Operation Phantom Fury, The Attack on Fallujah

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.
 
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? :x
 
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
 
Precision said:
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?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041113/ap_on_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.
 
I am a military man and I will never have a modicum of respect for animals that are responsible for kidnappings, torture, beheadings, car bombings of innocent civilians, etc.
How can anyone respect those responsible for the following latest incident which is merely the latest in a long line of atrocities? Not me.

By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. Marines on Sunday found the mutilated body of what they believe was a Western woman during a sweep of a street in central Fallujah.

The body was lying in the street covered with a blood-soaked cloth. Marines fear the body may have been boobytrapped and called in dogs to sniff for explosives.

Although the body has not been carefully examined, a Marine officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said he was "80 percent sure" it was a Western woman.

Two Western women are known to have been kidnapped in Iraq (news - web sites).

Margaret Hassan, 59, director of CARE international in Iraq, was abducted Oct. 19. Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born longtime resident of Iraq, was seized last month.

Kidnappers of both had demanded among other things that foreign troops leave Iraq.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041114/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_woman_s_body
 
But US is equally responsible! what about the countless abuses by the US!!!

Just kidding.

But yes Dtop, I agree. aussiejohn, that's hilarious that you ask us to give respect to these "brave insurgents" they are terrorist, nothing is brave about facing incredible odds so you can murder civilians. They don't fear death at all, anyways. They bask in the thought of martyrdom...
 
Are they all terrorists?

Sure, I read the papers and get a fair idea of the atrocities. The Fallujah operation has been "well advertised" for months, so the insurgents knew the US was coming in after the US election. They would have been making their own plans on getting a lot of their people out. I think there leadership group is reasonably intelligent (even though we may disagree with their motives and the actions of some). Give them some respect for there planning ability and never underestimate your enemy. Emotion can cloud your judgement.

Well I guess you guys are going to do it tough then. I still think you are short by at least 2 divisions in Iraq. Your trained up Iraqi units are still too unreliable.

Enjoy your new real estate.

I actually do want to see you guys win!
 
They're not stupid, they seem to have a pretty good network of cells capable of launching multiple attacks across the country, though the amount of damage they're capable per "operation" seems pretty low, to me anyways.

I'll never use the word respect, though. It doesn't matter to me, whether those in Fallujah are fighting for "liberation" or something, it doesn't matter, because they gave the terrorist sanctuary with themselves. That soils any "noble resistance" in my eyes. Not to mention that their cause goes towards a totalitarian regime much like, or even worse than Saddam's.
 
OK I guess we will agree to disagree on the respect bit.

Do you think you have enough divisions now Fallujah is going to soak up a lot of US soldiers for security duty?
 
We're not supposed to garrison much of it for long, the Iraqi army is supposed to take control. I have no clue for how long we will stay..
 
Russia is the greatest teacher we have for dealing with Iraq, look at how they mishandled Chechnya when fighting once again broke out, they landed on the Chechens with both feet, unfortunately for them it was not that Chechens who were fighting them, it was Muslims coming up from the Middle East, foreign fighters, sound familar? We could afford to take use extreme force against Falluja because it was for the most part abandoned and the parts that were not under Iraqi control were under control of the insurgents, not many civilians. I would also like to see the soldiers in Iraq doing for a**kicking but unfortunately that will most likely have dire consequences, we will see what happens when I get there.
 
Damien435 said:
Russia is the greatest teacher we have for dealing with Iraq, look at how they mishandled Chechnya when fighting once again broke out, they landed on the Chechens with both feet, unfortunately for them it was not that Chechens who were fighting them, it was Muslims coming up from the Middle East, foreign fighters, sound familar? We could afford to take use extreme force against Falluja because it was for the most part abandoned and the parts that were not under Iraqi control were under control of the insurgents, not many civilians. I would also like to see the soldiers in Iraq doing for a**kicking but unfortunately that will most likely have dire consequences, we will see what happens when I get there.

Perhaps then Damien (the forums very own Bomber Harris!) the US should have carpet bombed Fallujah!

Which soldiers should get an "a** kicking"?

Can at least one of you guys with the military brains give us all a cold and sober assessment of the trained up Iraqi units that are to take over security in the recently gained real estate?

I read a media report (not sure I can trust it) of a US officer stating that when they go into an operation with these Iraqi units these boys spray bullets everywhere, hitting the locals as well some of the designated targets. Obviously, he was not impressed with what he had to work with!
 
aussiejohn said:
Damien435 said:
Russia is the greatest teacher we have for dealing with Iraq, look at how they mishandled Chechnya when fighting once again broke out, they landed on the Chechens with both feet, unfortunately for them it was not that Chechens who were fighting them, it was Muslims coming up from the Middle East, foreign fighters, sound familar? We could afford to take use extreme force against Falluja because it was for the most part abandoned and the parts that were not under Iraqi control were under control of the insurgents, not many civilians. I would also like to see the soldiers in Iraq doing for a**kicking but unfortunately that will most likely have dire consequences, we will see what happens when I get there.

Perhaps then Damien (the forums very own Bomber Harris!) the US should have carpet bombed Fallujah!

Not enough insurgents in Falluja to warrant such an action, remember, their were still something like 120,000 civilians stuck in the city, we are not trying to kill everyone in Falluja, just the insurgents, aka the ones with the guns.
 
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