Posted on 11/09/2004 12:45:27 PM PST by Brilliant
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces backed by Iraqi troops surged into the heart of Falluja on Tuesday, taking a grip on Iraq (news - web sites)'s most rebellious city after a day of intense street-to-street combat.
U.S. tanks and armored personnel carriers operating in the northern part of the city came under fierce assault from rebels firing rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 rifles after sunset, but in other areas large-scale fighting died down after dark.
There was the occasional blast of mortar fire, and U.S. war planes targeted some buildings, but residents and a Reuters correspondent said heavy bombardments and explosions had eased.
Some U.S. tanks were seen pulling back from central areas of the city for the night. Others remained in place.
An American soldier wounded in Falluja said he had seen two of his colleagues killed.
"A buddy of mine and another soldier were killed and I have seen about 50 other wounded (U.S.) soldiers since the fighting began," he told Reuters while awaiting medical evacuation. He declined to give his name.
The Reuters correspondent saw about five wounded soldiers being flown out by helicopter and a U.S. military ambulance driver also said he had witnessed many casualties.
Among the Iraqis killed was a 9-year-old boy, severely injured by shrapnel in the abdomen when his home was bombarded by U.S. jets overnight. His parents were unable to get him to hospital and he died hours later of blood loss, they said.
As battles raged in Falluja, insurgents hit back elsewhere with attacks on police stations in Baquba and Baghdad, fighting in Ramadi and a mortar attack in the northern city of Mosul.
But in Baquba, the official in charge of the main morgue denied earlier reports that 45 were killed in the attacks claimed by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He said he had not dealt with any dead from the attacks.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, making fresh use of emergency powers he activated on Sunday, imposed a night curfew on Baghdad for an indefinite period. The curfew will hold from 10:30 p.m. (1930 GMT) to 4 a.m. (0100 GMT) from Tuesday night.
U.S., IRAQI CASUALTIES
The military has given no figures for U.S. casualties since the assault on Falluja began on Monday evening.
There has also been no word on the number of civilian casualties. Residents said a U.S. air strike hit a clinic in a central district, killing medical staff and patients.
A Marines tank company commander -- part of a U.S.-led force of at least 10,000 -- said earlier that guerrillas were battling hard in Falluja's northern Jolan district.
"They are putting up a strong fight and I saw many of them on the street I was on," Captain Robert Bodisch told Reuters.
Many families fled the city of 300,000 to escape air raids before the offensive. The U.S. military said about 150,000 residents had taken refuge outside Falluja.
Residents said they had no power and used kerosene lamps at night. They kept to ground floors for safety. Telephones were erratic. Food shops had been closed for six days.
Iraqi troops brought nine handcuffed prisoners to a railway station on the northern edge of the Jolan area where U.S. and Iraqi forces are based. They said two of them were Egyptians and one was Syrian. The rest were Iraqis.
The interim Iraqi government and its U.S. backers say foreign Muslim militants led by al-Zarqawi are holed up in Falluja along with Iraqi rebels.
POLICE STATION RAIDS
A suspected car bomb outside an Iraqi National Guard base near Kirkuk killed three people and wounded two. In Samarra, a senior local government official was assassinated, police said.
Sami al-Jumaili, a doctor at the main Falluja hospital who escaped arrest when it was taken on Monday, said the city was running out of supplies and only a few clinics remained open.
"There is not a single surgeon in Falluja. We had one ambulance hit by U.S. fire and a doctor wounded. There are scores of injured civilians in their homes whom we can't move.
"A 13-year-old child just died in my hands," he said by telephone from a house where he had gone to help the wounded.
The government sees Falluja and its sister city of Ramadi as rebel havens that must be retaken before January elections.
Allawi urged the gunmen in Falluja to lay down their weapons to spare it from further attacks, his spokesman told reporters near Falluja. "The political solution is possible even if military operations are ongoing," spokesman Thaer al-Naqib said.
The authorities have appointed a temporary military governor for Falluja, Major-General Abdul Qadar Mohammed Jassim, the commander of the military operations in Falluja, he added. Jassim's name was earlier given differently by officials.
Defense experts believe that while U.S. forces have the muscle to win the battle of Falluja, victory still may not deal a lasting blow to the insurgency in Iraq.
"It may not take long to capture the city, but nothing will have been resolved. It will be a symbolic victory," French military strategist Jean-Louis Dufour said. (With additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim, Luke Baker, Khaled Oweis and Lin Noueihed in Baghdad)
Thanks for reminding me about that story.
Why do we even bother with the French?
Don't forget the most famous product of French Strategists: The Vaunted Maginot Line.
I saw Oliver North's "War Stories" the other day. He was talking about the War in North Africa, and the fact that despite requests by the US government, the French soldiers not only fired on US soldiers as they landed on the shores of North Africa to free them from the Nazis, but they actually held out for 3 days until the US forces overwhelmed them.
Who says they are good at surrendering?
He is one of the French elite. His family made its money from the original patent on the reverse gear in French tanks that was later adatped for widespread civilian use.
You have to hand it to the world's best collaborators. Once they are bought. They stay bought.
When can we expect the US offices of Reuters to begin taking casualties?
I would hope it will be soon. A little blood flowing out the door would be a wonderful sight.
The French are symbolic.
Residents said a U.S. air strike hit a clinic in a central district, killing medical staff and patients.
As in the famous last words of Lawrence O'Donnell: LIARS, LYING LIARS, LIARS!
I must correct all you guys, French military strategist Jean-Louis Dufour, is an expert due to the fact that like his grandmother he has a lot of German in him.
It will be a symbolic victory," French military strategist Jean-Louis Dufour said."
I got your symbolic victory Right Here you French @##^&&$#@!!!!!!!!!
Jean-Louis Dufour, is an expert due to the fact that like his grandmother he has a lot of German in him.
Mes Oui, and I bet it was plenty a German. Voulez Vous Couche avec mois c'es soi? (Please forgive the spelling.)
What a shock that Reuters posts such a bulls--t story. They quote an unnamed guy talking about all these American casualties, but the numbers are (thankfully, yet sadly) low. That is the tactic of people when they want to make up stuff.
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