Marines Encircle Fallouja (Operation Valiant Resolve commencing)

LA Times ^ | 4-4-04 | Tony Perry and Edmund Sanders

[BurbankKarl]

FALLOUJA, Iraq — Thousands of Marines surrounded this anti-American stronghold early today in preparation for a complex raid to retake control of the city and apprehend those responsible for last week's slayings of four U.S. security contractors.

The highly anticipated action, dubbed Operation Valiant Resolve, was expected to be one of the biggest military offensives since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government a year ago.

All roads leading to this city of 300,000 were cut off and barricaded with tanks and concertina wire. Working through the cold and windy desert night, under a large moon, Marines set up camps for detainees and residents who might flee any fighting. Before dawn, several Marine positions were hit by mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Bursts of automatic gunfire could be heard throughout the city.

[MEG33]

Al Sadr defying the requests of fellow Shiites.#639

[hershey]

It's the crowd control microwave thingy that 'shrivels testicles to the size of peanuts before they fall off'. Hopefully, the Muslims will believe the rumors and run like rats.

[hershey]

They expect us to go house to house through the doors, but we'll go straight through the walls.

[hershey]

Let's hope the marines shoot conniving rat Arab reporters along with anyone else carrying a weapon or a camera who isn't one of ours.

[Barlowmaker]

Fallujah has 500,000 plus residents. The "cheering crowd" numbered in the dozens.

Do you find it unusual that a large number of youthful, male Muslims would have happened on the scene, staged a jubilant celebration playing to the camera, and decide to drag the burnt corpses to a bridge for display?

This was a staged event. The gunmen knew when the victims left their location, knew their route, and made sure excitable dipsticks, and select provocateurs were on the scene to manufacture an outrage.

They want the patriot Freepers to want to kill Fallujahians in emotional overkill. They want the Leftist traitors to gain fodder for their opposition to Bush and the War, to blame him for the carnage and to affirm the desire to cut and run in desire to destroy the President's reelection. They win either way.

Bush doesn't play by the script of ambush killers. We didn't nuke Mecca or drag Arab Americans from their homes after 9/11. We're not going to raze Fallujah and kill innocents to "send a message". That's the message our enemies expect and desperately try to elicit. Bush is a measured, disciplined leader who has measured, disciplined advisors and lieutenants. This is a long haul War for our survival, and no visceral revenge is worth compromising the Iraq operation and its importance to the eradication of the threat of International Islamist terrorism.

[hershey]

Exactly. It's time to stop hoping Muslims will love us...once they get to know us. The Euroweenies and RATS are going to find fault no matter what we do. They want lots of American casualties. Kerry's counting on it. What's needed right now is an overwhelming pacification of this town, with the inhabitants running away, raising white flags, or dead as a doornail. Let the liberal press wring their hands. We're the world's superpower and we'd better start acting like it.

[Robert_Paulson2]

How about we change our tactical plan with an assumption that 99.9% of Fallujahans are not killers, do not desecrate the dead, want prosperty and liberty and security for themselves and their families?

---

Rose colored glasses, rolling on the floor laughing my arse off...

[Joe Hadenuf]

The cheering crowds and supporters are still there.

And unfortunately, probably will be for generations to come.

[hershey]

Not if we've taken away all the cameras and shot a few Iraqi/Muslim reporters 'by mistake'.

[txhurl]

I hope you are entirely correct and I almost wish to be surprised by our ferocity. I sit around and mull over 'what's TOO barbaric' but if some true, real 'shock & awe' happened, I'd be guilty of approving it after the fact.

[hershey]

That kid's going to get picked up the first time he tries crossing a marine checkpoint. They have their pictures and they're waiting for them.

[TexKat]

U.S. Commanders Mull More Troops in Iraq

By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - U.S. military commanders have begun studying ways they might increase troops in Iraq should violence spread much more widely, a senior officer said Monday.

Generals believe they have enough forces to handle the attacks that have been coming from various quarters, including the recent violence by a Shiite militia group, but they want to know what is available if the situation gets worse, said the officer, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity.

Separately, President Bush criticized the radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, who leads the militia. Over the weekend, supporters rioted in Baghdad and four other cities in fighting that killed eight U.S. troops, a Salvadoran soldier and at least 52 Iraqis.

"This is one person that is deciding that rather than allowing democracy to flourish, he's going to exercise force," Bush said. "We just can't let it stand."

The senior officer portrayed the weekend's violence as an attempt by al-Sadr to increase his influence in Iraq ahead of the expected June 30 transfer of power from the U.S.-led occupation to an Iraqi government. The officer is with U.S. Central Command, the military authority overseeing operations in Iraq.

Bush said he is committed to the June 30 deadline despite the violence and questions from some members of his own party whether the date should hold.

"The deadline remains firm," Bush said in Charlotte, N.C.

Gen. John Abizaid, the head of Central Command, and other senior generals ordered their staff to study options after the outbreak of violence from a previously relatively quiet sector of Iraq: members of the Shiite sect of Islam. Most violence so far has been attributed to Sunni Muslims — either members of Saddam's Sunni-led government, or Sunni extremists who follow al-Qaida.

The senior officer said the planning for additional troops was only a contingency in case violence spreads much more widely. At this point, the official said, that isn't believed likely. Most Iraqi Shiites at least tolerate the U.S.-led occupation, and officials tried to paint al-Sadr as a radical outsider with a limited following.

An Iraqi judge has issued a murder arrest for al-Sadr for the killing of another Shiite leader, coalition officials said. The warrant was issued some time ago, but the senior Central Command officer suggested coalition forces had previously avoided going after al-Sadr because it appeared his influence was waning.

He has also been difficult to find, the officer said, except when he is speaking at mosques, where U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies are reluctant to enter for fear of angering Muslims.

