Posted on 11/14/2004 8:50:59 AM PST by TexKat
A US Marine of the 1st Division writes the words 'Dark Horse' on a beam of the bridge western Fallujah, Iraq, where the bodies of two American contractors killed by militants were strung up in March, sparking the earlier U.S. siege, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. An earlier message left by soldiers reads: 'This is for the Americans of Blackwater that were murdered here in 2004, Semper Fidelis 3/5.' (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Hammorabi the blog has some interesting tidbits this am.
Sunday, November 14, 2004 Founds in Falluja!
Our hearts is with the innocent people of Falluja who were exposed to a lot of pressure and hardship from the anomalous and pervert insurgents.
Until now horrible atrocities have been found in Falluja by the outlawed outsiders and their supporters. Examples of the atrocities are:
1. Thousands of Arabs from different countries have been killed or captured. Some were from Iran, Chechnya, Afghanistan and other countries.
2. Several sites for beheadings tortures and videoing
3. Captured victims with miserable states
4. Mutilated bodies and one of them was a limbless body for a western woman whose throat was cut, face was disfigured and her limbs were amputated!
5. Large amounts of weapons and using worship places for that.
6. Lists of those who were kidnapped and beheaded and other lists of names of targeted people
7. Some documents related to the previous beheaded hostages like the Passport of the Japanese S Kudo who was beheaded few weeks ago!
More secret will certainly be revealed soon.
It looks that the new strategy is not to allow the insurgents to regroup in another city and to get them before they can catch the breath.
In Ramadi the Iraqi/Coalition forces refused to give a truce and entered the city with tanks and armoured vehicles while in Baji the insurgents' positions are under continuous air and ground bombardments.
One of the most dangerous areas which is called the triangle of death is still to be managed! This is south of Baghdad in Yosfyiah, Mahmodyiah and Latyfiyah where many people (Iraqis and non-Iraqis) killed daily by the insurgent groups there.
Posted by: hammorabi / 11/14/2004 08:18:21 AM
http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/
US Marines of the first division move towards the bridge in the western part of Fallujah, Iraq, at background centre, where the bodies of two American contractors killed by militants were strung up in March, sparking the earlier U.S. siege, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
US Marines of the 1st Division take up position as they advance in the western part of Fallujah, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. The U.S. military's ground and air assault of Fallujah has gone quicker than expected, with the entire city occupied after six days of fighting, the Marine commander who planned the offensive said Sunday.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
U.S. Marines of the 1st Division push further into the western part of Fallujah, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. The U.S. military's ground and air assault of Fallujah has gone quicker than expected, with the entire city occupied after six days of fighting, the Marine commander who planned the offensive said Sunday. The military said 31 Americans have been killed in the siege. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
US Marine of the 1st Division take up positions Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004 near the bridge in the western part of Fallujah, Iraq, where the bodies of two American contractors killed by militants were strung up in March, 2004, sparking the earlier U.S. siege. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
US Marines of the 1st Division approach the bridge in the western part of Fallujah, Iraq, where the bodies of two American contractors killed by militants were strung up in March, 2004, sparking the earlier U.S. siege, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Iraq security forces start to regain control of Mosul
MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi security forces started reasserting control over the northern flashpoint city of Mosul, an AFP reporter said, as the US military denied its forces had withdrawn under rebel pressure.
Clashes took place between insurgents and government forces in the centre of Mosul, with the two sides exchanging automatic gunfire and rockets. They were particularly heavy close to the police headquarters in the Zanjali area.
The national guard had deployed its personnel in several districts in Mosul midmorning, as well as alongside the river Tigris and in the west of the city, the reporter said.
Two police stations were retaken in the centre and the north, and members of the national guard were seen patrolling several districts armed with anti-tank missiles and assault rifles.
Meanwhile, a convoy of 12 armoured US vehicles started to patrol in the centre and the north for the first time since the recent bout of lawlessness broke out.
Armed rebels, who had deployed in force on Thursday, taking up positions in front of public buildings, had disappeared from the streets. However, they were still seen moving around in cars at break-neck speed.
