Free Republic

PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- The mother of a Marine from eastern Kentucky now fighting in Iraq said she was thrilled to see her son's photograph on the front pages of newspapers this week. Maxie Webber of Robinson Creek in Pike County said the close-up of Lance Cpl. Blake Miller, his face covered with dirt and a cigarette hanging from his lips, let her know that her son was OK. Miller, 20, a graduate of Shelby Valley High School, is serving with Charlie Company of the U.S. Marines First Division in Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold. Fallujah has been the site of...

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...

WITH U.S. FORCES NEAR FALLUJAH - The number of dead and wounded from the expected battle to retake insurgent-controlled Fallujah probably will reach levels not seen since Vietnam, a senior surgeon at the Marine camp outside Fallujah said yesterday. Navy Cmdr. Lach Noyes said the hospital here was preparing to handle 25 severely injured soldiers a day, in addition to walking wounded and the dead. The hospital has added two operating rooms, doubled its supplies, added a mortuary, and stocked up on blood reserves. Doctors have set up a system of ambulance vehicles that will rush to the camp's gate...

Iraq's new prime minister says his government co-operated in a US air strike on the volatile city of Falluja, which killed at least 10 people. In an unprecedented statement, Iyad Allawi said his interim government had provided intelligence for the attack. A US military spokesman said the target was a house suspected of being used by supporters of an al-Qaeda leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It was the latest in a spate of US air strikes on Falluja. Mr Allawi's statement demonstrates that he is keen to associate his administration publicly with attacks by American forces on foreign militants, correspondents say....

General Richard Meyers just emphasized to Chris Wallace that General Saleh, former Republican Guard Commander, who has been announced by the international media as the commander of an Iraqi force inserted into Fallujah to quell the violence is, in fact, not in command of anything in Fallujah and has not been vetted by our forces in theater.Meyers , in fact, left me with the impression that he was distancing himself from Saleh. Meyers seemed to backtrack emphatically when Wallace mentioned the rumors that Saleh had command troops that persecuted the Kurds in northern Iraq. Prevous reports posted on this forum...

The Al Fallujah Cease-Fire and the Three-Way Game Summary U.S. forces have reached a written cease-fire agreement with Sunni guerrillas operating in Al Fallujah. More than ending -- or at least suspending -- the battles in Al Fallujah, the cease-fire has turned the political situation in Iraq on its head, with the United States now positioned strategically between the majority Shia and the Sunni insurgents. Analysis The United States and the Sunni guerrillas in Iraq agreed to an extended cease-fire in Al Fallujah on April 19. Most media treated the news as important. It was, in fact, extraordinary. The fact...

Iraqis break through US roadblocks From correspondents in Baghdad April 9, 2004 THOUSANDS of Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims forced their way through US military checkpoints today to ferry food and medical supplies to the besieged Sunni bastion of Fallujah where US Marines are trying to crush insurgents. Troops in armoured vehicles tried to stop the convoy of cars and pedestrians from reaching the town, 50 km west of Baghdad. But US forces were overwhelmed as residents of villages west of the capital came to the convoy's assistance, hurling insults and stones at the beleaguered troops. A US patrol was attacked...