trying to surround them and take them out."
With other key sites, such as the main police station and mayor's office, coming under heavy rifle and rocket fire from buildings including mosques, at least one tank shell was fired at a mosque.
Despite the renewed fighting in the north of the city, Major Francis Piccoli of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force claimed US forces were now in charge of 70 per cent of Fallujah after a push towards the southern outskirts.
But he said rebels remained in control of a band of territory through the centre. "The heart of the city is what's in focus now," he added.
Up to 15,000 US troops, backed by thousands of Iraqi soldiers, are engaged in the assault against a force of rebels believed to number no more than 6,000.
A military spokesman said the assault had so far resulted in the deaths of 10 American soldiers and two men from allied Iraqi units. He claimed at least 71 insurgents have been killed in the fighting in the last 24 hours.
An insurgent calling himself Abu Khalid - a former major in Saddam Hussein's army and now a mid-level commander in Fallujah - confirmed the fears of US military chiefs by saying the insurgent leaders had already left the city to avoid capture.
Khalid claimed they decided two days before the offensive to flee, leaving only half of their men behind to fight.
"From a military point of view, if a city is surrounded and bombarded the result of the battle is pre-ordained," he said.
Khalid said insurgent leaders had debated how many men to leave in the city. "They discussed percentages like 20 per cent inside the city and 80 per cent outside - to save as many fighters as possible for future operations," he said.
"In the end they settled on a 50-50 split. We told the fighters that those who want to stay alive and fight should leave, and those who want to become martyrs in this battle should stay."
Lieutenant-General Thomas Metz, the US commander in charge of day-to-day military operations in Iraq, said: "I think we are looking at several more days of tough urban fighting."
He said that because US forces formed a "very tight" cordon around the city on Sunday night, the enemy now "doesn't have an escape route" and eventually would be cornered.
He also claimed that civilian losses had so far been small, despite estimates that up to 100,000 residents decided to remain in the city. |
U.S. forces claim control of 70 per cent of besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah
Canadian Press
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - U.S. forces battled south through Fallujah's narrow lanes and alleys Wednesday to take control of 70 per cent of the insurgent stronghold and rebel fighters were bottled up in a strip of land flanking the main east-west highway that splits the city, the military said.
Major Francis Piccoli, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, characterized fighting overnight as "light to moderate" and said U.S. casualties were "extremely light." "There's going to be a movement today in those areas. The heart of the city is what's in focus now," he said.
The northwestern neighbourhood Jolan, a warren of crooked streets where Sunni Muslim militants and foreign fighters had rigged booby traps, is now "secured and under control," he said, although marines were expected to continue house-to-house searches for fighters and weapons.
The U.S. military said at least 71 militants had been killed as of the beginning of the third day of the intense urban combat. The number was expected to rise sharply once U.S. forces account for insurgents killed in air strikes.
As of Tuesday night, 10 U.S. troops and two members of the Iraqi security force had been killed, a toll that already equalled the number of U.S. troops who died when marines besieged the city for three weeks in April.
Marine reports Wednesday said 25 U.S. troops and 16 Iraqi soldiers were wounded.
Also Wednesday, one U.S. soldier was killed and a second was wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad. In northern Iraq, six Iraqi soldiers died and two were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near an Iraqi military camp.
Earlier, as many as eight attack aircraft - including jets and helicopter gunships - blasted guerrilla strongholds and raked Fallujah's streets with rocket, cannon and machine-gun fire ahead of U.S. and Iraqi infantry as they advanced just a block or two behind the curtain of fire.
Small groups of guerrillas, armed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machine-guns, engaged U.S. troops, then fell back. U.S. troops inspected houses along Fallujah's streets and ran across adjoining alleyways, mindful of snipers.
A psychological-operations unit broadcast announcements in Arabic meant to draw out gunmen. An Iraqi translator from the group said through a loudspeaker: "Brave terrorists, I am waiting here for the brave terrorists. Come and kill us."
"Plant small bombs on roadsides. Attention, attention, terrorists of Fallujah."
Despite resistance being lighter than expected the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Tuesday he still expects "several more days of tough urban fighting" as insurgents fell back toward the southern end of the city, perhaps for a last stand.
"I'm surprised how quickly (resistance) broke and how quickly they ran away, a force of foreign fighters who were supposed to fight to the death," Lt.-Col. Pete Newell, a battalion commander in the 1st Infantry Division, told CNN.
The move against Fallujah prompted influential Sunni clerics to call for a boycott of national elections planned for January. A widespread boycott among Sunnis could wreck the legitimacy of the elections, seen as vital in Iraq's move to democracy. U.S. commanders have said the Fallujah invasion is the centrepiece of an attempt to secure insurgent-held areas so voting can be held.
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declared a nighttime curfew in Baghdad and its surroundings - the first in the capital for a year - to prevent insurgents from opening up a "second front" to try to draw U.S. forces away from Fallujah. Clashes erupted in the northern city Mosul and near the Sunni bastion Ramadi, explosions were reported in at least two cities and masked militants brandished weapons and warned merchants to close their shops.
In Fallujah, U.S. troops were advanced more rapidly than in April, when insurgents fought a force of fewer than 2,000 marines to a standstill in a three-week siege. It ended with the Americans handing over the city to a local force, which lost control to Islamic militants.
This time, the U.S. military has sent up to 15,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops into the battle, backed by tanks, artillery and attack aircraft.
"The enemy is fighting hard but not to the death," Lt.-Gen. Thomas Metz, the multinational ground force commander in Iraq, told a Pentagon news conference relayed by video from Iraq.
"There is not a sense that he is staying in particular places. He is continuing to fall back or he dies in those positions."
Metz said Iraqi soldiers searched several mosques Tuesday and found "lots of munitions and weapons."
Although capturing or killing the senior insurgent leadership is a goal of the operation, Metz said he believes the most wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, escaped Fallujah.
It was unclear how many insurgents stayed in the city for the fight, given months of warnings by U.S. officials and Iraqis that a confrontation was in the offing.
Metz said troops have captured a very small number of insurgent fighters and "imposed significant casualties against the enemy."
Before the major ground assault that began Monday night, the U.S. military reported 42 insurgents killed. Fallujah doctors reported 12 people dead. Since then, there has been no specific information on Iraqi death tolls.
The latest U.S. deaths included two killed by mortars near Mosul and 11 others who died Monday, most of them as guerrillas launched a wave of attacks in Baghdad and southwest of Fallujah. It was unclear how many of those died in the Fallujah offensive but the 11 deaths were among the highest for a single day since last spring.
But the toll in Fallujah could have been higher. Early Tuesday, a helicopter gunship destroyed a multiple rocket-launcher aimed at the main U.S. camp outside of the city.
"That saved our lives," Col. Michael Formica, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade, told the crew.
"We have no idea how many soldiers here were saved by your good work."
Formica said the security cordon around the city will be tightened to ensure insurgents don't slip out.
"My concern now is only one - not to allow any enemy to escape. As we tighten the noose around him, he will move to escape to fight another day. I do not want these guys to get out of here."
"I want them killed or captured as they flee," Formica said.
U.S. officials said few people were attempting to flee the city, either because most civilians had already left or because they were complying with a round-the-clock curfew. A funeral procession, however, was allowed to leave, officials said.
Anger over the assault grew among Iraq's Sunni minority and international groups and the Russian government warned military action could undermine the January elections. The UN refugee agency expressed fears over civilians' safety.
The Sunni clerics' Association of Muslim Scholars called for a boycott of the elections. The association's director, Harith al-Dhari, said the Sunnis could not take part in an election held "over the corpses of those killed in Fallujah."
The call is expected to have little resonance within the rival Shiite community, which forms about 60 per cent of Iraq's 26 million people.
| Quote: | Fallujah Battle Reaches City Center, Includes Mosques (Update2)
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- U.S.-led forces pushed into the center of Fallujah, capturing strategic positions, conducting searches and fending off fire from insurgents, who have used at least one mosque as a base, the U.S. military said.
Iraqi and U.S. forces control at least 70 percent of the city west of Baghdad, including the mayor's office and the main east-west road, forcing insurgents to retreat, U.S. Marines spokesman Major Francis Piccoli said in a satellite telephone interview from outside Fallujah. There are still areas of resistance, even in places captured by the coalition, he said.
``There may be pockets here and there, but it's not really a well-disciplined plan on the anti-Iraqi forces side,'' Piccoli said, referring to the rebels. ``It's a house to house, block to block, room to room, type of fight.''
Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi on Nov. 8 gave the authorization for the military operation, named ``Dawn'' in Arabic, in order to bring Fallujah under government control before national legislative elections set for January. Several insurgent groups in Fallujah have approached the government in the past day to ``cooperate and surrender,'' Allawi's official spokesman, Thair al-Nakib, said in a statement e-mailed from Baghdad.
Fallujah is a center of resistance to the U.S. involvement in Iraq, and the U.S. military has said it believes Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, the Jordanian who is the top terrorism suspect in the country, and his followers may have operated there.
Execution House
Iraqi Major General Abdul Qader Mohan told reporters in a televised briefing today that the military found a house in Fallujah that was used to execute foreign hostages, a hallmark of the al-Zarqawi network.
Marine Lieutenant General John Sattler characterized some of the fighting in the city as ``very close and very violent.''
``The government is willing to offer these groups amnesty, provided that they have not committed major crimes,'' al-Nakib said. ``Discussions will be held later today in order to explore whether this can bring about an early end to the fighting.'' He didn't specify who offered to surrender.
Curfews, Airport Closing
Allawi declared a state of emergency in most of Iraq on Nov. 7, imposing curfews in Baghdad, Fallujah and Ramadi, and closing roads, borders and the capital's international airport.
