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November 9th,
2004 - US Troops Enter Falluja as Jets Pound Rebel-held City |
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US Troops Enter Falluja as
Jets Pound Rebel-held City Rory McCarthy in Baghdad The Guardian Tuesday November 9, 2004 Thousands of American troops
fought their way into the most dangerous parts of Falluja last night at the
start of an all-out assault to win back control of the Iraqi insurgent
stronghold. The much-heralded attack
began shortly after dusk in a two-pronged push by marines into suburbs in the
north, while US army soldiers fired volleys of mortars into the southern
parts of the city. A soldier from Britain's
Black Watch battalion was killed and two injured by a roadside bomb as they played
their part in the Falluja assault, working along the west bank of the
Euphrates river to disrupt insurgent movement between the Iraqi stronghold
and Baghdad. The incident took place
north of their base at Camp Dogwood, and follows the death of three Black
Watch soldiers in a suicide bombing last week. US commanders and Iraqi
officials hope the Falluja assault, which is deeply unpopular with some
Iraqis, will subdue the ever-more violent Islamist insurgency and prepare the
way for elections due in January. The top US commander in
Iraq, General George Casey, said last night that "a major
confrontation" was expected. "We expect that we will
have a fight in there over the next few days. As I said, I do believe some
[insurgents] have relocated already to other places, but others have come
in." He said there were between
10,000 and 15,000 US troops and more than five battalions of Iraqis involved
in the operation. A force of 4,000 marines and
soldiers from the marine regimental combat unit took the railway and pushed
into the Jolan district in the city's north-west, a known base for foreign
Arab fighters, while another force of 4,000 fought their way into the Askari
neighbourhood in the north-east. All day the city had come
under a barrage of aircraft bombing raids, which grew more intense as night
approached. From one mosque a cleric
exhorted the insurgents to fight: "God is greatest, God is greatest, God
is greatest, oh martyrs," he said. "Rise up mujahideen." There were frequent heavy
exchanges of fire. Video footage from inside the city showed people burying
seven bodies, some insurgents, in a makeshift cemetery established in a
football ground during the last assault in April. In preparation for the
attack, codenamed Phantom Fury, Ayad Allawi, the Iraqi prime minister, had
announced a security crackdown under the 60-day state of emergency. He put Falluja under
indefinite curfew from dusk last night. Highways were closed, weapons in the
city were banned, the borders with Syria and Jordan were closed and the
international airport in Baghdad was shut. "We have started to
take necessary measures to provide security and peace in Iraq," Mr
Allawi told a televised news conference. In Washington, the defence
secretary, Donald Rumsfeld said the taking of Falluja was essential for the
stabilisation of the country. "I've said that a country, to be
successful, simply cannot allow there to be safe havens for people who are
determined to kill innocent Iraqis and to bring down the government ... you
can't allow that in a country. That has to be stopped." US marine tanks were seen
advancing into Falluja one block at a time last night under an overwhelming
barrage of bombing from jet fighters. Around 3,000 insurgents are
thought to be holed up in Falluja, most of them Iraqi, but supported by a
significant group of foreign Arab fighters. The rebels are armed with
rocket-propelled grenades, shoulder-launched missiles and mortars, though
suicide car bombs may prove to be their most deadly weapon. Yesterday Mr Allawi flew in
to the US base outside Falluja to rally the several Iraqi battalions involved
in the attack. "Your job is to arrest the killers but if you kill them,
then so be it," he told a crowd of soldiers. "May they go to
hell," the soldiers shouted. "To hell they will go," the prime
minister replied. Earlier, a hardline Sunni
group, the Muslim Clerics Association, called on Iraqi troops not to fight in
the Falluja operation, saying it would be a "grave mistake". In an internet statement
last night, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group declared: "Oh people, the war
has begun and the call for jihad has been made." Although much of the civilian
population has fled, at least 100,000 people are thought to remain in the
city. As the attack began in
Falluja, two suicide car bombs exploded outside two churches in Baghdad
killing three people and injuring at least 34. A second suicide bomber struck
later at the hospital treating two of the survivors, killing five policemen.
Another suicide car bomber attacked a US convoy driving to the airport,
killing at least two people. Guardian Unlimited ©
Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 External link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,5058366-103550,00.html |