Thought I would post some of the BBC coverage about the battle to take Falluja. It's a little different from what I've seen in American papers. Battle rages in centre of Falluja US marines have taken the mayor's office in central Falluja and say they now control 70% of the Iraqi city, with rebels hemmed into a narrow strip. US officials say insurgents are now in "small pockets", moving blindly through the city, while fighting continues to rage for control of the centre. According to US estimates, hundreds of rebels were killed on Wednesday alone and at least one more marine died. The Red Cross has urged both sides to allow access for medical workers. "The fighters are simply moving from street to street, attacking US troops where they can and allowing them through where they can't" ~Fadhil Badrani, journalist in Falluja The BBC's Paul Wood, embedded with US marines who re-took the mayor's office, said that on Wednesday morning, no civilians could be seen on the streets, shops were shuttered and black smoke was rising all around. Fadhil Badrani, a journalist in Falluja who reports for the BBC World Service in Arabic, compared the city to Kabul, the Afghan capital largely reduced to rubble after years of warfare. One marine officer, Maj Francis Piccoli, said the rebels had been squeezed into a strip of the city bordering the main east-west road, which splits Falluja. Another officer, Lt Gen John Sattler, said of the insurgents: "They are now in small pockets, blind, moving across the city. We will continue to hunt them down and destroy them." Iraq's government has offered an amnesty to any armed groups in Falluja who surrender and are not found to have committed any "major" crimes. In another development, the Arabic television station al-Jazeera has aired a videotape with Falluja militants displaying what they claim are 20 Iraqi soldiers taken captive. Earlier, the chief spokesman for the joint US-Iraqi operation in Falluja, Maj Gen Abdul Qader Mohan, told reporters that Iraqi troops had found houses where hostages had been held and "slaughtered". In Falluja, marines backed by tanks met little opposition when they blasted their way into the mayor's compound, which also houses a police station, early on Wednesday. However, they later came under sustained fire 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. Fadhil Badrani told the BBC News website that the battle was particularly fierce in the district of Jolan, just north of the centre. 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 He said he had counted the bodies of at least six US soldiers lying in the streets of the city's Hasbiyyah area overnight, along with the remains of many dead rebels. He had also found two disabled US tanks and three destroyed Humvee jeeps. The journalist said he doubted the truth of US claims that marines were in control of 70% of the city. The US military's total death toll for the Falluja operation rose to 11 Americans and two Iraqi government soldiers on Wednesday. 'Total destruction' US commanders say rebel leaders such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - America's most wanted man in Iraq - appear to have fled before the assault began. URBAN WARFARE In Washington, President George W Bush praised the US-led forces in Falluja for their "hard work... for a free Iraq". Aid agencies have highlighted the plight of civilians in Falluja where up to 50,000 people remain out of a pre-war population of 300,000. The Red Cross has urged all combatants to guarantee passage to the wounded. An unnamed 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," he said, adding that water and electricity had been cut off. The assault on Falluja, a hotbed of Sunni resistance, is officially aimed at stabilising Iraq ahead of January's poll. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3998049.stm I was surprised that as many as 50,000 civilians are still in Falluja. It will be a miracle if there aren't significant civilian casualties, in my opinion. Keep D&D Civil!!