The closure of the airport was extended today for a further 24 hours, according to al-Nakib's statement.
The U.K.'s Sky News broadcast footage showing coalition forces firing from tanks and guns upon insurgents in the city. At least two wounded soldiers were shown being attended to as a gun battle raged, and a pall of black smoke rose above the city.
While Piccoli declined to say how many casualties have been reported on either side, the U.S. military said in an e-mailed statement that as of 6:30 p.m. local time yesterday, 10 U.S. servicemen and two Iraqi soldiers had been killed.
Insurgents in the city used at least one mosque as a base from which to fire on coalition forces, Piccoli said.
Sattler said the insurgency had been reduced to ``small pockets, blindly moving throughout the city.'' He said the city was encircled and that no insurgents would be able to safely flee the area.
``They do not know where we are,'' Sattler said. ``They do not know where we are coming from now or where we will be within the next hour.''
Iraqi forces are being used to sweep every building in the city, finding and destroying weapons and capturing or killing any fighters still in the area, Sattler said.
Fire From Mosque
``We have engaged at least one mosque today, and will continue to do so if the anti-Iraqi forces continue to use them as defensive positions,'' Piccoli said.
Allawi's official spokesman identified the site as the Khilafa al-Rashid mosque.
``Today, we saw again the terrorists' practice of abusing public buildings and religious sites to carry out their attacks against Iraqi and multinational forces,'' al-Nakib said. ``The Iraqi forces attempted to defeat the enemy in the mosque with small-arms fire, but in the end had to call in precision air strikes to secure the area.''
U.S. troops are pushing insurgents further and further back, Piccoli said.
``Soon they're not going to have anywhere to go,'' Piccoli said. ``We want to make sure that they're not hiding anywhere, whether a house, a room, or a closet in that room.''
Records Found
The U.S. and Allawi's administration have repeatedly said Fallujah harbors terrorists associated with Zarqawi, whose group has claimed responsibility for attacks across Iraq and the beheadings of foreign hostages from such countries as the U.S., the U.K. and Japan.
The house found by Iraqi troops contained black clothing used by the kidnappers, and records of names, Mohan said, without disclosing additional information.
Near Baghdad, a British pilot was wounded when his helicopter was hit by small-arms fire, the U.K. Defense Ministry said in a statement. The copter landed safely, and the soldier is being treated at a U.S. military hospital. An 850-soldier British unit was redeployed from southern Iraq to the U.S.-controlled zone nearer the Iraqi capital before the Fallujah assault.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.
Todd Zeranski in New York at tzeranski@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Torday at ptorday@bloomberg.net.
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Execution House
Iraqi Major General Abdul Qader Mohan told reporters in a televised briefing today that the military found a house in Fallujah that was used to execute foreign hostages, a hallmark of the al-Zarqawi network.
| Quote: | 
Where Reality TV Gets Deadly
The Australian Times ^ | November 11, 2004 | James Hider
Posted on 11/10/2004 12:07:24 PM PST by anymouse
Embedded journalist James Hider spent 12 hours with US forces in Fallujah before he was wounded.
THE green video screen in the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle is the ultimate in reality television and that is how we watched the battle of Fallujah unfold as our 30-tonne steel beast advanced into the district of Jolan, a rebel bastion, in the small hours of yesterday.
Outside, in the bomb-blasted streets, up to 5000 diehard insurgents were out to kill. Inside, on a screen accurate enough to show rats scavenging on the rubbish piles, the battle between luminous green tanks and luminous green gunmen seemed almost abstract.
Only the shock of the explosions and the occasional back blast of dust when a gunner opened fire reminded us we were in the midst of the most desperate urban battle since the fall of Baghdad. That, and the shrapnel that went right through my arm later in the morning.
The assault had begun with a day of intense bombardment of the rebels' positions on Monday. Artillery, tanks and warplanes pounded the buildings where guerillas were believed to be lurking, ready to detonate huge buried mines as the US army advanced.
Airbursts of shrapnel sent a vast jellyfish of smoke drifting into the city, raining fire on guerillas perched on the rooftops. As night fell over the darkened city, the explosions lit up the sky and US troops preparing to fight pulled up deckchairs to watch the show.
Two US marine battalions then stormed Fallujah's disused train station and a block of apartments on the edge of town. Sappers blasted a hole through the railway embankment, dropping trails of explosives to clear a path through a guerilla minefield.
At 2am our column of about 20 tanks and Bradleys of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, rolled in, not knowing whether the guerillas had died, fled or were waiting further back with more booby traps or even the cyanide gas they had boasted of possessing.
Progress was a mere crawl as the drivers spotted huge IEDs -- improvised explosive devices -- that can blow a Bradley in half. The gunners fired into them, triggering a series of massive explosions.
"There were too many IEDs to count," said Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Rainey, the cavalry battalion commander who rode into battle with his men.
Watching the green screen was nerve-racking. With buildings wrecked and streets churned up, there were potential booby traps everywhere. Then, as the column lumbered down a main road, the guerillas appeared.
They emerged from gates, alleyways and rooftops, alone or in small groups. Wherever they faced an armoured vehicle, they died where they stood.
The resistance was determined, but hardly the apocalyptic showdown the guerillas had pledged. They had threatened to throw hundreds of suicide bombers at the Americans. But in the darkness they were at a disadvantage, stumbling blind while the US gunners could see clearly.
As the column advanced, our Bradley fell back slightly. Ahead of us an Iraqi man appeared at his garden gate with binoculars. He peered at the front of the column. Three times he ducked in and out, before our vehicle lurched forward for a closer look.
Popping out again, he held a rocket-propelled grenade that he pointed straight at us. The turret commander yelled to the gunner: "Get him, get him, get him." Facing the barrel of the RPG, we silently wished the same. The man ducked back as the gunner fired, killing him on the spot with a high-explosive round.
As dawn broke, the firing subsided. Long columns of marines, fresh from skirmishes on the edge of town, headed into Jolan's streets to the accompaniment of heavy fire. Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers walked through the breach in the berm, looking more like a World War II army than a 21st-century force before they, too, marched into the rattle of gunfire inside the city.
Then, in a surreal turn, the US army's psychological warfare team drove in from the desert, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries blaring from loudspeakers: war imitating the movies, imitating war.
As the pitch of the battle rose again, we reached the cavalry's provisional base, a former school seized from the guerillas. Ducking through classrooms and over bulldozed walls to avoid snipers, I felt an intense burning in my left arm after an RPG hit the ground close by. I only realised I had been hit by shrapnel when I reached up with my right hand and felt gushing blood.
We ran back to the Bradley, which evacuated me to a rear base hospital rapidly filling up with wounded US and Iraqi troops, as well as injured Iraqi fighters handcuffed on bloody stretchers.
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Iraq forces find Fallujah �hostage slaughterhouses�
(Reuters)
10 November 2004
BAGHDAD - Iraq�s military said on Wednesday it had found houses in northern Fallujah where hostages had been held and killed by their militant kidnappers, and records of those abducted.
�We have found hostage slaughterhouses in Fallujah that were used by these people and the black clothing that they used to wear to identify themselves,� newly appointed provincial military governor Major-General Abdul-Qader Jassim said.
Jassim, briefing reporters at the main US military base outside the city that thousands of US and Iraqi troops are fighting to wrest from rebel control, said �hundreds� of CDs and records with the names of hostages had been found in the houses.
Asked if the records named foreign hostages being held, he said: �I did not look closely.�
He gave no further details and did not say if it was clear whether foreigners were among the hostages held or killed in the houses. Militant groups still hold several foreign hostages, including British-Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan and two French journalists.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/Sectionhome.asp?section=focusoniraq
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sleeplessinseattle
LCDR
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 430
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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Good Fallujah update from the Belmont blog:
Hell in a Very Small Place
The Bakersfield Californian reports that US forces have reached the major east-west highway that runs through Fallujah.
U.S. Marines said American forces had taken control Wednesday of 70 percent of Fallujah in the third day of a major offensive to retake the insurgent stronghold. Major Francis Piccoli, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said enemy fighters were bottled up in a strip of the city flanking the major east-west highway that splits Fallujah. Army and Marine units had pushed south to the highway overnight, Piccoli said.
... As the American forces crossed the highway that split Fallujah, armored Army units stayed behind to guard the thoroughfare.
To realize the significance of this, refer to this map from Global Security, which shows the start lines of the participating American units: USMC 3/1, USMC 3/5, Army 2/7 Cavalry, USMC 1/8, USMC 1/3 and Army 2/2 Infantry. These units were attacking north to south, down towards the highway. The east-west highway referred to in the paragraph above is the bright green line running horizontally across the map. US Army armor is now on that highway, after advancing south and probably swinging west. US forces are probably waiting across the highway. We are fairly sure of this because the London Telegraph recounted how a US Army Cavalry Unit was moving through the industrial area which is located in the southeast corner of the city, below the green line which represents the highway which US armor is now patrolling going north to south; that is up towards the highway. We know it is cavalry because they call their companies "troops".
The flimsy metal door was ripped off its hinges as a hefty boot from a Legion platoon soldier made decisive contact. Inside the small room lay an AK-47 rifle, alarm clock parts and a handwritten notebook in Farsi. Moments earlier, the gunman, thought to be Iranian, had fled as Legion, Hunter and Outlaw platoons of the US army's Task Force 2-2 undertook one of the more dangerous tasks of the battle for Fallujah. Clearing buildings door to door in a guerrilla stronghold is risky at any time. Into the bargain this time, the platoons from Phantom troop had been ordered to sweep Fallujah's industrial zone, a haven for foreign fighters.