The US military acknowledged it had been involved in intense fighting with the insurgents, who said they were trying to draw resources from the assault on Fallujah, but said in a statement that troops had never withdrawn.
"Three days ago, a number of groups ranging in size from 15-50 AIF (anti-Iraqi force) insurgents moved through the city conducting attacks on police stations, Iraqi government facilities and other fixed sites," it said.
"During this time the fighting was intense, but ... many of the insurgents were defeated. Sporadic fighting followed on Friday and Saturday," it added.
"Only a small number of terrorists are operating in the city ... and resistance is sporadic."
The AFP reporter said he saw the US military take up a position on one of five city bridges crossing the Tigris.
The military said it had killed three insurgents as it took a bridge in the south after coming under small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire.
The Iraqi-led operation in this city of more than one million people came a day after Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said that Iraqi special forces had arrived in Mosul and would soon move to re-impose order.
"We will be moving in the next day or so in Mosul to restore the rule of law," he had said, without giving details.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041114/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_mosul_control_041114160818
Just saw on another thread that there was an attempt on Abbas' life. I do not know if this is true.
An Iraqi youth walks past a blazing pipeline near the town of Taji November 14, 2004 after it was attacked by insurgents. (Stringer/Iraq (news - web sites)/Reuters)
By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - The U.S. military's ground and air assault of Fallujah has gone quicker than expected, with the entire city occupied after six days of fighting, the Marine commander who planned the offensive said Sunday. The military said 31 Americans have been killed in the siege.
Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski said he and other commanders learned from April's failed three-week Marine assault on Fallujah, which was called off by the Bush administration after a worldwide outcry over civilians deaths. This time, the military sent in six times as many troops and 20 types of aircraft. Troops also faked attacks before the assault to confuse enemy fighters.
"Maybe we learned from April," Natonski said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We learned we can't do it piecemeal. When we go in, we go all the way through. We had the green light this time and we went all the way.
"Had we done in April what we did now, the results would've been the same."
Natonski spoke during a visit to the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade, the unit charged with isolating Fallujah under a security cordon.
More than 1,200 insurgents have been killed during the operation, he said.
The offensive has killed at least 31 American troops and six Iraqi soldiers, said Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. The number of injured Americans was "up in the high 200s," although some have returned to duty already, Sattler said.
Rebel attacks elsewhere _ especially in the northern city of Mosul _ have forced the Americans to shift troops away from Fallujah.
Exploiting the redeployment, insurgents stepped up attacks in areas outside Fallujah, including a bombing that killed two U.S. Marines on the outskirts of the former rebel bastion 40 miles west of Baghdad.
On Sunday, Marines and Army units were still battling gritty bands of defenders scattered in buildings and bunkers across the Sunni Muslim stronghold. Behind them, Iraqi troops were enmeshed in the painstaking task of clearing weapons and fighters from every room of Fallujah's estimated 50,000 buildings.
U.S. forces now occupy _ but have yet to subdue _ the entire city. It still could take several days of fighting to clear the final pockets of resistance, the military said.
On Sunday, Marines were expected to reopen the bridge where the bodies of two American contractors killed by militants were strung up in March, sparking the earlier U.S. siege.
"This is a big event for us," said Maj. Todd Des Grosseilliers, 41, from Auburn, Maine. "It's symbolic because the insurgents closed the bridge and we are going to reopen it."
Also, Marines in Fallujah found the mutilated body of what they believe was a Western woman. The body was lying in the street covered with a blood-soaked cloth.
A Marine officer speaking on condition of anonymity said he was "80 percent sure" it was a Western woman. Two foreign women were kidnapped last month _ Margaret Hassan, 59, the director of CARE International in Iraq and Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born longtime resident of Iraq.
In Warsaw, the Polish Foreign Ministry said it was seeking more information.
In central Buhriz, 25 miles northeast of Baghdad, demonstrators marched to protest the Fallujah offensive and denounce Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi.
Associated Press Television News footage showed some armed men, heads covered with black hoods and brandishing Kalashnikov rifles, among the marchers. The demonstrators, estimated by police to number about 70, carried banners calling Allawi a "thug" and "traitor."
