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Reference

Falluja Archive Oct 2004

Falluja Table - April 29

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IBC Extracted Falluja News - April 29

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
-
Beth Potter
-
IRAQ: AID AGENCIES CONTINUE TO SUPPLY FALLUJAH AND NAJAF
Specific incidents / deaths

 

Date killed?  
Total

 

Civilian / Fighter

 

Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

Reports indicate that up to 700 people have been killed in fierce fighting over the last three weeks between US Marines and anti-Coalition insurgents in the city, 50 km west of Baghdad. Up until a few days ago there was a lull in the fighting, in which some 2,000 insurgents have battled against US forces.

Date range? 5th-26th? ('three weeks')
Total 'up to' 700
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

One village west of Fallujah was reportedly surrounded by Coalition forces looking for fighters in the past week, said Baptiste Martin, an aid worker at Premiere Urgence, a French NGO.

Another village, where the Iraqi Red Crescent was planning to set up a camp for displaced people, was allegedly under attack by Coalition forces, Martin said. He declined to give specific information about the sites to protect the civilians staying there.

"We're concerned about the problems (in these villages) because some people staying in Baghdad are trying to go back to them to be closer to their houses in Fallujah," Martin told IRIN in Baghdad.


US/military viewpoint

 

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Associated Press
-
PRESSURE GROWS FOR SOLUTIONS IN FALLUJAH
Specific incidents / deaths

US troops at the main checkpoint in and out of Fallujah opened fire on a car, killing several Iraqis but there were differing accounts of the circumstances of the attacks.

Marine Captain James Edge said a car screeched into the razorwire near the main Marine checkpoint into Fallujah and gunmen inside opened fire with assault rifles on the Americans. US troops returned fire with a Humvee-mounted heavy machine gun, killing at least three men in the car, Edge said. A fourth person was wounded but it was not clear if he was in the car or a bystander, Edge said.

An AP reporter, however, saw US soldiers opened fire on a pickup truck at the checkpoint, killing a seven-member family that was trying to flee the city. It was not clear if the accounts referred to separate incidents.

...

On Wednesday, US warplanes dropped 500-pound, laser-guided bombs on guerrilla targets as battles broke out in several parts of the city, including areas that had been relatively quiet.

...

Witnesses reported at least 25 destroyed buildings. At least 10 people were injured in the fighting, hospital officials said Thursday. There were no reports of guerrilla casualties although insurgents often do not evacuate their casualties to hospitals, fearing that they could be arrested. Hospital officials said ambulances could not reach the areas where many of the battles took place.

Date killed? 29th
Total 7 (assuming separate 'incidents', as details very different)
Civilian / Fighter 7/0
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

The Fallujah violence, aired live on television screens with images of explosions and burning buildings, increased pressure on the United States to prevent a revival of the heavy bloodshed in Fallujah during the first two weeks of April.

"Violent military action by an occupying power against inhabitants of an occupied country will only make matters worse," Uited Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned. "It's definitely time, time now for those who prefer restraint and dialogue to make their voices heard."

Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, a member of the US-appointed Governing Council also called on the United States to stop attacks in Fallujah and said if the United States refused, his Iraqi Islamic Party would consider withdrawing from the council.

US/military viewpoint

In Baghdad, US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said the US strikes were limited and aimed at gunmen who were attacking Americans.

"Even though it may not look like it, there is still a determined aspiration on the part of the coalition to maintain a cease-fire and solve the situation in Fallujah by peaceful means," he said.

The US military announced that joint US-Iraqi patrols into Fallujah would be delayed by a day, to Friday. The patrols were part of an effort to reduce tensions and stop Marine assault of the city.

Marine Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne said that when the patrols begin "we expect hostile fire. There is a cadre of bad guys that are still in Fallujah and anytime people go into Fallujah they get fired at."