Simply reading the map shows that the enemy is pinned in a strip north of the highway, which is now a barrier to further escape south. As Major Piccoli put it, the "enemy fighters were bottled up in a strip of the city flanking the major east-west highway that splits Fallujah". Pressing them against the highway are four US battalions from the north and two from the east. Two days ago, the Telegraph carried an interview with Captain Natalie Friel, which eerily anticipated this very outcome.
"They're probably thinking that we'll come in from the east," said Capt Natalie Friel, an intelligence officer with task force, before the battle. But the actual plan involves penetrating the city from the north and sweeping south. "I don't think they know what's coming. They have no idea of the magnitude," she said. "But their defences are pretty circular. They're prepared for any kind of direction. They've got strong points on all four corners of the city." The aim was to push the insurgents south, killing as many as possible, before swinging west. They would then be driven into the Euphrates.
The reader is invited to draw his own conclusions about the enemy's prospects in this position. They are pinned against the highway, with no exit north, east or south.
_________________
"We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail." -- President Bush 2001
Thanks W, Swifties, POWs & brave soldiers everywhere fighting for America and for freedom |
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JB Stone
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 12:22 am Post subject: |
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What we're fighting.......What THEY are fighting with:
Getting ready
Cleaning his guns, an Arab fighter awaits the arrival of US troops.
On the beat
An Arab fighter patrols a Falluja street as he prepares for the US onslaught.
Praying for strength
Arab and Iraqi fighters pray as they prepare for the US offensive.
Rush to attack
An Iraqi fighter runs to the front line as US troops begin their assault on the insurgent stronghold of Falluja, southern Iraq.
In his sights
An Iraqi fighter fires at US positions inside the city of Falluja.
Finding inspiration
An Arab fighter reads his Qur'an as he takes up his fighting position.
Seeking refuge
Sitting in his bunker, an Arab fighter reads the Qur'an as US planes bomb Falluja at the beginning of a major attack on the city.
A moment of rest
After a night of heavy bombing by US forces, an Arab fighter finds a refuge for sleep in Falluja.
"They're probably thinking that we'll come in from the east," said Capt Natalie Friel, an intelligence officer with task force, before the battle. But the actual plan involves penetrating the city from the north and sweeping south. "I don't think they know what's coming.
That is because they are fed a constant stream of complete BS about our strengths, our intentions, and our devotion to OUR principles.
And, some of THEIR beliefs are otherworldly....
Blood ritual
In Kerbala, a devout Shia Muslim rests after taking part in a flagellation ritual to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. Many Shia disagree with this practice, seeing it as un-Islamic.
~~~~~~
Our troops are keeping the FAITH:
http://www.dvidshub.net/video/jump.php?857
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US troops capture most of Fallujah, Allawi relatives kidnapped
AFP: 11/10/2004
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - US-led troops occupied most of Fallujah and were confident of taking full control, as kidnappers pledged to kill Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's relatives unless the assault stopped.
As the military's grip tightened on more than two-thirds of the city, the epicentre of Iraq's insurgency, Iraqi troops found homes there where foreign hostages had been held and in some cases slaughtered.
In northern Iraq, scores of gunmen swooped on the city of Mosul and set up positions, aiming mortars and rockets at key US installations, as local police watched helplessly. At least five people were killed.
Violence also raged elsewhere, with at least five killed and 20 wounded in a car bomb attack in Baghdad, six Iraqi guards and a US soldier killed in a string of roadside bombings, and two British servicemen wounded.
With US marines backed by Iraqi troops moving from building to building in Fallujah to free the dusty, devastated city of insurgents, a US officer said they expected to take command of the rebel bastion before the weekend.
"If everything goes as planned we will take full control of the city in the next 48 hours," the officer said, on condition of anonymity, adding that it would take "at least 10 days to clear the city".
Signs of the gruesome killings of hostages were found by Iraqi troops in the northern districts, according to an Iraqi general claiming to be the chief spokesman for the operation.
"We have found hostage slaughterhouses in Fallujah that were used by these people and the black clothing that they used to wear to identify themselves, hundreds of CDs and whole records with names," Major General Abdul Qader Mohan said. When pressed, he was unable to provide further details.
Acting on the orders of Allawi after weeks of heavy US aerial and artillery bombardment, thousands of marines and Iraqi troops stormed Fallujah late Monday in an assault dubbed Operation Dawn.
Allawi has vowed to crush the rebellion ahead of elections planned for January, to provide greater security and wider participation in them, and sees the fight for Fallujah as key to achieving this goal.
But the tough-talking premier's family became caught up in the mayhem when a gang in three cars abducted his cousin, Ghazi Allawi, his wife and their daughter-in-law in Baghdad overnight.
A previously unknown group threatened to kill three of Allawi's relatives within 48 hours unless he halts the attack and releases all Iraqi prisoners. The threat was made in an Internet statement impossible to authenticate.
At least 11 US soldiers and two Iraqi troops have died in the offensive, while scores of insurgents have also been killed, the US military said. The figures could not be independently verified.
No civilian casualty figures have been made available.
In a video-tape air by Arab television station Al-Jazeera, the insurgents claimed to have captured 20 Iraqi national guards in Fallujah.
The video showed men in national guard uniform with their backs to the camera watched over by armed men. The station said it could not confirm if it was real or insurgent propaganda.
In Washington, US President George W. Bush said he had been told the assault was proceeding to plan.
Bush said military ground commander General George Casey told him: "things are going well in Fallujah, and they are making very good progress of securing that country."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose troops took part in the war in to oust former president Saddam Hussein, urged the US-led forces to stand firm.
"The real desire of these terrorists is to stop the elections because they know that if there are elections in Iraq, as there have been in Afghanistan, then that is a huge blow to them as terrorists," he told parliament in London.
In an effort to persuade die-hard rebels in the fiercely independent Sunni Muslim city to lay down their arms, Allawi offered an amnesty to those who had "committed no major crimes". |
The sun sets over Fallujah on the third day of operations. US forces are now in control of 70 per cent of the city
Rebels cornered, says US military
From correspondents in Washington
11nov04
THE top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, has told US President George W. Bush that his troops are "making very good progress" securing Iraq, as American forces and their Iraqi allies paralysed insurgent forces in Fallujah and cut off their escape routes from the city.
"He said that things are going well in Fallujah," Mr Bush said on a day when US forces cornered insurgents after a swift advance that seized control of 70 per cent of the militant stronghold.
Mr Bush said his Iraq commanders had not asked for more troops. "If the commanders were to bring forth a request, I would look at it very seriously and implement the request. They have yet to do so," the President said in the Oval Office. Mr Bush said Gen Casey had told him "they're making very good progress in securing that country".
The senior US Marine commander there said Wednesday echoed that message.
"We are comfortable that they are not able to communicate, to work out any coordination," Lieutenant General John Sattler said of Fallujah's insurgents. "They are now in small pockets, blind, moving about the city. We will continue to hunt them down and destroy them."
US officials have been predicting for weeks that violence in Iraq would escalate as national elections scheduled for January drew closer. They believe the rebels' main goal is to prevent the elections.
Mr Bush said he believed there would be heavy participation in the Iraqi elections.
"I'm confident when people realize that there's a chance to vote on a president, they will participate," Mr Bush said. "This is tough right now in Iraq because there are people that are willing to commit violent acts to stop elections. ... I believe that a lot of citizens in Iraq will want to vote for their leaders."
Lt-Gen Sattler, appearing with a senior Iraqi general, declined to discuss the positions and strategy of the American and Iraqi forces still fighting in Fallujah. But he said they have followed their battle plan and left the remaining insurgents with no good options.
"When they attempted to flee from one zone to another they were killed," Lt-Gen Sattler said. "We feel very comfortable that none of them moved back toward the north or escaped on the flanks."
Major General Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan, speaking through an interpreter, said it was "possible but unlikely" that any insurgents had escaped in the days since the city was sealed off. Asked to describe the fighting tactics of the insurgents, he replied, "They have no tactics."
The US military and the interim Iraqi government are eager to put an Iraqi face on the Fallujah offensive. In addition to letting the Iraqi general take the lead in responding to reporters' questions, officials showed a video of Iraqi soldiers in Fallujah hoisting an Iraqi flag and singing the Iraqi national anthem.
Lt-Gen Sattler declined to specify how many US and Iraqi troops had been killed and wounded in the fighting.
"They would be catalogued as light at this time," he said, adding that to be more specific would provide the insurgents with potentially useful information about the effectiveness of their tactics.
Both Lt-Gen Sattler and the Iraqi general expressed confidence the Fallujah offensive would restore order in that hotbed of Sunni resistance, but they cautioned that much fighting remained.
| Quote: | Fallujah's insurgents left to fight another day
U.S. attacks aim at prevention of uprisings in other cities
By Nicholas Blanford
Special to The Daily Star
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Fallujah's insurgents left to fight another day
Analysis
BEIRUT: In his classic treatise on guerrilla warfare, Mao Tse Tung wrote "When guerrillas engage a stronger enemy, they withdraw when he advances; harass him when he stops; strike him when he is weary; pursue him when he withdraws."
The insurgents in Iraq appear to have taken some of the Chinese revolutionary leader's doctrine to heart judging from the increase in attacks in the center of the country since a 15,000-strong force of U.S. Marines and Iraqi troops launched a long-awaited offensive on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah, meeting lighter resistance than expected.
Indeed, with an attack on Fallujah widely anticipated for several weeks, many of the insurgents reportedly departed the city in advance to fight another day.
"If you see what's happening in Samarra and Ramadi it seems to me that the so-called dynamic cordon that the Marine Corps put around Fallujah has been next to useless," said Toby Dodge, an expert on Iraq at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. "By squeezing that town (Fallujah) you have a few hundred diehard jihadis left and the insurgency has moved elsewhere."