"Allawi, Fallujah will be your tomb!" some chanted. "You are a coward, an American agent!"
In Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, militants attacked two police stations, killing at least six Iraqi National Guards and wounding three others, Iraqi officials said. One insurgent was killed and three others were wounded, they said. Iraqi security forces regained control of both stations, witnesses said.
About 300 Iraqi National Guards and a battalion of police from Baghdad patrolled the streets in a visible show of force after an insurgent uprising believed to have been mounted in support of Fallujah's militants.
On Thursday, armed and masked militants stormed police stations, bridges and government buildings in Mosul as Iraqi police apparently failed to put up a fight. Mosul's police chief was fired after criticism that militants infiltrated police forces.
Planning for Fallujah began in September, with Natonski given responsibility for the combat phase, said Lt. Col. Dan Wilson, a Marine planner with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
After troops uproot the insurgents, contractors are supposed to swarm into Fallujah to cart away rubble, repair buildings and fix the city's utilities, Wilson and Natonski said.
The Iraqi government already has picked leaders for Fallujah, and thousands of Iraqi police and paramilitary forces have been recruited to impose order.
Natonski described the six days of ground war as a "flawless execution of the plan we drew up. We are actually ahead of schedule."
Several pre-assault tactics made the battle easier than expected, he said.
Insurgent defenses were weakened by bombing raids on command posts and safe houses. Air-dropped leaflets also may have demoralized some defenders and convinced some residents the city would be better off under government control, he said.
In the days before the raid, ground troops feinted invasions, charging right up to Fallujah's edge in tanks and armored vehicles. Natonski said these fake attacks forced the insurgents to build up forces in the south and east, perhaps diverting defenders from the north, where six battalions of Army and Marine troops finally punched into the city Monday.
The deceptive maneuvers also drew fire from defenders' bunkers, which were exposed and relentlessly bombed before the ground assault.
"We desensitized the enemy to the formations they saw on the night we attacked," Natonski said.
Another key tactic was choking off the city, the responsibility of the 2nd Brigade of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, Natonski said.
That prevented insurgents from slipping out during the assault, although many, including top leaders like Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi and Omar al-Hadid, are believed to have fled.
"We never expected them to be there. We're not after Zarqawi. We're after insurgents in general," Natonski said.
Please remind me who Abba's is, the governor of Mosul?
Yes I am watching it as it is being reported on MSNBC now. There was a tent that was set up with many chairs in order for some type of celebration for Arafat when all hell broke loose.
A masked insurgent carries a police flak jacket and rocket propelled grenade launcher after a police station was attacked in Mosul November 11, 2004. Islamist groups, including one led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, vowed in a video obtained on November 13 to take their battle in the rebel city of Falluja to all corners of Iraq (news - web sites). (Namir Noor-Eldeen/Reuters)
Abbas = Prime Minister of Palestine that was undermined by Arafat. Could possibly become Palestinian president with the demise of the terrorist groups. Long shot!!!
BTW Good Morning!!!
(I also wish we could have seen these photos and this action on 14 May 2004, not 14 November 2004 and hundreds of US military and civilian casulties and meaningless ceasefires and respect of mosques-cum-terrorist lairs, later.) But then again, I'm not runnin' the show.....
The deceptive maneuvers also drew fire from defenders' bunkers, which were exposed and relentlessly bombed before the ground assault.
I agree with you AmericanInTokyo.
Thanks, I sure wouldnt want that job. Its impossible.
Good morning. :)
Operation Phantom Fury-----Day 7----Mop Up Live thread
God bless our armed forces and all who fight the bad guys.
"A masked insurgent carries a police flak jacket and rocket propelled grenade launcher after a police station was attacked in Mosul November 11, 2004. Islamist groups, including one led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, vowed in a video obtained on November 13 to take their battle in the rebel city of Falluja to all corners of Iraq (news - web sites)."
This looks like a chechen terrorist to me. ?? What ever 'it' is..'it' does not look Arab. What do you think?
*Notice the chains used to hand our contractors still hanging from the bridge above this Marines head.
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