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Independent
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Patrick Cockburn
-
SIEGE OF FALLUJAH PROVOKES SECOND MUTINY
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

A second unit of the Iraqi armed forces has mutinied at Fallujah after being involved in heavy fighting with insurgents Ali Allawi, the Iraqi Defence Minister, said yesterday.

Part of the 36th battalion of the paramilitary Iraqi Civil Defence Corps revolted last week after the unit had been fighting in the besieged city for 11 days, the minister told The Independent yesterday. Mr Allawi blamed the mutiny on "a failure of command. The commanding officer was absent, his deputy ... was seriously wounded and the number three faltered".

At the start of the siege of Fallujah three weeks ago, one of the five battalions of the newly formed Iraqi army refused to go to the city because many of its soldiers were not prepared to fight fellow Iraqis.

...

The battalion may have split along ethnic lines. Its soldiers were recruited from the militiamen of the Iraqi political parties which belong to the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, and about half were Kurdish soldiers, known as peshmerga. The Kurds were prepared to fight but Iraqi Arab soldiers said they had had enough. Those who refused to fight were withdrawn from the battlefield for retraining.

...

Mr Allawi, long exiled in London, won a reputation for efficiency while Iraqi minister of trade, a job he still holds. He is trying to raise an 80,000-strong Iraqi army, of whom 35,000 will be regulars and 40,000 to 45,000 will be in the paramilitary defence corps.

He says the poor performance of the Iraqi security forces stems from poor leadership and lack of training. Asked who will command the new Iraqi army, Mr Allawi said firmly: "I will give the orders." He added with a laugh: "I do not mean that in any Napoleonic sense."

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Press Gazette
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Lee Gordon
-
ON THE FRONT LINE
Specific incidents / deaths

Four-year-old Ali lay in a hospital cot which, like the others, was matted with dried blood from numerous casualties. He was bleeding from an horrific groin wound and his left leg had already been amputated above the knee. His left arm was heavily bandaged and bleeding, his face badly cut from flying debris. His father sat dejectedly nearby, vaguely brushing away the flies buzzing around Ali's wounds.

...

A doctor explained Ali was one of the last survivors of an extended family bombed the day before by a jet, probably an F-16. His home was next to a power generator - an easy target for US forces.

Ali was lucky, said the doctor. He had been walking with his grandfather, who was killed. His father was several streets away but everybody else - his mother, brothers and sisters - were also believed dead.

...

My guide and I managed to skip past US checkpoints several times, evacuating oneyearold Walid Mohammed Dahi Jenabi, who was hit in the eye by shrapnel when a bomb exploded, killing up to 25 of his family and neighbours.

...

What do you say when doctors turn to you for anaesthetics to operate on a volunteer nurse shot through the stomach by a sniper? I had Boots painkillers but there was no chance of getting him to a Baghdad hospital in time to save his life.

Date killed? ?
Total 1 (grandfather of Ali) + 5 (Ali's mother, and assuming 2 sisters, 2 brothers 'believed dead') + 25 ('up to 25' of Walid Mohammed Dahi Jenabi's family and neighbours - IBC min family unit is 3) + 1 (volunteer nurse) = 10 (min) 32 (max)
Civilian / Fighter 10 (min) to 32 (max)/0
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

Ambulances had tried and failed to evacuate Ali and other seriously wounded. They were turned back at US checkpoints by troops carrying out orders to the letter: no one in and no one out.

The doctor's face was gaunt, but there was one last hope: I had got past the checkpoints with my press ID and my passport and I could go the other way with Ali.

Suddenly reporting the battle and embedding with the Mujaheddin faded into insignificance.

It was a white-knuckle ride back to Baghdad with my guide, but 90 minutes later Ali was being treated at an Italian Coalition hospital in Baghdad by doctors who were shocked to see their first Fallujah evacuee. Surgery saved Ali's life, but not his lower left arm which was amputated. There was a hope that Ali would get prosthetic limbs, but only if the Italian Government would agree to pay the bills.