The senior Central Command officer said al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, would be systematically disarmed. The militia numbers about 3,000 fighters. Many of the U.S. troops were killed retaking police stations in Baghdad that were captured by the militia, the officer said.

Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had raised the prospect Sunday of extending the transfer deadline, questioning whether Iraq would be ready for self-rule.

On Monday, John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator who is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, called on the administration to explain its post-July 1 security plan.

"This administration has so stubbornly resisted what I've been calling for and what others have called for for months, which is a genuine significant outreach to the global community" to assist in Iraqi security, he said.

Bush spoke with reporters Monday after meeting with the family of a soldier who died in Iraq. The president was in Charlotte to speak at Central Piedmont Community College.

In his speech, Bush said, "We're still being challenged in Iraq, and the reason why is a free Iraq will be a major defeat in the cause of terror. Terrorists can't stand freedom. They hate free societies."

"But we will stay the course," he said. "A free Iraq will change the Middle East. A free Iraq will make the world more peaceful. A free Iraq will make America more secure."

[hershey]

If we don't smash this city, the rest of Iraq will try the same thing. It's the only way to pacify the country, and we won't cut and run. There's no alternative, and it's high time we explained to the media that adults are in charge, that it's war, and that we aren't about to give insurgents/terrorists a 'time out'. We have to kick butt right now, or Bush is in real trouble. If he loses, Kerry will beg the UN to take over not only Iraq, but us, too.

[SauronOfMordor]

Bernie Kerik said on Fox that what Sadr would do while Kerik was in country was to incite the crowd, then hide in his mosque until things cooled down because Sadr knew we wouldn't go into the mosque to get him

I wonder if we have any weapons on the way (sonic, microwave, whatever) that would make staying inside the mosque unbearably unpleasant, once we dispursed the crowds of his supporters

[WOSG]

indeed.

martyrdom opportunities await the enterprising jihadist!

[hershey]

That curlyhaired cretin waving on the bridge is a dead man walking.

[Truth666]

US troops continue to occupy the center of Fallujah

[hershey]

They were in bed with the terrorists. They knew where and when it would happen, were there with cameras ready. The town was shuttered, no one on the streets, gasoline in position at several crossroads. Everyone knew. They should be shot. We can't afford to worry about media bias, nor should we. If we let the media or the rest of the world dictate what we do and how we do it, Iraq's lost, as well as the rest of the Middle East and the war on terror.

[BurbankKarl]

Forces deploy ahead of Fallujah operation

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press



FALLUJAH, Iraq — Hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi troops in tanks and armored Humvees surrounded the city of Fallujah on Monday, ready to launch a crackdown on insurgents after a mob killed four Americans and mutilated their bodies.

Explosions and gunfire were heard from the city center, and troops briefly exchanged fire with gunmen on Fallujah's outskirts in the evening. It was not clear if there were any casualties, though a U.S. Marine was killed in the area early Monday.

U.S. commanders have vowed a massive response to pacify Fallujah after the murder Wednesday of the four American civilians, who were under contract to the U.S. coalition as security guards.

Scenes of Iraqis dragging the four bodies through the streets and hanging two of the charred corpses from a bridge showed the depth of anti-U.S. sentiment in the city. The images caused revulsion around the world, and even Sunni clerics in the city condemned the mutilations as un-Islamic, though they didn't criticize the killings.

Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, is one of the most volatile cities in the Sunni Triangle, the heartland of the anti-U.S. insurgency north and west of the capital.

U.S. forces blockaded roads around Fallujah and stopped all traffic in and out. Military patrols entered the city's outer suburbs on reconnaissance missions and broadcast warnings on loud speakers to residents to stay indoors until Tuesday. The streets were largely deserted.

Iraqi police dropped off U.S. leaflets at city mosques, announcing a daily 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and ordering residents not to carry weapons. They instructed people to gather in one room if U.S. forces enter their home and to put their hands up if they want to talk to the troops.

About two miles from the city's northern outskirts near a Muslim cemetery, Marines dug trenches in the desert and sharpshooters took position on the roof of a mosque.

Nearby, several Abrams tanks, armored troop carriers, Humvees and trucks waited ahead of the planned operation, dubbed "Vigilant Resolve."

"The city is surrounded," said Lt. James Vanzant, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "We want to make a very precise approach to this. ... We are looking for the bad guys in town."

Some 1,200 U.S. Marines and two battalions of Iraqi security forces will be involved in the operation, he said.

Troops will target the killers of the four Americans as well as guerrillas who have attacked U.S. forces and Iraqi police. "Those people are specially targeted to be captured or killed," Marine 1st Lt. Eric Knapp said.

A witness reported that a U.S. helicopter struck a residential area in the city early Monday, killing five people. The attack damaged five houses, said the witness, Mohammed Shawkat. There was no immediate U.S. comment on the report.

Another witness, resident Ali Jasim, said there was shooting near one of the U.S. barricades on a road out of Fallujah and some Iraqis trying to leave the city were hit. It was unclear whether they were killed or wounded.

Two Iraqi drivers working for The Associated Press were stopped by insurgents blockading a road about six miles east of Fallujah on Monday. The rebels, armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, searched the two vehicles before letting them go.

The California-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force assumed responsibility for Fallujah from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division on March 24. The Marines said they intended to take a softer approach with Fallujah residents, hoping to win popular support.

But the Marines have quickly found themselves mired in violence. On March 26, Marines and insurgents fought a lengthy street battle in the city that killed one Marine and five Iraqis.

The same day as the four civilians were killed, five U.S. soldiers died when a bomb exploded under their vehicle in a village near Fallujah.

AP-WS-04-05-04 1704EDT

[hershey]

We have this clown's picture on file. He's not long for this world.