Samarra, 100 kilometers north of Baghdad, which the Americans claimed was free of insurgents following a U.S.-led offensive last month, was struck by mortar attacks and car bombs last weekend, leaving over 30 people dead. On Tuesday, insurgents apparently took control of Ramadi, a flashpoint town 20 kilometers west of Fallujah.
On Wednesday, dozens of armed gunmen reportedly swarmed into Mosul in the north, which became the fourth city in three days to be placed under a curfew.
Meanwhile, the combined assault force of U.S. Marines and Iraqi soldiers were on the verge of taking control of Fallujah in an operation that appears to have proceeded more quickly and produced fewer U.S. casualties than expected.
"I never bought into the argument that Fallujah was the heart of the insurgency. The insurgency is too diverse," Dodge said.
The difficulty, however, may prove not to be removing the insurgents from Fallujah, but rather preventing them from returning.
"The insurgents could easily blend back into Fallujah if they have the support of the local population," said Paul Sullivan, professor of economics at the Washington-based National Defense University. "But it would be much more difficult if a proper police force and military units were placed in the city to help stop the return."
The reliability of the Iraqi security forces, however, remains in question. Although hundreds of Iraqi troops trained in urban warfare are participating in the attack on Fallujah, at least 200 are reported to have deserted, fearing reprisals from insurgents.
The Muslim Clerics Association, a hardline Sunni umbrella organization, earlier in the week issued a fatwa calling on Iraqi security personnel to quit or face becoming legitimate targets of the resistance.
Still, the use of overwhelming firepower against Fallujah is aimed to dissuade other towns and cities from offering sanctuary to the insurgents. And even though many of the key leaders of the insurgency may have departed Fallujah, some analysts argue that the offensive was vital.
"I think it is absolutely critical not to allow an insurgency to simply steadily take control over an area," said Anthony Cordesman, military analyst with the Washington-based Council for Strategic and International Studies. "Denying the insurgents that capability ... is critical if you're going to have elections, if you're going to have any progress (and) if there's going to be a convincing message to both the insurgents and the Sunnis that they not only can be part of the political process but they have a strong incentive to be part of it."
Elias Hanna, a lecturer in political science at Notre Dame University in Beirut and a retired general in the Lebanese Army, said that the Fallujah model will work.
"The insurgents will never find another civilian refuge," he said. "Ramadi will see what happened in Fallujah. As time goes by there will be more support for the Iraqi government and the army. More people will be willing to join the Iraqi Army and there will be less public support for the insurgents."
But success in isolating the insurgents from the Sunni population will depend not only on military dominance but also incentives.
"Sometimes using just the hammer just leads to a broken polity," Sullivan said. "Carrots may be needed to get the city back together. The city will need to be redeveloped. People will need jobs. Those destroyed houses need to be rebuilt. The infrastructure needs to be repaired."
Crucially, the Sunni community has to replace the outlawed Baath Party with new political institutions willing to participate in the new Iraq. So far, that has not happened.
Instead the most popular Sunni body is the Muslim Clerics Association, which fully supports the insurgency. The Iraqi Islamic Party, a more moderate but less popular political gathering, quit the government on Tuesday in protest at the assault on Fallujah.
Unless the Sunnis can be convinced to participate in the political process and reject their tacit or active support for armed resistance, the insurgency is likely to continue.
"Clearly American policy is failing spectacularly," Dodge said. "I think what we have is an American policy that will bludgeon on (until they) leave in the next couple of years and they will leave (behind) a highly unstable situation."
The grim task facing the coalition forces and the interim Iraqi government was aptly encapsulated by former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who, in 1969, wrote in reference to the Vietnam war, "The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose." |
Mao & Kissinger...???
I'd rather listen to Franks & Bush.
| Quote: | U.S., Iraqi commanders say Fallujah insurgents cornered, 'blinded'
By Robert Burns
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:14 p.m. November 10, 2004
WASHINGTON – The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, told President Bush on Wednesday that his troops are "making very good progress" securing Iraq, as U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies essentially paralyzed insurgent forces in Fallujah and cut off their escape routes from the city.
"He said that things are going well in Fallujah," Bush said on a day when U.S. forces cornered insurgents after a swift advance that seized control of 70 percent of the militant stronghold.
Bush said his Iraq commanders had not asked for more troops. "If the commanders were to bring forth a request, I would look at it very seriously and implement the request. They have yet to do so," the president told reporters in the Oval Office. Bush said Casey had told him that "they're making very good progress in securing that country."
The senior U.S. Marine commander there said Wednesday echoed that message.
"We are comfortable that they are not able to communicate, to work out any coordination," Lt. Gen. John Sattler said of Fallujah's insurgents. He spoke at a news conference at Camp Fallujah, outside the city. "They are now in small pockets, blind, moving about the city. We will continue to hunt them down and destroy them."
U.S. officials have been predicting for weeks that violence in Iraq would escalate as national elections scheduled for January drew closer. They believe the rebels' main goal is to prevent the elections.
Bush said he believed there would be heavy participation in the Iraqi elections.
"I'm confident when people realize that there's a chance to vote on a president, they will participate," Bush said. "This is tough right now in Iraq because there are people that are willing to commit violent acts to stop elections. ... I believe that a lot of citizens in Iraq will want to vote for their leaders."
Sattler, appearing with a senior Iraqi general, declined to discuss the positions and strategy of the American and Iraqi forces still fighting in Fallujah. But he said they have followed their battle plan and left the remaining insurgents with no good options.
"When they attempted to flee from one zone to another they were killed," Sattler said. "We feel very comfortable that none of them moved back toward the north or escaped on the flanks."
Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan, speaking through an interpreter, said it was "possible but unlikely" that any insurgents have escaped in the days since the city was sealed off. Asked by a reporter to describe the fighting tactics of the insurgents, he replied, "They have no tactics."
The U.S. military and the interim Iraqi government are eager to put an Iraqi face on the Fallujah offensive, and this was illustrated clearly at the news conference. In addition to letting the Iraqi general take the lead in responding to reporters' questions, officials showed a video of Iraqi soldiers in Fallujah hoisting an Iraqi flag and singing the Iraqi national anthem.
Sattler declined to specify how many U.S. and Iraqi troops had been killed and wounded in the fighting.
"They would be catalogued as light at this time," he said, adding that to be more specific would provide the insurgents with potentially useful information about the effectiveness of their tactics.
Both Sattler and the Iraqi general expressed confidence that the Fallujah offensive would restore order in that hotbed of Sunni resistance, but they cautioned that much fighting remains.
Marines said early Wednesday in Iraq that 70 percent of the city was under U.S. military control.
Tommy Franks, the retired four-star Army general who commanded U.S. forces when President Bush ordered the invasion in March 2003, said Tuesday it was too early to conclude that American casualties would remain light.
"There can be an inclination to say, 'Hey, this is going just right.' I'd caution against that," he said in an Associated Press interview. "This enemy is capable of putting up a big fight."
Franks also said he expected the level of violence in Iraq, as well as the number of American casualties, to begin to decline now that the U.S. elections were over and Bush had made clear that the United States would remain on course.
On Monday, 11 U.S. service members died across Iraq – among the highest for a single day since last spring – as the insurgents escalated the violence in Baghdad and elsewhere.
The death toll for Iraqi civilians has been higher in recent days than the U.S. death count, as it has been through much of the war. Many have been killed by car bombs.
Metz said it was remained unclear whether insurgents were consolidating in parts of Fallujah that U.S. forces had not yet reached. In any case, he foresaw "several more days of tough urban fighting." |
Fallujah Set to Fall, Violence Spreads
Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News
BAGHDAD, 11November 2004 — US and Iraqi forces appeared close to gaining full control of the rebel town of Fallujah after a second day of heavy fighting in which the US and its allies lost 10 men and claimed to have killed over 300 insurgents.
Moving from west, north and east of the city, the6 ,500-strong US force backed by 2, 000Iraqi Special Forces, swept its way south toward the Euphrates to complete its control of the city.
By noon yesterday an Iraqi unit had captured a district of the city that had become a no-go area after the insurgents seized it last April. There, the Iraqis found what one officer described as “a torture and slaughter house”.
“It was here that many hostages were interrogated, tortured, and then had their heads chopped off,” he said.
It was not clear whether or not the captured buildings, including two mosques and a deserted shopping center had served as the headquarters of the Jordanian terror mastermind Abu-Mussab Al-Zarqawi who is alleged to be leading the non-Iraqi Arab fighters in Iraq.
But as Fallujah appeared to be falling to the US-Iraq force, insurgents appeared to be slipping out of the city to initiate attacks elsewhere.
Insurgents were reported to have attacked and engaged US troops and Iraqi Army and police units in half a dozen localities in the so-called Sunni Triangle, including Baqubah, Ramadi, Samarra, Haditha, Dura, and Balad. There were also bomb and suicide attacks in Baghdad, Karbala and Mosul.
In Baghdad, terrorists struck by kidnapping a cousin of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and two other of his relatives. Allawi, however, told the Arab television channel Al-Arabiya that he was determined to “clean Fallujah” which had become a running sore in Iraq’s body.
The terrorists called on Allawi to halt the Fallujah operations and release all Iraqi prisoners or risk having the hostages put to death in 48 hours
“It is like hell here,” a Fallujah resident said over a satellite telephone. “The Americans are moving with a sea of fire ahead of them.”
US commanders, however, said the operation, codenamed “Phantom Fury” was ahead of schedule, and that the coalition force was facing a much lighter resistance than expected.
They also said that large numbers of insurgents had surrendered while many others, including non-Iraqi fighters, had been captured.
In Baghdad, Charles Duleffer, head of the coalition’s weapons inspection team, escaped a car bomb attack that wounded two of his bodyguards.