...

The experience underlined the price of embedding.

Patrolling with the troops means sharing their hopes and fears; eating, sleeping and being bombed with the Mujaheddinmeans sharing more than a blanket, chicken and rice. It means listening out for reconnaissance helicopters, incoming ordnance, enduring the same sweaty moments, feeling helpless about injured families trapped behind "enemy" lines, and revulsion as maimed bodies are tipped into hospital beds.

Why don't more journalists embed on both sides?

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
-
Author
-
Title
New York Times
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SANDRA MACKEY
-
A CITY THAT LIVES FOR REVENGE
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

The United States is in a no-win situation in Falluja. Yesterday, fighting increased in and around the city of 300,000, the place where four civilian contractors were burned to death last month. Even if American forces storm and subdue the town, it is unlikely that there will be peace there anytime soon.

It didn't have to be this way. Had the United States taken more time to understand the city - a place where even Saddam Hussein ventured cautiously - it might have been able to avoid the current showdown. Part of the misunderstanding can be seen in the way the Pentagon talks about the situation in Falluja, describing those holed up there as either die-hards of Saddam Hussein's regime or foreigners promoting the ideology of Al Qaeda. What the Pentagon is neglecting is a third group, one that could prove more deadly to the occupation: the tribes of central Iraq. They are a tough lot with a long history of resistance to any outside authority.

...

The only possible strategy for the United States would be to step back from Falluja and negotiate individually with tribal leaders, transferring to them the responsibility for security in the city, including the eviction of the foreign fighters. It's doubtful, though, that the Bush administration would be willing to even consider this approach.

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Reuters
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Peter Graff
-
'AMERICANS DON'T KNOW HOW TO BE PEACEKEEPERS'
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis Fear that ruthless United States tactics could lead to disaster in Iraq has caused Washington's most loyal ally Britain to waver in its support as never before.

...

Britain's military prides itself on its peacekeeping and counter-insurgency skills, learned over years of colonial conflicts.

"You have to lose an empire to understand how to do peacekeeping," said British defence analyst Paul Beaver. "I think there's despair at the way the Americans go about peacekeeping. The Americans are not good at it."

So far, disquiet among serving British commanders has mostly been in the form of oblique hints that they would prefer to see American troops act with more restraint.

The chief of the general staff, Sir Mike Jackson, said last week it was a "fact of life" that "the British approach to post-conflict (situations) is doctrinally different to the US"

"We must be able to fight with the Americans but that does not mean we must fight as the Americans," he said.

But the hints are becoming more obvious.

Worries among the diplomatic corps burst into the open this week when 52 former senior British diplomats sent a letter to a news agency saying Blair should either persuade Bush to change course or abandon a policy "doomed to failure".

"Heavy weapons unsuited to the task in hand, inflammatory language, the current confrontations in Najaf and Fallujah, all these have built up rather than isolated the opposition," they wrote.

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Philadelphia Inquirer
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Carol Rosenberg
-
MARINES AGAIN HIT REBELS AFTER ATTACKS IN FALLUJAH
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

The Marines postponed by yet another day, at least until Friday, the launch of joint American-Iraqi security patrols intended to demonstrate that Iraqis and Americans are uniting to restore law and order in the unruly city.

...

Commanders in Fallujah said intelligence found no signs that the attacks in this Sunni Muslim city once loyal to Hussein were tied to the birthday of the fallen dictator, who's in U.S. custody awaiting a war crimes trial.

...

By day, commanders at Camp Fallujah dispatched helicopter gunships and warplanes to drop laser-guided bombs as the fighters moved closer to the Marine units. At least one 500-pound bomb was used, destroying a building thought to have been used by the resistance to attack. By night, AC-130 gunships fired artillery at guerrilla targets.

US/military viewpoint

Yesterday's assaults on Marine posts by AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades probably were carried out by "young hotheads getting tired and bored," said one military official, speaking on condition of anonymity. It was a case of "let's go outside and shoot at the Americans," the officer said.

