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Falluja truce has 'weakened resistance' Sunday 25 April 2004, 16:20 Makka Time, 13:20 GMT Resistance fighters are believed trapped inside the town The ceasefire brokered by Iraqi mediators in the Iraqi city of Falluja appears to have weakened the fighters battling US marines while also creating divisions within the Sunni Muslim community. The fighters have been trapped by the US siege in the flashpoint city west of Baghdad for the past three weeks, after having initially succeeded in winning national support for their cause. "The city has been completely surrounded for the past 10 days and the fighters are trapped...

CAMP FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Marines killed around 30 Iraqi insurgents overnight in a firefight near the flashpoint town of Falluja, Colonel John Coleman said on Saturday.   Marines spotted a small group of armed men, one with a mortar, and shot at them near a small village on the banks of the Euphrates, he said at the U.S. base of Camp Falluja, just outside the town. The insurgents were joined by about 30 others and the Marines called in air support, Coleman, the chief of staff of the Marine Expeditionary Force, told reporters. He said all the...

  Cease-Fire Agreement Reached In Fallujah; 13 U.S. troops Killed In Iraq By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 19, 2004 – U.S., coalition and Iraqi officials have agreed "to implement a full and unbroken cease-fire" in the city of Fallujah, chief Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor said today in Baghdad. The agreement, Senor told reporters at a press briefing, was reached over a series of meetings over the past several days. The cease-fire agreement, he noted, features several points: Coalition forces will allow "unfettered" access to Fallujah General Hospital for treatment of sick and injured....

<p>BAGHDAD — U.S. military commanders, frustrated by a weeklong truce and talks aimed at ending hostilities in Fallujah, say the pause in offensive operations is giving insurgents a chance to reorganize and rearm, military officers say.</p> <p>"There is a sense of frustration across the board," said a high-ranking military officer who asked not to be identified. If fighting starts again, Marines say they fear they will face a stronger enemy. "You fight them now or you fight them later," the officer said.</p>

 Clean socks a boon to infantry in FallujahSubmitted by: 1st Marine DivisionStory Identification Number: 200441645438Story by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen FALLUJAH, Iraq (April 14, 2004) -- The gruff bark from the platoon sergeant was music to the ears of the infantrymen of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. "Your dog-gone packs are here, now lets get a working party going," said Gunnery Sgt. James E. Dinwoodie, platoon sergeant for Weapons Platoon, Company E. After days of gunfire, sweat and grime, there's something to be said for the luxury of changing into clean socks, shirts and skivvies. Simple pleasures...

 "Cheaters of death" assist Marines wounded in Fallujah turmoilSubmitted by: I Marine Expeditionary ForceStory Identification Number: 200441511724Story by Gunnery Sgt. Claudia LaMantia and 1st Lt. Sarah Kansteiner CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (April 15, 2004) -- "You're going to be all right. We're going to take care of you." These were the consoling words echoed repeatedly as the sailors of Bravo Surgical Company, 1st Medical Battalion, 1st Force Service Support Group tended to wounded Marines from Operation Vigilant Resolve April 5. The sailors, poised on the outskirts of the restive town of Fallujah, are providing "good medicine in a bad place."...

THE guns finally fell silent over Fallujah yesterday, leaving the men of the US Army’s psychological warfare team with one overriding concern: where was “Fallujah Frank”? The “psy-ops” soldiers spend their days blasting the guerrillas with heavy metal music and taunting the gunmen into exposing themselves to American snipers. But three days ago they suddenly heard an echo. An Iraqi was driving around with a loudspeaker inside the besieged city haranguing rebels in their own stronghold. Fallujah Frank had made his dangerous debut. “There’s a Fallujah citizen — we call him Fallujah Frank — who’s addressing the Mujahidin or whoever’s...

<p>These are not really dark times. Rather I think in some ways they are among the finest in our history. No other country would or could send its youth 7,000 miles away to end fascism, implement consensual government, and adhere to its principled mission amid cynicism, cheap caricature, and increasing danger.</p>

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces have detained around 200 Iraqi paramilitary soldiers who refused to take part in a U.S. offensive against the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja, their former comrades said Friday. The U.S. military declined to confirm whether the men were being held. Senior officers play down the significance of such incidents but, asked about reports of mutiny among Iraqi troops, have acknowledged a "command failure" took place during the Falluja offensive. Soldiers from the Baghdad-based 36th Security Brigade, part of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC), told Reuters that last week U.S. commanders took them at night...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- On a rooftop overlooking Fallujah's industrial wasteland, Lance Cpl. Tom Browne pokes his machine gun muzzle out of a hole in a barrier wall, singing to himself to pass the time. In the street below, the corpse of an insurgent suspect lies baking in the sun. Browne, from Boston, says he has killed several rebels, probably Iraqis, so far. "I don't even think about those people as people," he says. It wasn't supposed to be this way. The band of Marines in this insurgent stronghold received two big orders this year. They were told to...

Geopolitical Diary: Thursday, April 15, 2004 April 15, 2004 0615 GMT A significant portion of the current crisis in Iraq moved much closer to resolution today. Muqtada al-Sadr shifted his position as U.S. forces moved to jumping-off points for an attack on An Najaf. Al-Sadr was under pressure from two directions. Obviously, the prospect of being attacked by the United States was daunting, but the offer for a truce would not have come if Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had not finally intervened. Whether this was preplanned or whether al-Sistani used al-Sadr for his own ends remains unclear to us. In...

The radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr seemed to be ready yesterday to negotiate his way out of a worsening standoff with the US forces. As 2,500 American soldiers massed on the outskirts of the holy city of Najaf, Mr Sadr's representatives suggested that he was ready to make a deal with the US authorities, less than two weeks after he began the violent uprising in the south. In Najaf a senior aide said Mr Sadr had dropped his earlier conditions for talks, which included the permanent withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq's holy Shia cities and the release of...

<p>BAGHDAD -- Shi'ite cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr agreed yesterday to unconditional talks over his standoff with American forces that threatens to spark open warfare against the U.S.-led coalition in both southern Iraq and much of Baghdad.</p> <p>Separately, kidnappings of Westerners sparked by the recent fighting in the Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah took an ugly turn when Al Jazeera television announced that it has video footage of a hostage being executed. The hostage was one of four Italians working for a U.S. security firm. Al Jazeera said it would not broadcast the film.</p>

By JASON KEYSER and LOURDES NAVARRO, Associated Press Writers FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. warplanes and helicopters hammered gunmen Wednesday, straining a truce in besieged Fallujah. With more troops killed, April became the deadliest month for American forces since they set foot in Iraq.To the south, a 2,500-strong U.S. force massed on the outskirts of the holy city of Najaf for a showdown with a radical cleric, raising fears of a U.S. attack that would outrage the nation's relatively pro-U.S. Shiite majority. Russia said it would evacuate hundreds of its workers from Iraq after an outbreak kidnappings in which at least...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom - 4/14/4 - Baghdad, Fallujah, Najaf BREAKING: Baghdad - Hazem al-Aaraji grabbed, then released BREAKING: Fallujah BEHIND ENEMY LINES BREAKING: Fallujah PROOF OF PRECISE ACCURATE TARGETING BREAKING: Fallujah Successful raids and seizures BREAKING: Najaf - al-Sadr and his Mahdi army badge BREAKING: Tehran IRAN AT WAR WITH THE US QFN ==== QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS Exclusive to FReerepublic PICTURES YOU MAY NEVER SEE IN THE GENERAL MEDIA ========= Fallujah ========= BREAKING: In Fallujah, Marine heroes successfully raid and seize several weapon caches and tools used to make explosive devices AND the terrorists. BREAKING: PROOF...

USS George Washington’s Hornets Support Vigilant ResolveStory Number: NNS040412-04Release Date: 4/12/2004 12:39:00 PMFrom Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet Public AffairsMANAMA, Bahrain (NNS) -- F/A-18 Hornets from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7, flying from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) in the Arabian Gulf, participated in Operation Vigilant Resolve in April. April 8, one of the Naval Air Station Oceana-based “Wildcats” from Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 131 conducted a 20mm strafing run against an enemy position. Another VFA-131 Hornet dropped two 500-pound GBU-12 laser-guided bombs on another enemy position in Fallujah, Iraq, April...

AT LEAST 700 Iraqi fighters and 70 United States-led coalition soldiers have been killed in clashes this month, the US military said yesterday, confirming it to be the bloodiest period since the end of the war. The final toll could be much higher, with US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt admitting the lack of reliable figures for civilian casualties. The deaths of four more US soldiers were announced yesterday. Three marines were killed "as a result of enemy action" on Sunday in Anbar province, which stretches from west of Baghdad. A soldier was killed and four hurt when their patrol...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - American troops killed hundreds of insurgents in and around Baghdad in fighting over the past week, but have more work to do to fully secure the city and roads to the south and west that are vital for U.S. supply transport, a top U.S. military official said Monday. In the heaviest battles seen in the capital since the fall of Saddam Hussein a year ago, U.S. troops battled Sunni insurgents on the western edge of Baghdad - at one point for nearly 72 hours straight - and fought rebellious Shiite militiamen in a densely populated neighborhood...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 4/12/04 - Abu Ghraib, Fallujah, Mosul BREAKING: Abu Gharib - military convoy attacked BREAKING: Fallujah - Terrorists DO NOT respect truce (again) BREAKING: Kerbala, Kirkuk, Mosul QFN ==== QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS Exclusive to FReerepublic PICTURES YOU MAY NEVER SEE IN THE GENERAL MEDIA =========== Baghdad =========== In Baghdad, American heroes with weapons hot, near the Adhamiya police station. In Baghdad, convoy terrorist attack on US army oil tankers by rocket-propelled grenades. Where was the instant retaliation? Much too later. U.S Army vehicle attacked on Baghdad's highway, April 10, 2004. In Baghdad, an Army...

600 dead in besieged Iraqi city - but marine commander claims victims mostly insurgentsThe United States last night robustly defended its controversial siege of Falluja which has cost the lives of more than 600 people over the past week, by claiming most of those who died were militants picked off with precision by US marines. As a tense ceasefire held in the turbulent city west of Baghdad and an international hostage crisis persisted across Iraq, the US marine commander in charge of the siege of Falluja claimed 95% of those killed were legitimate targets. The death toll in Falluja has...