The Fallujah insurgents appeared to have adopted the “melt away” tactic often used by guerrillas against superior forces in urban warfare.
The tactic would have some insurgents to hide their weapons and weave into the non-combatant population. At the same time the elite fighters slip out of the area of conflict to regroup and attack elsewhere.
Finally, some guerrillas allow themselves to be captured but pretend to be noncombatant civilians.
Allawi had estimated the number of insurgents in Fallujah at around3 ,000. But most reports yesterday indicated that the number might have been closer to1 ,500 with large numbers of insurgents having slipped out of the city before the assault started.
The number of civilians left in the city was also much smaller than the estimated60 ,000.
US and Iraqi military spokesmen claimed that civilian casualties had been much lighter than feared.
“It is like hell here,” a Fallujah resident said over a satellite telephone. “The Americans are moving with a sea of fire ahead of them.”
The REAL...."shock & awe"....eh....????
USMC Psyops:
A Marine sticks his head around a corner in Fallujah and shouts, "1 Marine can kill 10 camel-fornicating terrorists!"
10 terrorists race around the corner. There is a brief flurry of gunfire.
The Marine sticks his head back around the corner and shouts, "1 Marine can kill 100 camel-fornicating terrorists!"
This time, 100 terrorists race around the corner. There is another flurry of gunfire, longer this time.
The Marine sticks his head around the corner a third time and shouts, "1 Marine can kill 1000 camel-fornicating terrorists!"
1,000 terrorists, shouting "ALLAH AKHBAR!" at the top of their lungs, charge around the corner. There is an enormous amount of gunfire.
Finally, one terrorist staggers back around the corner with multiple bullet holes. He collapses on the ground and shouts:
"It's...it's...a trap!" (GASP GURGLE CHOKE) "There are TWO Marines back there!"
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JB Stone
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| Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 12:54 am Post subject: |
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Officials from the 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Battalion, discuss the latest military plans at their operation room near Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday.
The tactics of street fighting in Fallujah
BY MATTHEW MCALLESTER
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
November 10, 2004, 5:26 PM EST
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- It was time to move on from the buildings Apache company had been using as its base overnight.
Mortars had rained down all night, shaking the amateurishly constructed buildings the soldiers of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Battalion, had turned into their base in the heart of Fallujah.
http://www.newsday.com/la-111004fallouja-fl,0,315730.flash?coll=ny-homepage-big-pix
As night fell, a rocket had scored a direct hit on one building, injuring two soldiers. Other soldiers were unsettled, wondering how they had survived without a scratch, if the insurgents had their coordinates fixed or if it was a lucky strike. In the darkness, they found places still horribly close to where the rocket had fallen. It was a troubled night, with mortars and sniper fire interrupting even the soundest of sleepers.
Perhaps the greatest risk was that one of the incoming shells or bullets would hit the massive, unexploded bomb loaded inside a blue BMW about 20 yards from where some of the soldiers slept. If that went, the soldiers told each other, their walls and ceilings would tumble down around them.
When the bomb disposal team arrived, Apache company loaded up their packs and weapons and boarded the Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The engineers detonated the bomb -- perhaps the biggest explosion so far in the battle of the war-town city.
Apache company moved out.
Leaving the temporary base in the heart of Fallujah was not just a reaction; it was part of the counterinsurgency tactics that the American military has adopted in Iraq and is adapting as each new urban battle occurs. Lt. Col. Jim Rainey, commander of the 2nd Battalion, said the various Army and Marine units that have pushed into Fallujah -- and surrounded the city -- have dispersed the insurgents from suspected strongholds. While an ideal situation would have been to cordon most of the insurgents in the northwestern Jolan neighborhood, Rainey said, the dispersion has its pluses.
U.S. Marines fire at insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq, on Nov. 9.
"I think it's good because they're off balance and disorganized," he said, standing in his command tent just outside the city last night.
The scattered teams of insurgents call for frequent movement and vigilance in all directions, commanders said.
"The biggest variables are probably the all-around aspect of the fight ... the 360-degree fight when the enemy can come in from behind, to your sides and from above," said Maj. Tim Karcher, the chief strategist for this heavily armored battalion. " The insurgents are moving in small teams of two or three, Karcher and other commanders said. Using their knowledge of the narrow streets and the large weapons caches, they have a hometeam advantage over the Americans. That, the commanders said, is where the advantage ends. The U.S. troops can fire from several points and hit the same target, Karcher said. If the enemy is "in the second story of a building in different rooms, I can engage from different directions." Within minutes, he said, commanders can call in artillery, air or mortar strikes. They can send tanks or Bradleys, which are almost impregnable to most insurgent weapons. And they can use snipers and overwhelming numbers of highly trained soldiers to assault the target.
The U.S. military also has an organizational advantage, Rainey said. "They [the insurgents] have committed soldiers willing to die. They have strategists who quite frankly are pretty good � The difference between the enemy and the Multi-National Forces is that their five guys are five guys. Our five guys are five disciplined guys led by a great sergeant."
Today's counterinsurgent tactics require a different rulebook from the sort used during last year's invasion of Iraq, when control of the entire country was taken in three weeks. This assault on a single city of 250,000 may take almost as long. Engaging regular armies on the battlefield is much easier, commanders say, than fighting guerrillas in narrow alleyways and on rooftops.
"The mantra in the U.S. Army is slow is fast because you've got to go slow to go fast," Karcher said. "Urban combat demands more time."
Each house, each block, will be searched as the soldiers and Marines hunt down the people who sometimes seem invisible, commanders said. (Rainey noted last night that he still hasn't seen a single person in Fallujah who wasn't fighting with or covering the coalition forces.)
"There's no reason to rush," said Marine Col. Mike Shupp, commander of the Regimental Combat Team 1. "Today [we're] closing in and will clean out the Jolan neighborhood. It will be an infantry attack, house by house primarily � It's just a steady steamroller coming down the road at them."
Shupp, like many commanders in this battle, has for years studied urban and counterinsurgent tactics, reading up on the American war in Vietnam, British experience in Iraq and elsewhere, French anti-guerrilla tactics in Algeria. "We're being guided by all these principles," he said.
On the ground, the troops learn to adapt quickly to their surroundings. As commanders keep saying, the enemy has a vote.
The goal of the painstaking, gradual but violent process of searching house by house, block by block, is simple to Shupp: "When every bit of Fallujah and every house has been cleared and people are able to return."
At 6 p.m. Tuesday, the 2nd Battalion learned on their feet, as they have before. A rocket-propelled grenade landed near the commanders' tent and everyone rushed for flak jackets and helmets.
The tent is about a mile outside the city, far from the fighting. Insurgents were attacking them from the rear -- not from Fallujah but from the farmland of the troubled Al Anbar province.
Immediately, Bradleys pounded several areas with red and green tracer rounds, huge plumes of dust mushrooming from the bumpy desert. Snipers searched for the insurgents through telescopic sights. Later, a search team discovered the body of a woman and a trail of blood several hundred yards from the base. It was not clear who she was.
One soldier seemed to have grudging respect for the wiles of the insurgents. "They're doing what they should do," said Sgt. Matthew McCreery, 24, of Corvallis, Ore. "They're attacking our logistics."
Officers said that all of the camps on the outskirts of the city had been attacked in recent hours.
Shortly after 10 p.m., another whoosh was followed by another explosion -- an incoming RPG. In their small way, the region's insurgents are bringing the battle to the Americans. Stay still for too long in Iraq, whoever you are, and you will almost inevitably get hit.
The U.S. military also has an organizational advantage, Rainey said. "They [the insurgents] have committed soldiers willing to die. They have strategists who quite frankly are pretty good � The difference between the enemy and the Multi-National Forces is that their five guys are five guys. Our five guys are five disciplined guys led by a great sergeant."
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JB Stone
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| Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 4:29 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | 70 insurgents killed in mosque battle
By Toby Harnden in Fallujah
(Filed: 11/11/2004)
In pictures: Fight for Fallujah
American troops scored one of their biggest successes in the battle for Fallujah when an estimated 70 foreign fighters were killed in a massive precision artillery strike on a building in a mosque complex.
Military intelligence officers were last night trying to confirm that a "high-value target" or HVT died in the attack. The man is suspected of being a key lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, and responsible for marshalling hard-line insurgence from other Arab countries.
US marines set up a firing position in a building in Fallujah
The strike took place on Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the invasion of the rebel-held Sunni bastion began, after an Abrams tank commander from Phantom troop, part of the US Army's Task Force 2-2, observed large numbers of men converging on a building next to a mosque. "Guys with short brown hair, dark pants and carrying AK-47s were moving in groups of between two and five across the road to a yellow building," said Lt Neil Prakash, the tank commander.
"Then some started throwing Molotov cocktails and pouring gasoline on the road to create a smokescreen."
They apparently thought the smoke would obscure them from view.
US marines take a wounded comrade to a waiting helicopter
Lt Prakash, whose call-sign is Red 6, observed the scene through the optical sight of his tank, 2,400 metres away in an "area of responsibility" or AOR covered by the 1st Company, 8th Marines, west of Task Force 2-2's AOR on the eastern edge of the city.
The constraints of firing into another AOR, where US marines might be operating, and the danger of damaging the mosque, which would have provoked outrage in the Arab world, meant attacking the building had to be authorised at a very senior level.
A Humvee from Phantom troop fitted with a Long Range Acquisition System (LRAS) was moved to within two kilometres of the mosque, well inside its maximum range of 15km, to get a second opinion on what was happening. "The strike was so sensitive that it took more than an hour to approve it," said Maj John Reynolds, operations officer for 2-2. "Normally it happens in minutes."
