Troops push into southern Falluja
U.S. troops fought small cells of insurgents in alleyways and bombed-out buildings as the all-out assault on the Sunni Triangle flashpoint city of Falluja entered its fifth day.

CNN's Jane Arraf, who is embedded with the Army, reported Friday the soldiers are clearing the way for Marines, who are going door-to-door in an effort to find weapons caches and secure the area.

"They have essentially taken the south," Arraf said.

Lt. Gen. John Sattler said Friday that U.S. and Iraqi forces now control 80 percent of the mostly abandoned city.

U.S. forces hope to take over the last rebel bastion in southern Falluja during the night, a U.S. Marine officer told Reuters news agency on Friday.

Tank company Capt. Robert Bodisch also told Reuters dozens of insurgents had been killed or captured in the south Falluja stronghold.

Twenty-two U.S. troops and five Iraqi soldiers have died in the Falluja operation, Sattler said.

About 170 troops have been wounded, and 40 of them returned to the battlefield. About 600 insurgents have been killed.

"We feel we've broken their back and their spirit," said Sattler.

Small cells of three to five men continue to fire at the soldiers and hide in the urban area.

Fighting raged through the night, with light flickering in the night sky amid artillery and tank fire.

An Iraqi Intervention Forces company commander, working with the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division, said Friday the mission is meeting less resistance than expected, noting foreign fighters have been found among the bodies of insurgents killed in the fighting.

A spokesman for Iraq's interim prime minister Friday said a number of foreign fighters were detained in Falluja fighting.

They include 10 from Iran, one from Egypt, one from Sudan, one from Saudi Arabia and one from Jordan, according to Thair al Nakib.

Sattler said there are 151 detainees. He also said 300 have surrendered at a mosque, believed to be a combination of civilians and insurgents.

As of Thursday, the Pentagon said, more than 500 insurgents have been killed in the Falluja offensive.

Operation New Dawn -- intended to pacify the city ahead of the scheduled January elections for a transitional national assembly -- got going Sunday night with the seizure of a hospital and the securing of two bridges over the Euphrates River.

But the actual offensive began in earnest Monday when 10,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines, aided by 2,000 troops from Iraq's new army, stormed Falluja.

Falluja was considered an insurgent command-and-control center for the rest of the country and a base for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network.

Source: CNN.com

There have been a lot of violence going on in other locations but since the topic is mainly about Fallujah, .... lets not go on the other direction.

"We feel we've broken their back and their spirit," said Sattler.

There are indications of high morale within the Iraqi and American troops. Once the operation ends, U.S. total casualties looks grim.

Mosul, the third-largest city in Iraq has been attacked by terrorist. Officials are denying any parts of the city have been lost to the terrorist, however five police stations were "sacked".

SOURCE: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,138278,00.html

Looks like those hotshots are trying to grab attention away from their defeat in Falluja.

The U.S.A is going to stabilize one region, but another is hacked by insurgents. Don't you guys get tired of this repitition?

Such is the art of guerilla warfare.

And I don't know if arming the cops with heavy weapons will help. They'll just run off and hand over the weapons to the bad guys. But really, if you turned each police station into a hardened defendable point just maybe there will be a chance.

Maybe, but five police stations sacked in one day... I'd say the terror cells are big enough in Mosul to warrant a hunt. I wonder what the US is doing to clean Mosul.

Unless American land forces move out of Iraq, guerilla warefare will continue and if they succeed well enough, they will have the support of their people and the us forces will be very demoralzed

Originally Posted by Precision

Unless American land forces move out of Iraq, guerilla warefare will continue and if they succeed well enough, they will have the support of their people and the us forces will be very demoralzed

I say that unless the terrorists cease their murder in Iraq, they will be hunted down and eliminated. This situation calls for a concerted effort to eliminate that threat that these gangs pose to the people of Iraq. The Iraqi government has taken steps to deal with these criminals in Mosul and it has been successful.

Let me do a check on how things are going in there.

On Saturday, residents reported relative calm as Iraqi troops patrolled in parts of the city. The U.S. military said 10 Iraqi troops have been killed since clashes erupted late Thursday.

It looks like the criminals are the only ones being demoralized to me. You see, running away is no way to deal with a conflict. Elections are scheduled for January. Nobody's going anywhere until the situation is stabilized.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._re_mi_ea/iraq

There are claims as high as 1000 terrorist dead, thats allot of men to try to replace. I don't believe the pool of wannabe terrorist is as large as people think. Allot of soldiers I have talked to thought we were being way too soft in Iraq. I think the assault of Falluja sends a clear message that the nice guy act is over and now its time for action.

I'm no military man, but it appears today that the Marines should be very proud of themselves. They have done a great job.
House to house, street by street, scary stuff!!!!

Bit of a concern that none of the leadership were captured. Fallujah is now going to be a lot of new real estate that will have to be kept secure permanently after the battle is over. Do you have enough soldiers to spread around?

The 1000 insurgents killed may have been foolish to stay but they were brave none the less. They were facing the most efficient military killing machine on this earth!! Give your enemy some respect as it may help win the peace.