US 'pacifies' city but rebels take violence to rest of country By Kim Sengupta in Camp Dogwood 10 November 2004 US forces reached the centre of Fallujah yesterday after hours of street fighting and barrages from artillery, tank and helicopter gunships. As night fell, the Americans announced that they had captured key strategic targets and were carrying out house-to-house searchesIt appears that many of the insurgents who had been based in Fallujah slipped out of the city and moved to other parts of Iraq before the offensive. Even as US commanders were declaring that the rebel stronghold would be "pacified" very soon, the price being paid for the victory was becoming evident in the carnage being visited around the country. The estimates given by the US military about the numbers of insurgents in Fallujah have varied Two weeks ago it was claimed there were 6,000 heavily armed militants, including the Jordanian terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in the city. However, small groups of fighters, sometimes no more than 20 strong, have attempted to engage the Americans, who vastly outnumber and outgun them, before fading away.... Hundreds of armed men entered Ramadi, taking over government buildings, while in Baquba, north of Baghdad, 45 people, including 25 policemen were killed in a series of attacks. Eleven people died in bombings in Baghdad, and an attack on a National Guard headquarters in Kirkuk killed three people. There was also political unravelling, with one of the main Sunni groups, the Iraqi Islamic Party, resigning from the Iraqi government in protest at the assault. The American attack on our people in Fallujah has led and will lead to more killings and genocide without mercy from the Americans," said its leader, Mohsen Abdel Hamid. The Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential group of Sunni clerics, called for a boycott of next January's planned elections which were, it said, being held "over the corpses of those killed in Fallujah and the blood of the wounded". There were reports from Fallujah that almost 500 Iraqi government troops _ almost a battalion _ had refused to fight alongside the Americans, a repetition of similar incidents when US forces attacked the city last April. In Washington, Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said: "I would characterise it as an isolated problem." The government imposed an indefinite night-time curfew in Baghdad. Officials said there was "credible evidence" that militants escaping from Fallujah had regrouped in the capital and were planning more attacks. Colonel Michael Formica, the commander of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, said in Fallujah that escaping fighters were a real problem. "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". Intermittent fighting was under way in the northern sectors of Fallujah, with at least two American tanks reported to be engulfed in flames. Despite meeting fierce and, at times, sustained resistance, senior officers of the army's Task Force, of the 1st Infantry Division, said they had not encountered any of the more than 120 "suicide cars" supposedly waiting for them packed with explosives. However, other units reported that they had found booby-trapped buildings. By midday, US armoured units, attacking from the north, had made their way to the highway running from east to west through the city centre and crossed over into the southern part of the city. One of the objectives surrounded by US forces was the al-Hidra mosque half a mile inside the city. According to the American commanders, the mosque was being used as an a weapons dump and planning centre for militants, and will be captured in due course with Iraqi government troops leading the way. US troops are using Fallujah's main railway station as a forward base and detention centre. Iraqi government troops brought in nine handcuffed prisoners from the Jolan area, where many of the militants are said to have gathered. They said two were Egyptians and one was Syrian. Captain Robert Bodisch, a Marines tank company commander, said: "They are putting up a strong fight ... these people are hardcore ... A man pulled out from behind a wall and fired an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] at my tank. I have to get another tank to go back in there." Local people claimed US warplanes bombed a clinic, causing many casualties. The main hospital was captured by US and Iraqi government forces on Monday, when, according to government figures, more than 40 "terrorists" were killed. link
Great job, troops! http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/10/iraq.main/index.html Troops find hostage 'slaughterhouses' in Falluja Coalition forces say 70 percent of city is under control Wednesday, November 10, 2004 Posted: 9:04 PM EST (0204 GMT) FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi troops retaking the city of Falluja have found hostage "slaughterhouses" where people were held captive and beheaded, an Iraqi military official said Wednesday. Soldiers found CDs labeled "beheading of ..." and showing the decapitations of hostages. Black clothing and masks worn by the kidnappers when they made the videos were found, along with banners hoisted in the background, according to Iraqi and U.S. military officials. Soldiers said it was apparent that numerous killings had taken place there. Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader, commander of Iraqi forces in the battle, said he was unsure whether the hostage records included the names of kidnapped British aid worker Margaret Hassan or French journali sts Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot. In Baghdad, meanwhile, a car bomb detonated Wednesday near an emergency police patrol killed at least seven people and wounded three police officers, said Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman, spokesman for Iraq's Ministry of Interior. And a U.S. soldier was killed and another is listed in stable condition after an Army 1st Infantry patrol was hit by a roadside bomb near Balad, north of Baghdad early Wednesday, a military statement said. Resistance lighter than expected Military officials in Falluja said Wednesday that combined U.S. and Iraqi forces have taken control of about 70 percent of the city on the third day of the ground offensive, including key buildings. Troops had expected to encounter heavy urban fighting in their push to clear the city of insurgents before elections in January. So far, however, they have found resistance to be lighter than anticipated. Troops have seized the mayor's office, as well as several mosques and bridges, military officials said. An estimated 10,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines, along with about 2,000 troops from Iraq's new army, have been running into small pockets of fighters as they fight their way through the city. The offensive launched Sunday is dubbed Operation New Dawn and targets an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 insurgents. A senior Pentagon official told CNN more than 500 insurgents have been killed in the fighting. (Gallery) Eleven U.S. troops and two Iraqis have been killed since fighting began, officials said Wednesday. Nine Iraqi soldiers and an unknown number of Ministry of Interior personnel have been injured. One of the Army's most senior enlisted soldiers -- Command Sgt. Maj. Steven Faulkenburg, 45, of Huntingburg, Indiana -- was killed Tuesday by a gunshot wound to the head while conducting combat operations in Falluja, Army sources said. Strongholds in and around the city have been destroyed, including defensive positions on the outskirts of the city. Combat units report finding several weapons and explosives caches, along with car bombs and other homemade explosives. Military officials said two mosques have been searched because weapons were believed to be hidden inside. In an effort to preserve the cultural sensitivity of mosques, only Iraqi forces are sent inside. U.S. military policy is that, when mosques are used as firing positions, their sanctity is forfeited. "Today, we saw again the terrorists' practice of abusing public buildings and religious sites to carry out their attacks against Iraqi and multinational forces," said Thair al-Nakib, spokesman for interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Falluja's Khilafa al-Rashid mosque was being used as a base for military operations, he said. After small-arms fire failed, precision airstrikes were used to secure the area. Limited amnesty offered Falluja is considered an insurgent command-and-control center for the rest of the country and a base for Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network. (Falluja map) The city was sealed off Sunday, but many insurgents could have slipped out before then, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz said Tuesday. As for al-Zarqawi, Metz said, "I think it would be fair to assume that he has left." Allawi has called for insurgents to lay down their weapons. "Several groups have approached the government in the last 24 hours to indicate their willingness to cooperate and to surrender to government authority," said al-Nakib. "The government is willing to offer these groups amnesty, provided that they have not committed major crimes." The operation marks the third attempt this year to subdue Falluja. Earlier operations in the city -- by U.S. forces and by a short-lived Iraqi force called the Falluja Brigade -- failed to quell the insurgents. Allawi relatives kidnapped At least two members of Allawi's extended family were abducted at gunpoint from their home in Baghdad, amid conflicting reports from government officials and sources close to the family. A group called Ansar al-Jihad claimed responsibility for the kidnapping on a Web site, saying there were three hostages. The prime minister's office Wednesday said it was aware of the abduction of two family members -- Allawi's cousin, Ghazy Allawi, 75, and his cousin's daughter-in-law. The office said Ghazy Allawi has no political interest and did not work for any governmental facility. (Full story) Bush hears battle report In Washington, President Bush said he had spoken with Gen. George Casey, the head of the multinational force in Iraq, who reported "things are going well in Falluja." The president noted that the situation is "tough right now in Iraq because there are people that are willing to commit violent acts to stop elections." But he said that same atmosphere did not deter people in Afghanistan from turning out to vote recently, and he was confident the Falluja population would take part in the elections planned for January. And State Department spokesman Richard Boucher $89.12 million for 99 specific U.S.-sponsored projects scheduled to begin in Falluja before the end of January. "Reconstruction work is not possible while the fighting is going on or while the insurgents have been in charge of the town," Boucher said. "But once it's back in government hands, we'll be able to get on with these projects very quickly." From CNN producers Kianne Sadeq, Kevin Flower, Ayman Mohyeldin, Elise Labott and Caroline Faraj and Baghdad Bureau Chief Jane Arraf, embedded with the U.S. Army
So now the insurgents are splintered. Isn't that a good thing? It's better than a surprise attack which would have killed many more civilians. Look on the bright side.
from what i've seen on t.v..... the U.S and "Iraqi Army" are just shelling the SH*T out of the outter skirts of the city and then moving in....there is no way they can tell who and where the insurgents are located and if civilians are there....they are using very powerful bullets that go through walls....i feel for everyone there, there will be many innocent lives killed and we will never find out how many because each side will blame the other for the killings.....peace is the answer....just wondering how many people in here think that this war is justified??
Look on the bright side As some miilitary commentators have mentioned the question is whether we create more militants than we kill. This "victory" might just be another faillure to do so.. It might be like the capture of Sadam and the ballyhooed battle in the grave yard and mosque of the city whose name I' ve already forgotten. Do you think after another dozen or so of these "decisive" seiges after newly minted arch super terrorists we will still be saying: "Look at the bright side."
Nope, basso. They found vials & some other stuff labeled "sarin" and thought they had found the actual stuff. Turns out it was test kits to *detect* sarin. Why would the terrorists have those? Idunno.