American tanks engage insurgents on the streets of Fallujah
Lt Prakash was asked to provide a grid co-ordinate, accurate to within a metre, to minimise the chance of hitting the mosque, about 50 metres from the building.
At about 3pm, the higher authorisation came through and Lt Col Pete Newell, commanding 2-2 and with the call-sign Ramrod 6, gave the order to fire a barrage of 20 155mm high-explosive shells from howitzers about three miles away from the mosque.
Specialist James Taylor, manning the LRAS, watched the burst of shells hit.
"They landed on the left side of the building and I saw three bodies fly into the air," he said. "It was awesome."
Lt Prakash radioed that the rounds were right on target and requested 10 more to ensure maximum killing effect.
"One of the men was in a sniper position on the building," said Lt Prakash. "I saw him fall off, hit the ground and bounce up. There were about five bodies that went three, four, five storeys up in the air. I'd already counted between 40 and 50 men going into that building. There were men running out, coughing and doubling over. The second lot of rounds took them out and all those who had been crossing the road.
It is believed that Task Force 2-2 hit fighters gathered to discuss how to retreat after US forces had pushed the insurgents down from the north and in from the east.
Mobile phone intercepts and reports from Iraqi informants suggested there were 70 gunmen in the building and indicated that the very senior Zarqawi lieutenant had perished. A final assessment on who died has yet to be made.
"We are hearing reports saying that the enemy is withdrawing to a central place for a final stand," said Maj Reynolds. "It's like a Gettysburg. We have surrounded the whole area." |
At about 3pm, the higher authorisation came through and Lt Col Pete Newell, commanding 2-2 and with the call-sign Ramrod 6, gave the order to fire a barrage of 20 155mm high-explosive shells from howitzers about three miles away from the mosque.
Specialist James Taylor, manning the LRAS, watched the burst of shells hit.
"They landed on the left side of the building and I saw three bodies fly into the air," he said. "It was awesome."
Lt Prakash radioed that the rounds were right on target and requested 10 more to ensure maximum killing effect.
Mobile phone intercepts and reports from Iraqi informants suggested there were 70 gunmen in the building and indicated that the very senior Zarqawi lieutenant had perished.
Can you hear me....NOW....???
| Quote: | Artillerymen Clear Path for the Infantry
By Jackie Spinner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 11, 2004; Page A33
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 10 -- U.S. Army observers watched as the white pickup truck sped from house to house in Fallujah on Wednesday morning, stopping more than 20 times to drop off armfuls of rocket-propelled grenades. Every few stops, the driver threw dirt on the roof of the cab, apparently in an attempt to disguise his vehicle.
A few miles away, soldiers in the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Platoon, Alpha Battery trained their M109A6 Paladin, a self-propelled 155mm howitzer, on the truck. Minutes later, a shell shot out of the cannon, whizzed across the sky and landed next to the truck with a massive boom, shooting off shrapnel.
In the resulting cloud of dust and fire, the observers could not tell whether the truck had been hit directly. But even if the driver got away, said Staff Sgt. Shawn Zawistowski, a member of the 1st Infantry's Task Force 2-2, "I guarantee we made him think twice."
Powerful artillery pieces such as the Paladin deserve much of the credit for the ease and speed with which the U.S. military has been able to take control of most of Fallujah, according to American soldiers who have been sweeping through the city over the past two days.
Before ground troops entered Fallujah on Monday night, warplanes pounded insurgent targets with bombs; mobile artillery batteries followed with cannon and mortar fire. The effect was significant, according to military commanders and soldiers inside the city.
"It's made everybody get out of town," said Zawistowski, 30, of Cleveland.
Alpha Battery's two artillery pieces have fired more than 300 rounds in the first three days of the battle. The Marines' Mike Battery 414, which has six big guns at the same military outpost, has launched more than 500 rounds.
"A lot of times people don't take what we do seriously because we're not out there getting shot at. But we take the battle really seriously," said Alpha Battery's Capt. Jeff Fuller, 25, of Coshocton, Ohio. "We can save those guys' lives out there."
"We do this to support our troops on the ground to move faster," said Marine Capt. Kirk Parsons of Atlanta. "For the last few days, we gave a lot of support to hit a lot of strong points and areas where the insurgents try to set up their fire."
The artillery batteries zero in on targets based on grid coordinates provided by field observers and air surveillance. At the 1st Infantry's fire direction center, a tent attached to a mobile command center near the artillery guns, soldiers monitored radio traffic Wednesday and waited for instructions to shoot. Early in the day, they fired at a mosque where at least 20 insurgents were reported to be holed up with a weapons cache.
The Paladin fires rocket-assisted shells that can travel up to 22 miles and regular shells that can cover 13 miles. The shells typically strike within about five yards of their target and are likely to kill anyone within 55 yards of the point of impact.
"When we get targets, we take them out," said Sgt. 1st Class Johnny Dotson, 38, of Brownsville, Tenn., who said he joined the Army 19 years ago to be an artilleryman.
As he talked, a boom, followed by a sharp crack, pierced the cloudless sky above the field where the Army's guns were positioned between wide mounds of dirt.
"That was the Marines," said Dotson, who is known to his comrades as "Smoke."
Artillerymen Clear Path for the Infantry
By Jackie Spinner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 11, 2004; Page A33
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 10 -- U.S. Army observers watched as the white pickup truck sped from house to house in Fallujah on Wednesday morning, stopping more than 20 times to drop off armfuls of rocket-propelled grenades. Every few stops, the driver threw dirt on the roof of the cab, apparently in an attempt to disguise his vehicle.
A few miles away, soldiers in the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Platoon, Alpha Battery trained their M109A6 Paladin, a self-propelled 155mm howitzer, on the truck. Minutes later, a shell shot out of the cannon, whizzed across the sky and landed next to the truck with a massive boom, shooting off shrapnel.
In the resulting cloud of dust and fire, the observers could not tell whether the truck had been hit directly. But even if the driver got away, said Staff Sgt. Shawn Zawistowski, a member of the 1st Infantry's Task Force 2-2, "I guarantee we made him think twice."
Powerful artillery pieces such as the Paladin deserve much of the credit for the ease and speed with which the U.S. military has been able to take control of most of Fallujah, according to American soldiers who have been sweeping through the city over the past two days.
Before ground troops entered Fallujah on Monday night, warplanes pounded insurgent targets with bombs; mobile artillery batteries followed with cannon and mortar fire. The effect was significant, according to military commanders and soldiers inside the city.
"It's made everybody get out of town," said Zawistowski, 30, of Cleveland.
Alpha Battery's two artillery pieces have fired more than 300 rounds in the first three days of the battle. The Marines' Mike Battery 414, which has six big guns at the same military outpost, has launched more than 500 rounds.
"A lot of times people don't take what we do seriously because we're not out there getting shot at. But we take the battle really seriously," said Alpha Battery's Capt. Jeff Fuller, 25, of Coshocton, Ohio. "We can save those guys' lives out there."
"We do this to support our troops on the ground to move faster," said Marine Capt. Kirk Parsons of Atlanta. "For the last few days, we gave a lot of support to hit a lot of strong points and areas where the insurgents try to set up their fire."
The artillery batteries zero in on targets based on grid coordinates provided by field observers and air surveillance. At the 1st Infantry's fire direction center, a tent attached to a mobile command center near the artillery guns, soldiers monitored radio traffic Wednesday and waited for instructions to shoot. Early in the day, they fired at a mosque where at least 20 insurgents were reported to be holed up with a weapons cache.
The Paladin fires rocket-assisted shells that can travel up to 22 miles and regular shells that can cover 13 miles. The shells typically strike within about five yards of their target and are likely to kill anyone within 55 yards of the point of impact.
"When we get targets, we take them out," said Sgt. 1st Class Johnny Dotson, 38, of Brownsville, Tenn., who said he joined the Army 19 years ago to be an artilleryman.
As he talked, a boom, followed by a sharp crack, pierced the cloudless sky above the field where the Army's guns were positioned between wide mounds of dirt.
"That was the Marines," said Dotson, who is known to his comrades as "Smoke."
The force of the blast knocked over a pile of empty canisters near an artillery piece nicknamed "Betsy" by its crew chief, Brian Blakey, 31, of Russellville, Ky.
Sgt. Fladymir Napoleon, 25, of Asbury Park, N.J., restacked the canisters in piles of three.
"It's a great thing blowing stuff up," said Napoleon, who has been in Iraq for nine months. "We're getting the city free, back to democracy. I'm feeling pretty good. We play a big role in the battle."
Inside the Paladin's turret, where the chief and two crew members load the big gun, Blakey rubbed his hand across a 155mm round sitting in the chamber. "Three of these," he said, patting the round, "and I can take out a whole building."
Blakey said he tries not to think about what the shell hits -- humans or structures.
"I just look at it like we've got people out there, too," he said. "If we don't get rid of the target, one of our guys could get killed. As long as no civilians are out there, we're doing all right."
Blakey said an Army recruiter persuaded him to be an artilleryman by describing the Paladin. "He told me it was the biggest gun in the military, and I said, 'I'll take it,' " he recalled.
Blakey said he senses the importance of artillery's role in the Fallujah operation.
Iraqi authorities "want to have elections in January," he said. "In order for them to have democracy, or whatever you want to call it, whatever, if we take care of Fallujah, the guys who come in next, they won't go through the same things we did. It's worse now than during the war."
At the other gun a short distance away, Spec. John Kennedy, 26, of Dallas, asked Dotson about the rounds his crew had fired that morning. "What were we shooting at?" he asked. "Did we get it?"
Yes, Dotson told him. They hit the mosque. Twenty confirmed killed.
"We really get no glory," said Staff Sgt. Jason Moye, 25, of Phoenix.
