It sounds like there's quite the fight going on. Let's crush the bastards/
Thanks for the update.
Please pray for the Marines.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
12!! Dang. This is just some brutal fighting...hopefully this is the last gasp rather than a first strike.
This is not good...30 Americans dead in 4 days.
Watch for Bush numbers to fall apart !
exactly, time for close air support. Screw this shit, bombs away!!!
"At least twelve", possibly more. :-(
The problem is that these people fighting us are a minority. But at moments like this I'd just like to scorch one end of Iraq to the other (excepting the Kurdish regions) with nuclear weapons.
That ought to be good for quite a morale boost over at Kerry headquarters. [spit]
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,116262,00.html Insurgents Charge U.S. Compound in Ramadi
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
FALLUJAH, Iraq — An "extremely intense" battle is taking place in Ramadi (search), another Sunni Triangle hotbed of guerrilla activity 24 miles west of Fallujah, Pentagon and military officials told Fox News on Tuesday.
At least 100 fighters in the army of Muqtada al-Sadr (search), the fiery anti-American Shiite Muslim cleric wanted on a murder charge, charged a U.S.-led coalition compound, officials said.
A defense official told Fox News that there have been "significant" U.S. deaths from the fighting in Ramadi.
Fighting was so intense that commanders went to the unit headquarters to pull people who wouldn't normally fight into the combat, military sources said.
The fighting — the worst seen in the area or Iraq in recent months — has left some American casualties, officials said. One Marine estimated some 80 people were killed in initial exchanges but it was unclear how many of those were Iraqi. Further details about the extent of casualties were not immediately known.
"This is not like any other firefight we've seen so far," military sources in Iraq said. "There are bullets flying all over the place."
A U.S. official in Washington said all American officials in Iraq, including those working for the Coalition Provisional Authority (search), have been told since Monday to remain inside their compounds due to security worries.
Meanwhile, al-Sadr, sought by U.S. and Iraqi forces, announced Tuesday that he had left the mosque in the city of Kufa, south of Baghdad, where he has been holed up for the past two days, surrounded by armed militiamen.
U.S. administrators on Monday declared al-Sadr an "outlaw" and announced a warrant for his arrest. He was demanding to speak to high-level coalition officials Tuesday and said he would not negotiate his surrender.
Operation Vigilant Resolve Moves Into Fallujah
Ramadi is located west of Fallujah in the southwestern corner of the so-called Sunni Triangle, which is full of Saddam Hussein loyalists. Fallujah is the city where four American civilians were killed last week and their corpses mutilated by a cheering mob.
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. troops who were surrounding Fallujah began to move into the urban areas of the city, encountering heavy fire as they approached.
U.S. warplanes firing rockets destroyed four houses in the besieged city of Fallujah late Tuesday, witnesses said. A doctor said 26 Iraqis, including women and children, were killed and 30 wounded in the strike.
The rockets destroyed the houses in two neighborhoods in the city after nightfall Tuesday, the witnesses said.
Rafie al-Issawi, a doctor at Fallujah General Hospital, said the hospital received the bodies of 26 dead along with 30 wounded soon after. He said their wounds suggested they had been in the destroyed houses.
The deaths bring the total death toll among Iraqis in Fallujah on Tuesday to 34, including eight during heavy street fighting during the day.
About 1,300 U.S. Marines and more Iraqi forces are looking for those responsible for last week's mob attack. Known as Operation Vigilant Resolve (search), the hunt is on in the Anbar province (search), which stretches from Baghdad to the Jordanian and Syrian borders.
"It will be a methodical effort to find the individuals involved" in last week's grisly acts, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters during a Pentagon briefing Tuesday.
Rumsfeld said U.S. troops have captured a number of people in Fallujah in the last 36 hours.
"They have photographs of a good many people who were involved in the attacks against the individuals and they have been conducting raids in the city against high-value targets," Rumsfeld said.
A force of Marines pushed into an eastern Fallujah neighborhood Tuesday, clashing with guerrillas; gunmen carrying automatic weapons were seen in the streets. Guerrilla gunfire set one vehicle ablaze and a soldier inside was killed, said witness Issam Mahmoud. There was no confirmation of the death.
Troops broke into houses in the neighborhood, carrying out searches, and entered a mosque, witnesses said.
On the northern side of Fallujah, eight Marines and one Navy Corpsman were on foot patrol when they came under fire from fighters in a three-story building 60 feet away. An RPG exploded nearby and about 100 AK-47 bullets were fired at them. One hit a Marine in the head and his comrades were called in for reinforcements and combat evacuation.
An Abrams tank, accompanied by a combined anti-armor team vehicle, came to the rescue, firing .50-caliber machine guns into the building for cover. The wounded Marine was successfully evacuated and his condition was improving. "He can talk, he'll make it," a Marine medic said.
Bush: 'We'll Stay the Course in Iraq'
Amid the new violence, President Bush vowed that the United States would stick to its timetable to turn over control of Iraq to an interim government on June 30.
"We'll stay the course in Iraq — we're not gonna be intimidated by thugs and assassins, we're not gonna cut and run," Bush said Tuesday in Arkansas. "We understand a free Iraq is a historic opportunity to make the world more peaceful."
L. Paul Bremer (search), the U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, noted that in popular opinion polls, 90 percent or more of Iraqis support "a democratic Iraq where power comes not from the barrel of a gun."
"The political process is well under way with broad consultations with the Iraqi people. The interim government will be in place well before June 30," the date to hand over government operations to the Iraqis, Bremer told Fox News.
Elsewhere in Iraq
Among other recent developments:
— The military announced that on Monday, five Marines died in Fallujah and three U.S. soldiers of the 1st Armored Division were killed while patrolling Baghdad. Four out of the five Marines were not directly involved in the Fallujah operation and were killed by an improvised explosive device about 15 miles away near Abu Ghraib (search) prison.
— Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division also conducted a raid near Baqubah Tuesday and captured 12 individuals, including the leader of the insurgent cell suspected of conducting attacks against coalition forces using improvised explosive devices.
— Fifteen Iraqis were killed in Nasiriyah (search) and another 15 were killed in Amarah, coalition military officials said.
— In Nasiriyah, fighting was reported Tuesday between Italian troops and al-Sadr backers. A coalition spokeswoman told the Italian media that at least 15 Iraqis were killed. She said insurgents used civilians as human shields, and two children and a woman were among the dead.
— A coalition spokesman said Tuesday that fighting overnight between al-Sadr followers and British troops in Amarah left 15 Iraqis dead and eight wounded.
— In Kut, a Ukrainian soldier was killed and five were wounded when militants attacked an armored personnel carrier, the Defense Ministry said. Ukraine has about 1,650 troops in Iraq, the third-largest contingent among countries that didn't take part in major combat operations.
— About 500 Japanese soldiers stationed in Samawah have been ordered to halt work on repairing roads and other humanitarian activities outside of their camp until after festivities for the Shiite holy day of Arbaeen on April 11, Kyodo News reported.
Fox News' Bret Baier, Steve Centanni and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
I suspect the fear of Bush's #s falling apart are why they are pushing this front now, instead of in September. This has got to just get "handled" and then left to dusty memories. Many prayers for our guys and hurting loved ones.
Napalm(tm). Because we dont like dead marines.
I think this might all be planned and coordinated. The "Iraqi Tet" that some of us have predicted.
We'll kill the bastards- the real enemy in this fight is going to be those who will try and portray a final victory as a defeat.