I hope taking Fallujah makes a huge difference. I think that would be great. Our troops and the Iraqis deserve some good news after all they've been through. I am not sure if it will or won't. Just today a car bomb in the capital killed more than 15 people. I'm worried that those kinds of attacks will just keep going on and on.
Ok, I'm no military genius, but this just sounds stupid to me. If we want to capture/kill Zarqawi and the like, wouldn't it be a bad idea to tell CNN our plans a few days beforehand, so that they have plenty of time to evacuate? And... getting the 'slaughterhouses' really doesn't mean much - it's getting the slaughterers that's important. Seems to me that Zarqawi will just take is beheading act elsewhere. Sounds stupid to me. -- droxford
Might be a good reason for that. Al-Badrani's use as an unquestioned source without qualification is shoddy journalism at best. Mr al-Badrani's description is, apparently, not only first-hand but it's presented without the censorship advisory that accompanies the reports of the BBC's journalists embedded with US forces. Surely, then, Mr al-Badrani is an especially reliable source of information? Surely the BBC, a world-respected news organisation, wouldn't accidentally broadcast propaganda (about the killing of civilians and bombing of a hospital) intended to incite anti-American hostility? The BBC, committed to accurate and impartial reporting, wouldn't fall for something so transparently dishonest, would they? No, they wouldn't. In fact, there's nothing unintentional about any of this. The BBC knows exactly who Fadil al-Badrani is and they know full well that he is lying. The same Mr al-Badrani makes an appearance on Al Jazeera, where he claims that an American helicopter has been downed: "I saw the helicopter collide with a rocket. It turned into a ball of fire and fell to the ground. There was smoke everywhere." In another story on Al Jazeera, Mr al-Badrani says: "Almost half of the city's mosques have been destroyed after being targeted by US air and tank strikes." . . . For months there has been very little independent reporting from most of Iraq. Hostage-taking and general lawlessness, especially in the Sunni Triangle, have confined Western journalists to their fortified compounds. With the exception of reporters embedded with Coalition forces, news organisations like the BBC have depended almost entirely on local Iraqis for eyewitness reporting. This presents a serious problem. Iraqis working with the foreign news media are in grave danger -- unless, that is, they report stories in a manner to the liking of the insurgents and terrorists. For example, Iraqi journalists sometimes get tips on upcoming atrocities so they can be on the scene and tell the world about the chaos and misery that have engulfed the country since the Americans arrived. The more frightening the images and story, the better it is for the reporter's well-being. All this is especially true for a stringer working in a town like Fallujah -- a stringer like Fadil al-Badrani. Mr al-Badrani files stories for Reuters and the BBC's Arabic World Service. But to call what he does "reporting" (in any meaningful Western sense of the word) is absurd. If Mr al-Badrani didn't say what the "irregulars," as Jeremy Paxman has taken to calling them (or head-hackers in Mark Steyn's terminology), wanted him to say, he would have been killed or run out of town a long time ago. Yet the BBC fails to explain any of this -- not on its website, where Mr al-Badrani's stories are prominently displayed (see here, here, and here), and not on the Ten O'Clock News or Newsnight. Mr Badrani, whether he really wants to be or not, is a propagandist for the "enemy." We should be told as much. http://www.lastnightsbbcnews.blogspot.com/
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/11/iraq.main/index.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 18 U.S Dead.. 5 Iraqi soldiers dead. BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S.-led forces engaged in fierce street fights Thursday in Falluja, part of an operation that has claimed the lives of 18 U.S. troops and five Iraqi soldiers. Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski, commander of the 1st Marine Division, reported the new death toll Thursday. The American fatalities rose from 11 reported the day before. Combat has become more difficult as the U.S.-led forces have entered the heart of the city west of Baghdad and begun to dismantle hundreds of homemade bombs left by the insurgents, often while under fire. Natonski also said 69 U.S. service members and 34 Iraqi soldiers have been wounded in action. The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany received 58 wounded U.S. troops, mostly from Falluja, on Thursday. On Wednesday, 68 troops were sent to Landstuhl, spokeswoman Mary Shaw said. These totals were a sharp increase from earlier in the week when the American-led forces began moving into the city. Shaw said the patients suffered from blast and gunshot injuries, and some are in serious condition. So far, more than 500 insurgents have been killed, officials at the Pentagon said Thursday. The ground troops battled pockets of insurgents in street-by-street battles. The troops were backed by artillery and airstrikes during the fourth day of fighting in the offensive against hard-core insurgents. The troops continue to locate insurgents in buildings and along alleys. Natonski said earlier that U.S. forces found a beaten, shackled captive at a site believed to be a "hostage slaughterhouse." (Full story) In another part of the city, two AH-1 Marine Cobras made safe landings "after being engaged by ground forces" in the Falluja area, the U.S. military said. "The crews landed their aircraft under their own power and the areas in Falluja where they landed have been secured by [U.S.