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Here's a great source of very large aerial photos of Fallujah:
http://cryptome.org/fallujah-kill.htm
http://www.digitalglobe.com/images/qb/al_fallujah_nov5_2004_dg.jpg
| Quote: | The Paladin fires rocket-assisted shells that can travel up to 22 miles and regular shells that can cover 13 miles. The shells typically strike within about five yards of their target and are likely to kill anyone within 55 yards of the point of impact.
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"LINE UP, STARTING POINTS MAP HERE: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/images/dg_5nov04_fallujah_02.jpg |
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JB Stone
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| Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 10:14 am Post subject: |
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IRAQ: TERRORISTS USE MOSQUE TO FIRE UPON FORCES
BAGHDAD, Iraq – In Fallujah today, Multi-National Force-Iraq struck terrorists illegally using a mosque to fire upon Iraqi and coalition troops.
Anti-Iraqi forces in Fallujah have made extensive use of mosques as bases of operations, storage sites for weapons and explosives, and as safe havens. Throughout Iraq, insurgents and terrorists continue to operate from mosques and other protected sites in clear violation of international law as well as religious and moral standards.
On two separate occasions, Iraqi and coalition forces came under fire from insurgents in the Khulafah Al Rashid mosque. Using small arms fire, the combined forces could not remove the threat. Insurgents had effective control of the area and a tactical advantage, leaving no alternative other than to engage them while they remained inside the mosque. The mosque was struck by coalition aerial assets at approximately 9:25 a.m. with three precision-guided munitions and then again at 1:38 p.m. with another precision-guided munition, which destroyed the minaret. The combined forces used only enough force to remove the threat.
During periods of armed conflict, religious sites are protected under international law. However, they lose their protected status when used as fighting positions or for other military operations.
Foreign fighters continue to use mosques, hospitals, schools and other protected sites to stage and plan their attacks on innocent civilians and security forces. These actions by the terrorists and foreign fighters display once again their complete disregard and disrespect for Islam as well as international law.
Anti-Iraqi forces continue to use protected sites as part of a deliberate propaganda campaign designed to discredit the sovereign government of Iraq and Multi-National Force.
As Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has stated many times, the sovereign government of Iraq will not allow foreign fighters and terrorists to continue the tactic of using mosques, hospitals, schools or other protected sites to stage or plan attacks against Iraqi forces.
| Quote: | U.S. troops still facing pockets of Iraqi resistance in Fallujah
Click to zoom An Iraqi woman walks past armored U.S. military vehicles in Baghdad. (AP/Khalid Mohammed)
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops, on the verge of gaining control of the city, fought pockets of resistance in the former militant stronghold Fallujah on Wednesday and uncovered what the Iraqi commander said were "hostage slaughterhouses" in which foreign captives had been killed.
Insurgents sought to open a second front, mounting attacks outside Fallujah. They also kidnapped three relatives of Iraqi interim prime minister Ayad Allawi and were reported to have threatened further revenge against the leader. Militants also claimed to have abducted 20 Iraqi National Guard troops in Fallujah.
Throughout the day, Americans hit the militants with artillery and mortars and planes fired on the city's main street and market as well as Jolan, one of several neighbourhoods where troops were skirmishing with militants.
On Thursday morning, loud explosions still rocked the city as sounds of gunfire reverberated across town. Smoke rose above Fallujah as helicopters hovered overhead. Marines were seen perched on rooftops.
Air strikes resumed as U.S. forces continued to pound the southern part of Fallujah with artillery, hitting mortar positions and sniper nests of insurgents who were firing on marines outside the city.
In what could be a sign of progress, the marines began turning over Jolan to Iraqi forces, signalling marines consider the area relatively secure. Jolan was considered one of the strongest positions held by militants inside Fallujah.
Even so, clashes continued in Jolan and smoke billowed from the heart of the neighbourhood late Wednesday. Fireballs and tracer fire lit up the night sky over Fallujah and the sounds of artillery echoed in the streets.
In one of the most dramatic clashes of the day, snipers fired on U.S. and Iraqi troops from the minarets of the Khulafah Al Rashid mosque, the military said. Marines said the insurgents waved a white flag at one stage but then opened fire, BBC's embedded correspondent Paul Wood reported. The troops called in four precision air strikes that destroyed the minarets but left the mosque standing.
Pool footage showed U.S. forces battling insurgents in a neighbourhood surrounding the mosque. Troops were pinned down by gunfire on a rooftop, forced to hit the deck and lay on their stomachs.
"We're taking fire from the mosque," one of the Americans said.
They returned fire, blasting the mosque - a large domed building flanked by two minarets - and sending up clouds of debris.
"When they're using a mosque to do command and control for insurgents and kill my fellow marines and soldiers and airmen that are out here - no holds barred, the gloves are off," said marine Staff Sgt. Sam Mortimer.
Tank gunners also opened fire on insurgents in a nearby five-storey apartment building and flames shot from several windows. |
VICTORY IN FALLUJAH
BY RALPH PETERS
November 11, 2004 -- IN the Second Battle of Fallujah, military operations are ahead of schedule. Our casualties have been blessedly light. The terrorists who haven't fled are being killed by the hundreds. Our troops will soon achieve their goal of eliminating Iraq's key safe haven for terrorists.
Our Marines and soldiers have carried the ball inside the 10-yard line. The media's response? Move the goalposts.
The legions of pundits ("Will talk for food") now suggest that a win in Fallujah will be meaningless because we failed to kill or capture the terrorist leadership, because some of the thugs ran away and because Fallujah won't resemble Darien, Conn., by next Sunday.
On Tuesday, as our troops handily pierced the defenses terrorists had spent months erecting, The New York Times carried two front-page stories implying that our forces were facing possible defeat. The Times' military analysis was incompetent and just plain wrong. And the photo its editors ran above the fold showed a Marine curled in a ditch under enemy fire.
It wasn't reporting. It was a mix of anti-American propa- ganda and wishful thinking. Al-Jazeera couldn't have done it better.
Now that our troops are winning so lopsidedly that it can't be denied, the Times likely will tell us that Fallujah didn't matter, anyway, that our efforts were wasted. Then Seymour Hersh, the New Yorker's greatest living fiction writer, will follow up with a fairy tale called "Failure In Fallujah."
What's really happening?
We're winning a critical victory. Since the political decision to stop short in Fallujah last April, the terrorists had bragged to the world that the city would never fall to the infidel. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his thugs turned Fallujah into a vast dungeon, complete with torture chambers and execution halls. The terrorists stockpiled weapons and ammunition, welcoming thousands of international "Jihadis" and using the city as a base to spread terror across central Iraq.
Fallujah became the new world capital of terror. And Allah's butchers proclaimed that they'd slaughter U.S. troops in the streets, if they tried to enter the city.
Guess who's dying now?
By fleeing without fighting to the death as they promised they would, the terror-masters discredited themselves. After Coalition leaders lost their nerve last April, the terrorists portrayed themselves as having faced down America's military might. This time, they ran away, leaving untrained recruits to take the bullet-train to paradise.
The swift fall of Fallujah is not only a practical disaster for the terrorists, but a massive loss of face for them throughout the Muslim world.
Plenty of tough street-fighting remains, but three-quarters of the city is under the control of Coalition and Iraqi forces. Contrary to smug media predictions, the Iraqi units didn't run away. They did their part to free the city and save their country.
What have we found in Fallujah? Hostage slaughterhouses — butcher shops for human cattle. Stockpiles of ammunition and explosives in mosques. And a city scarred by all the marks of an Islamic reign of terror.
Talking heads may smirk and say that we'll still have to fight the terrorists elsewhere. True enough. But no one claimed that Fallujah would be the last battle. Of course, the terrorists who ran away will try to refurbish their image with more bombings, assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings.
But they've lost their greatest stronghold. They've lost their sole tangible symbol of success. And they've lost their image as dauntless warriors able to stand up to the U.S. military.
In this imperfect world, where results are never what amateurs demand, the Second Battle of Fallujah is already a huge win for the good guys — even before the shooting's over.
In the coming weeks, the terrorists will try to re-infiltrate the city. They'll stage photogenic car bombings and assassinations. Then we'll be told that we still don't control Fallujah, that we've failed. But a city where terrorists have to sneak in to plant a bomb is a far better place than one in which they rule.
Meanwhile, our troops and their Iraqi allies remain engaged in brutal street-fighting. The remarkably low friendly casualty list is bound to grow. But no one need doubt the outcome. Our troops will complete the mission they were given.
But the media need to stop inventing missions of their own, then blaming our troops for not accomplishing them.
Ralph Peters is the author of "Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace." |
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JB Stone
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Navy Drops First 500-Pound JDAM in Combat
Navy Newsstand ^ | 8 nov 2004 | US NAVY
PATUXENT RIVER, Md. (NNS) -- Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 34 of Carrier Air Wing 17, currently embarked aboard USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67), dropped the Navy’s first two 500-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) during combat operations in Iraq Oct. 29.
The successful strike was the culmination of a noteworthy effort by Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Commander, Fleet Forces Command, and Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet, to rapidly test, procure and deploy a new weapon system to satisfy an emergent operational requirement.
"The 500-pound JDAM is perfect for the urban warfare that’s taking place now in Iraq," said JDAM program manager Capt. Dave Dunaway. "Precision, reliability, and accuracy is exactly what the warfighter was asking for, and we are pleased that we could respond quickly.”
The Navy’s newest weapon, the JDAM, also known as a GBU-38, provides the warfighter with greater flexibility and accuracy.
The GBU-38 completed its initial operational evaluation Sept. 28 from NAVAIR test ranges in southern California. The successful evaluation resulted in an early operational capability Oct. 8, eight months ahead of its scheduled initial operational capability, ultimately bringing this capability to the warfighter much sooner than expected.
