Replies

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