Posted on 11/14/2004 8:50:59 AM PST by TexKat
U.S. Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski stands at the bridge in the western part of 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. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Operation Phantom Fury-----Day 7----Mop Up Live thread
I wish we had given ourselves more than 2 months before the Iraqi election to clean these thugs clocks. Although 1200+ in a week isnt bad.
Looks like the poster boy for the "Targets R Us" society to me.
LOL! A snipers dream.
A U.S. Marine of the 1st Division carries a mascot for good luck in his backpack as his unit push further into the western part of Fallujah, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. U.S. military officials said Saturday that U.S. Forces had now 'occupied' the entire city of Fallujah. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
A U.S. Marine of the first Division passes by a burning house in the western part of Fallujah, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. U.S. military officials said Saturday that U.S. Forces had now 'occupied' the entire city of Fallujah. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
US troops tackle last Fallujah rebels amid Mosul offensive
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - US troops tackled Fallujah's last tenacious insurgents but were still days away from completing major search operations, as the mutilated body of a Caucasian woman was found by marines.
With a convoy carrying aid for thirsty and hungry civilians in the rebel enclave still blocked by the military, US-led forces said that more than 1,200 insurgents had been killed in the assault launched late November 7.
Meanwhile, in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the country's third largest, Iraqi and US troops moved in after days of unchecked lawlessness, with clashes erupting between rebels and security forces Sunday.
As US marines continued their slow, tense search of buildings in Fallujah, a senior officer warned that the operation would continue well into next week; belying the swiftness with which US-led troops first poured in.
"It is probably going to be another four to five days of clearing house to house," said Colonel Mike Shupp. "There is not going to be a stone unturned in the city."
With 25 marines killed, according to US figures, in the battle to take a city that is the symbol of Iraq's protracted insurgency, marine commander Major General Richard Natonski said: "We have killed over 1,200" rebels.
None of the figures could be independently verified.
Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi authorised the attack to bring Fallujah to heel, as a lesson to insurgents elsewhere, and to bring more stability ahead of key elections planned for January.
On Saturday, national security advisor Qassem Daoud announced that the so-called Operation Fajr (Dawn) was accomplished and "only the malignant pockets remain that we are dealing with through a clean-up operation."
He acknowledged, however, that Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose supporters had made Fallujah their base, and a top aide had slipped through their fingers.
But US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on a trip to Panama, said that while US troops were present in much of the city, the mission was not over.
"Needless to say there still will be pockets of resistance and areas that will be difficult, so I don't mean to suggest that it is concluded. It's not, to be sure."
Despite being hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, the insurgents in Fallujah have refused to surrender their stronghold without a fierce struggle.
Three marines were killed Saturday in an explosion as they entered a booby-trapped building, while another 13 were wounded in a firefight nearby, a marine officer said.
The latest deaths bring to at least 25 the number of US troops who have been killed in the fight for Fallujah. Five Iraqi soldiers have also died.
In the south of the city, where insurgents regrouped over the weekend, the butchered body of a blonde-haired Caucasian woman was found Sunday lying on a street.
"It is a female ... missing all four appendages, with a slashed throat and disemboweled, she has been dead for a while but only in this location for a day or two," said a Navy Corps hospital apprentice who had inspected the body.
Two foreign women have been abducted in Iraq and remain missing: Teresa Borcz, 54, a Pole, has blonde hair, and British aid worker Margaret Hassan, 59, has chestnut-coloured hair.
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, meanwhile, said two French journalists kidnapped south of Baghdad nearly three months ago were thought to be in a "fairly safe" zone in Iraq.
The assessment was based on information from their driver found alive in Fallujah.
At Fallujah's main hospital, aid from the Iraqi Red Crescent was still waiting as relief workers negotiated with US troops for access to residents.
The Muslim relief agency said it fears civilians are dying of starvation and a lack of medical equipment. Of the city's 300,000 residents, as many as one-third were thought to have remained when the assault began.
"They are still in the hospital and they are trying to have the facility to distribute material in Fallujah but until now they have not been able to," said Ahmed Nasser, head of the Red Crescent's disaster management unit.
But Health Minister Alaeddin Abdul Sahib Adwan said the fears of a humanitarian crisis were groundless and that only a small number of civilians had been wounded in the week-long battle.
"The ministry of health is coordinating with the Iraqi military and the multinational forces in evacuating the civilian casualties, but so far the number has been very small," Adwan told AFP.
Meanwhile, with the insurgents growing bolder by the day in Mosul, 370 kilometres (230 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraqi and US troops moved in and appeared to be regaining control, an AFP correspondent there said.
Clashes took place between rebels and Iraqi security 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 Iraqi National Guard had deployed in several districts, as well as alongside the river Tigris and in the west of the city, he said. Two police stations were retaken in the centre and the north.
Elsewhere, US helicopter and tank fire blasted a building harbouring suspected insurgents near the restive city of Baiji, also north of the Iraqi capital, killing several rebels, a US military spokesman said.
The home of the Brave.
The land of the Free.
Funny how the civilian casualty rate dropped off when we shut down that hospital that was being used as a Terrorist hideout and propaganda machine before we took it over.
Concern about the Iraqi police force.
Press conference coming up with Abizaid on Fox.
Iraqi Shia leaders condemn Falluja attack
(Al Jizzera barf alert)
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D8B90377-00D8-4D9D-A90D-670A45FCAEF8.htm
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- About 400 suspected insurgents have been arrested during the ongoing fighting in Fallujah, and some of them are foreigners, Iraq's prime minister said Sunday.
"We arrested a large number of them, around 400," interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said in an interview broadcast by Iraqiya television. "Some of them are Iraqis and some from outside Iraq."
Allawi gave no figures for the number of foreigners but said they included Syrians, Saudis, Afghans and Moroccans.
Allawi: 400 Insurgents Held in Fallujah
BAGHDAD, Iraq - About 400 suspected insurgents have been arrested during the ongoing fighting in Fallujah, and some of them are foreigners, Iraq's prime minister said Sunday.
"We arrested a large number of them, around 400," interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said in an interview broadcast by Iraqiya television. "Some of them are Iraqis and some from outside Iraq."
Allawi gave no figures for the number of foreigners but said they included Syrians, Saudis, Afghans and Moroccans.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/10181278.htm?1c
Al Jazeera can stuff it.
I hope the Iraqis are harsh on these 400.
This gave me goose bumps, those Americans have been avenged! Thank you American troops.
U.S. Army soldiers take defensive positions after explosions and gunfire rattled central Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday night, Nov. 14, 2004. At least two big blasts could be heard near central Saadoun Street. (AP Photo/Jim MacMillan)
American Army doctors treat the broken leg of an Iraqi prisoner of war captured in Fallujah, according to hospital officials, after he was transported to the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. (AP Photo/John Moore)
US Marines of the 1st Division raid a house where they found improvised explosive devices (IED) in the western part of Fallujah, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. U.S. military officials said Saturday that US Forces had now "occupied" the entire city of Fallujah. 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)
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)
US Marines of the 1st Division drive towards a 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)
A U.S. Marine of the 1st Division carries a mascot for good luck in his backpack as his unit pushed 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)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1279524/posts
US troops diverted to Mosul (with photos)
BBC ^ | November 14, 2004 | BBC
_ U.S. troops from Task Force 2-2 of the 1st Infantry Division discovered an immense series of underground bunkers linked by tunnels that insurgents stocked with medical supplies, a CNN correspondent embedded with the unit reported. Warplanes dropped four 2,000-pound bombs on the bunker network.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041114/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_developments_16
A musical tribute, my first.
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