“The use of this precise weapon opens up target sets that might not otherwise be available,” said NAVAIR Test Pilot Marine Maj. Timothy Burton.
The JDAM guidance kit converts existing unguided bombs into precision-guided "smart" munitions.
VFA-34’s weapons destroyed the target, where insurgents were known to be operating in Iraq.
The John F. Kennedy Carrier Strike Group deployed June 7 and consists of USS Spruance (DD 963), USS Roosevelt (DDG 80), USS Vicksburg (CG 69), USS Seattle (AOE 3), USS Toledo (SSN 769) and 70 planes from embarked Carrier Air Wing 17. The Kennedy Strike Group arrived in theater July 10 to support ground troops fighting anti-Iraqi insurgents and to support Multinational Corps - Iraq and Iraqi forces, who are working hard to bring stability to the sovereign government of Iraq.
For related news visit, NAVAIR - Naval Air Systems Command Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/navair.
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Arabian Gulf (Nov. 9, 2004) - Aviation Ordnancemen, assigned to the “Rampagers” of Strike Fighter Squadron Eight Three (VFA-83), finish loading two of the Navy's latest Satellite Guided Bomb, the GBU-38.
Arabian Gulf (Nov. 6, 2004) – Aviation Ordnanceman assigned to the “Rampagers” of Strike Fighter Squadron Eight Three (VFA-83) prepare to move GBU-38 bombs on the flight deck aboard the conventionally powered aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67). The GBU-38 is a 500-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) that uses a standard Mk-82 bomb, and was developed for precision bombing in urban warfare. The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) is a guidance kit that converts existing unguided bombs into precision-guided "smart" munitions. The tail section contains an inertial navigational system (INS) and a global positioning system (GPS). JDAM improves the accuracy of unguided bombs in any weather condition. It can be launched from every fighter or fighter-attack aircraft in the Navy's inventory. Kennedy and embarked Carrier Air Wing Seventeen (CVW-17) are deployed to the 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).
JDAM TEST VIDEO: http://vampirebat.com/war/jdamboom.mpg
| Quote: | The River War (The Belmont Club)
The Belmont Club | November 11, 2004 | Wretchard
The Fallujah battle, which is just winding down, should be seen in the context a wider campaign against the enemy in the Sunni triangle. To properly understand the goals of that campaign, we should first put ourselves in the shoes of the enemy. The Command Post reproduces an extensive extract of a press statement by a former Republican Guard general who now styles himself as a spokesman for the 'resistance'. Although it is probably puffed up for propaganda purposes, it contains a degree of plausibility from which we can infer the outlines of their strategy.
We are very satisfied indeed concerning the reality of the resistance and its results on the terrain. The Resistance in fact has become an every day popular state no one can ignore. We can speak about the Resistance in two terms: First in Iraqi terms: the Resistance has spread its complete control over a great number of Iraqi towns. What is happening in Fallujah, Samaraa, Qaem, Baaquba, Hawijah, Tallafar, Heet, Saqlawyia, Ramadi, Anah, Rawa, Haditha, Balad, Beiji, Bahraz, Baladruz, and other cities and towns of Iraq, confirm perfectly this reality. The Resistance also controls totally some areas in Baghdad and its suburbs such as Yusufya, Latifya, Abu Ghraib, and Mahmudya, which shows the political and the security impasse encountered by the Occupiers and their agents. Here we have to mention the widespread popular cover the Resistance enjoys in these areas and elsewhere, rendering all Iraqi resistance fighters in the confrontation moments with the enemy.
... After this rapid and summary lecture of the Iraqi resistance reality, I can say that we are very confident about the future. What we planned before the Occupation is being achieved on the terrain in a good way. This shows the correct political and military Iraqi leadership long-term vision, when it planned the Resistance and started its fire. There is a unified military leadership, which leads the operations in the terrain in every town of Iraq. This leadership includes the best officers of the Iraqi Army, the Republican Guard, Saddam’s Fidayyins, and the Security and Intelligence services. What is happening in the Provinces of al Anbar, Diyala, Mosul, and Salah el Din, Babel and elsewhere is a bright sign of what I am telling you.
There are two factual nuggets in this screed. First, it gives us a map of the the towns which the enemy considers its bastions. Second, it hints of a fallback plan conceived before the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a subject earlier discussed in War Plan Orange. By plotting the enemy strongholds on the map it is at once evident that they are coextensive with two pathways. The first goes northward along the Euphrates from western Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, Hadithah, Anah and Qusabayah -- along the river and road from Baghdad to the Syrian border. The omission of Qusabayah from mention is very peculiar, since it has been the scene of battalion sized battles between infiltrators and Marines guarding the Syrian frontier since the earliest post-OIF days, but I include it here on that account. The second set of towns goes northeast along the Tigris towards Tikrit and parts of Kurdistan: Hawijah, Balad and Samarra. A spur runs off toward the Iranian border: Baqubah and Baladruz, on the road to the Iran. It is hard not to think that we are looking at their lines of communication.
The towns along these pathways are probably waystations where men and weapons can be smuggled by stages, a kind of Sunni Ho Chi Minh Trail. My own guess is they are probably superimposed on traditional smuggling routes from Syria and Iran which have now been converted to serve the enemy cause. I caution the reader that this is guesswork, but I think it is correct. The discovery of carbomb factories in Fallujah suggests that town was the easternmost terminus of a finger that extended straight from the Syrian border, a final launching pad where enemy delivery systems were "bombed up" for their sorties at US targets in the city or as convoys made their way along the highways west of Baghdad.
Taking Fallujah then, was not merely a symbolic political act to reduce a 'symbol of defiance', but a sound operational move. It interdicts the conveyor belt of destruction that flowed from the Syrian border towards Baghdad. The logical next step is to cut the line again near the Syrian border, perhaps at Anah, so that by taking out both ends the middle is left unsupported. Alternatively, the US could roll up the enemy line of communication going north by taking out Ramadi which would force the enemy to sortie from Haditha, a little ville a lot farther from Baghdad. Although this will not totally destroy the insurgency, it will throttle movement along their lines of communication considerably. Guerilla warfare, like all warfare, is logistics. It just takes different forms.
In order to accomplish this task, the US has approximately 18 brigades -- about 50 battalions -- at hand. But many of these are assigned to important security duties and about 10 battalions were directly employed in the Fallujah operation or in support, and it will be some days, even weeks, before these units are available again to mount other operations. But the Prime Minister Allawie's 60 day declaration of martial law strongly suggests that the Sunni campaign will be finished before elections are held in January and that means there will be very little pause in American operational tempo. In fact, although the focus of media coverage has been on the urban battle in Fallujah, pursuit operations up and down the ratline to Syria are probably in progress. Chester was surprised to learn that contrary to his expectations, the British Black Watch regiment was to the west and probably north of Fallujah, not east as he expected. That means it was not between Fallujah and Baghdad, but between Fallujah and Ramadi. This suggests the hammer could fall on Ramadi, with Black Watch in a blocking position. One can only wait and see.
Every campaign has a political dimension. The campaign in the Sunni Triangle is probably aimed at convincing the enemy that resistance is now futile and their best hope lies in participating in the new Iraqi government through elections. Personally (speculation alert!) I doubt it can achieve as much. The campaign will absolutely gut the enemy as a guerilla force, but it will not be enough to prevent them from terrorizing Sunni politicians who may wish to participate in the coming elections. But this will only postpone unconditional Sunni defeat for another year because a terrorist enforced boycott will mean that Kurds and Shi'ites will dominate the new administration and most importantly, its Army. By next year, the regular Iraqi Army will be a far more potent force and the Sunni insurgency a far weaker one. But that's the old sad human story; to miss the chance when it comes and pine for it ever afterward. |
HAPPY VETERANS DAY...!!! |
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JB Stone
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 12:58 am Post subject: |
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A few time slices from today's assault on Fallujah...
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"Ordies"....Somewhere in the Arabian Gulf, aboard the USS John F. Kennedy,
loadingMk-83 1,000 pound general purpose bombs fitted with proximity-fuses onto a F-14B Tomcat jet. |
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U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18D Hornet jet fighter, loaded with laser-guided bombs, banking away after refueling from a KC-130 tanker aircraft. |
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Field Command Air Controllers, near Fallujah, coordinating bombing raids. |
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Loading M109A6 Howitzer in the streets of Fallujah. |
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Iniating launch of UAV in Fallujah. |
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US Marines prepare to hand-launch "Dragon Eye" in Fallujah. |
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House to House Combat in the treacherous alleyways of Fallujah.
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Ending a Terror Confab in a Mosque. |
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Freeing a kidnapped terror captive in Fallujah. Left to starve after 10 days in the madmen's custody.
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Red Crescent, supplying food and medical supplies to the enemy....
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'Insurgents' pose with allegedly captured Iraqi National Guard members
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Iraqi CHRISTIANS, car bombed at their Church & School, Baghdad.
St. George's Church, 3 Dead, 52 Injured
Saint Matthew's Church, Baghdad.
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Voter Registration, Basra, school building donated by U.S. |
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Mosul, celebratory Terrorist attacks on Police & Civilians...
Turning, to RUN & HIDE....
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Kurdish smugglers, moving Iranian Insurgents & weaponry, Hergeina, mountainous border region. |
[img]http://www.sondrak.com/archive/POtD%20-%20Indiajp[/img]
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Fallujah, a U.S. soldier comforts an Iraq man who was found and freed by U.S. forces in an Islamic hostage-dhimmi-slaughterhouse (acceptable to the EU and UN). The man told Marines he was a taxi driver held captive for 10 days.
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Arresting Iraqi and Iranian and Syrian and Egyptian and Palestinian terrorists. |
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