Posted on 11/08/2004 10:42:03 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Coalition troops are employing a divide-and-conquer strategy in Fallujah, Iraq, capitalizing on months of pinpointed intelligence to seal off terrorist-held neighborhoods and then attack enemy pockets.
"It's going to be going on for a period ahead," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said of the long-anticipated operation, which began Sunday.
A military source said the Pentagon expects the battle for Fallujah to take about one week and estimated there are about 2,000 to 5,000 enemy fighters, about half of whom are non-Iraqi.
The United States last entered Fallujah in April, when Marines killed hundreds of rebels. The Marines seemed to be on a path to capturing the town, when Iraqi politicians urged Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez to stop the battle or risk political upheaval.
"I cannot imagine that it would stop without being completed," Mr. Rumsfeld said of the current operation.
There was no word of whether master terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi was in Fallujah, which has served as a command center for his cells of foreign terrorists who specialize in deadly suicide car bombings.
"From Fallujah, they have exported terror across Iraq against all Iraqis," said Army Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
Since April, American forces have stayed outside the city. But intelligence collection has proceeded at a furious pace. Military sources said the U.S. command has a block-by-block schematic of the large city and knows from day to day where the rebels live and plan. That is how coalition aircraft have been able to direct precision-guided weapons at specific buildings known to harbor rebels.
"They have mapped the city and are taking the city down by sections," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
God be with them
The estimates of 50% non Iraqi may be inaccurate.
Fox News had their Iraqi translator review the tapes
of the terrorists fireing mortars and was able to listen
to the raw tapes (not cleaned up footage we see on the network). Just as American's can tell a Boston accent from
a Minnesota accent or a Canadian one (eh), this guy could tell a Saudi from a Syrian from and Iraqi.
Anyway, he said the figures in the tape were 90 percent foreign, mostly Saudi, some syrian, and only one in ten
were Iraqi.
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