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Marines from the 1st Expeditionary Force practice urban combat techniques at their base near Fallujah, Iraq, on Monday. Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi on Sunday said efforts to peacefully resolve the situation in Falluja have entered their final stages, and U.S. forces have been prepared for an offensive that may happen soon.

A Marine from the 1st Expeditionary Force rests between missions at his base near Fallujah, Iraq, on Monday.

Marines from the 1st Expeditionary Force play football at their base near Fallujah, Iraq, on Monday.

Marines from the 1st Division raid the house of a city council chairman in the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad on Tuesday.

Marines from the 1st Division arrest Iraqi council members following a raid in the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad on Tuesday.

Marines from the 1st Division train in an abandoned primary school outside Fallujah, Iraq, on Monday.

Marines from the 1st Division gather for a morning briefing outside Fallujah, Iraq, on Monday. U.S. forces are preparing for a major assault on the city in an effort to restore control to a number of Sunni Muslim towns north and west of the capital ahead of crucial national elections to be held by Jan. 31.

A soldier guards the site of a car bomb explosion near an office of the Iraqi Ministry of Education in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Don Watkins puts the first coat of paint on a KC-135 Stratotanker engine cowling at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. One coat of primer and two coats of paint add 420 to 500 pounds to the aircraft.

Sailors aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer Chafee (DDG 90) advance in formation toward an angry crowd during a simulated civil disturbance scenario in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Thursday. The exercises are part of an ongoing qualification process to prepare Pearl Harbor-based ships for deployment.

Senior Airman Jeramia Ostuni completes a wear and damage check on the rudder of an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet attached to the 335th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at a forward-deployed location in Southwest Asia. Ostuni is a crew chief deployed from the 4th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, based at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

An F/A-18E Super Hornet assigned to the “Kestrels” of Strike Fighter Squadron One Three Seven (VFA-137) performs an in-flight refueling evolution with an F/A-18C Hornet assigned to the “Marauders” of Strike Fighter Squadron Eight Two (VFA-82) over the Pacific Ocean on Thursday.

A soldier from B Company,1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, covers his squad’s movement while on a rocket patrol in Ganjgal, Afghanistan, on Oct. 16.

Capt. Patrick Rainey, the commander of Carrier Air Wing Three, instructs General Sir Michael Walker, the Royal Army’s Chief of Defense Staff, on basic flight operations in the cockpit of an F/A-18C Hornet aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) on Thursday. The Truman currently is participating in the Joint Maritime Course, a multinational NATO exercise being held off the coast of Scotland.

Sgt.Tommy Lee, 24, of Fairfax, Va., demonstrates new martial arts techniques on Sgt. Stephen Redmond, 24, of Uniontown, Pa. Both are instructor trainers at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va.

Sgt.Tommy Lee puts Sgt. Stephen Redmond in a hold as he demonstrates new martial arts techniques.

Just another day at the office for our Troops!