-led multinational] forces," according to a spokesman for the Combined Press Information Center. Military officials said Wednesday that U.S. and Iraqi forces have taken control of about 70 percent of Falluja, including key buildings. An estimated 10,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines, along with about 2,000 troops from Iraq's new army, have been running into small pockets of fighters as they fight their way through the city. The offensive, launched Sunday, is dubbed Operation New Dawn and targets an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 insurgents. (Gallery) Falluja was considered an insurgent command-and-control center for the rest of the country and a base for Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network. (Falluja map) Suicide attack in Baghdad A suicide car bomb attack Thursday has killed at least 19 people and heavily damaged storefronts in a busy commercial district of central Baghdad, an Iraqi police official said. Fifteen others were wounded in the attack, which targeted a vehicle carrying Americans and a police vehicle. Twenty-five cars were destroyed and burned, and 20 shops and buildings were damaged in the explosion. The blast left a hole on the ground about three meters deep and four meters wide. The attack shook al-Nasser Square near Saadoun Street at 11:35 a.m. (3:30 a.m. ET) in the capital's Rasafa District. Police targeted by insurgents In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police have become the targets of insurgents, prompting an offensive from U.S. soldiers and the Iraqi national guard. In overnight raids, insurgents attacked and burned several government facilities, mostly police stations, a Task Force Olympia spokeswoman said. An Iraqi police official said there have been confrontations between insurgents and Mosul police inside their stations. As a result of the overnight raids, U.S. soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division joined the Iraqi national guard in offensive operations in southeastern and southwestern Mosul, according to a statement from Task Force Olympia. Iraqi security forces and multinational forces established checkpoints in different locations throughout the city. Imams broadcast messages from loudspeakers on top of mosques asking residents not to burn police stations because they are public property. Police visibility on the streets appeared to be low. According to one resident, stores were closed Thursday morning and the streets were quiet. Insurgents were seen roaming freely on streets. The resident described the city as dangerous and tense. Nineveh's provincial governor, Duraid Kashmoula, imposed a 48-hour curfew on the city Wednesday. Other developments The governor of Kirkuk survived an assassination attempt Thursday by Iraqi insurgents, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division said. Gov. Abdul Rahman Mustafa was traveling from his home to a government building when a car bomb exploded near his convoy at about 8:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. ET). The governor was not hurt in the attack, but four Iraqi security guards were wounded. Kirkuk is north of Baghdad. At least two members of interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's extended family were abducted at gunpoint Wednesday from their home in Baghdad amid conflicting reports from government officials and sources close to the family. A group called Ansar al-Jihad claimed responsibility for the kidnapping on a Web site, saying there were three hostages. The prime minister's office Wednesday said it was aware of the abduction of two family members -- Allawi's cousin, Ghazy Allawi, 75, and his cousin's daughter-in-law. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18 dead, hundreds wounded...for what? the insurgents knew we were coming after the election for months - noone important was left in the city as they all got out pre-attack Bush withdrew in April for pure political reasons and now it will cost us even more Americans theirs lives....how sad
don't look now, but Mosul is in flames (Mosul is Iraq's 3rd largest city with an estimated population of 1,739,800) anyone who believed that crushing Falluja will bring stability to Iraq is wrong ( r u listening Mr President?)
Mosul, hey, we can send our boys on a wild goose chase again. We just have to give them another six month head start like last time. It's just Iraqis that are dying in Mosul, it's not like it's as important as a fetus or a gay person trying to get married.
Yes, grind the bastards down. At some point, the young people will see that the Americans are not the beast they have been made out to be and their suicidal volunteerism will be on the decline. When you escape with your life, it must force you to re-evaluate your decision to be so casual about giving it up. There is a fringe element driving these nutcases. They prosecute war on their enemy and have absolutely no regard for collateral damage when they perpetrate horror on the innocent. The tide will turn. Honestly, how can it not?