...

The latest surge in fighting started Tuesday evening when insurgents fired five volleys of mortars into Camp Fallujah. No one was injured, but soon after Marine scout teams in a slum spotted Arabs carrying weapons from a truck to a building and called in 105 mm strikes from AC-130 warplanes.

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Washington Post
-
Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Robin Wright
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IN TWO SIEGES, U.S. FINDS ITSELF SHUT OUT
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

Military officials estimate there are between several hundred and a few thousand armed insurgents in Fallujah. Speaking to reporters Wednesday at the Pentagon, Marine Maj. Gen. John F. Sattler, head of operations for U.S. Central Command, put the number at about 1,500.

...

People in Baghdad and other cities, however, maintain that the fighters in Fallujah are ordinary Iraqis who have taken up arms against the occupation; the sustained fighting and the Marine cordon around the city have prevented foreign journalists from independently assessing the nature of the guerrilla forces.

As they fight the Marines, some guerrillas have used techniques that suggest they have military experience, the officials said. In addition, based on the munitions and contraband uncovered by Marines during their initial foray into the city, U.S. military officials believe a large number of roadside bombs and car bombs detonated elsewhere in Iraq may have been manufactured in Fallujah.

...

But a resumption of offensive operations is widely opposed by Iraqis. "The only way to solve this is through a peaceful solution," said Hachem Hassani, a Sunni political leader who has participated in negotiations between city leaders and military commanders. "Attacking the city will only make matters worse."

The local leaders who participated in the discussions have described Fallujah as having been hijacked by foreign Islamic militants, people involved in the talks said. In a bid to end the standoff, the local leaders have urged U.S. officials to grant foreigners safe passage out of the city, but that request was rejected.

...

Some Iraqi leaders have advocated bringing in security forces from other parts of the country or assembling a new force composed of former Iraqi army soldiers who are Sunnis. U.S. officials said both those concepts also have deep flaws. Allowing Shiites from the south or ethnic Kurds from the north to fight in Fallujah could spark ethnic and religious tensions elsewhere in Iraq; participation of Kurds in a special civil defense battalion that assisted Marines in the city earlier in the month fueled a wave of threats against Kurds living in Baghdad. Assembling a new force of military veterans also is regarded by American officials as a dicey proposition.

...

Brahimi has urged the Bush administration to find peaceful solutions in both cities. One U.S. official said Brahimi's lobbying played a role in the White House decision over the weekend to postpone a resumption of large-scale Marine raids in Fallujah.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan also has urged U.S. officials to do everything possible to reach a peaceful resolution to the standoffs. Annan told reporters Wednesday that he subscribed to the view in Iraq that "violent military action by an occupying power against the inhabitants of an occupied country will only make matters worse."

US/military viewpoint

Perched atop sandbags and peering through powerful binoculars, Marine officers manning front-line positions around this tense city can see the problem clearly enough, even through the swirling dust that gives Fallujah the sepia hue of a Wild West town: Military-age men in white robes swagger about with impunity, they say, hardening their defenses and resupplying their encampments.

The Marines say the men are Sunni Muslim guerrillas who have taken over this Euphrates River city and transformed it into a stronghold of resistance to the American occupation of Iraq

...

Military officials estimate there are between several hundred and a few thousand armed insurgents in Fallujah. Speaking to reporters Wednesday at the Pentagon, Marine Maj. Gen. John F. Sattler, head of operations for U.S. Central Command, put the number at about 1,500.

"We have not been able to determine any single leader," he said in a telephone briefing from Centcom's forward headquarters in the Persian Gulf country of Qatar. "There appears to be a loose federation of individuals who have come together with a common cause, and in this particular case, it's to derail the process as we move towards sovereignty."

U.S. officials said some of the insurgents were from other Arab nations but most were Iraqis -- a combination of Islamic extremists, loyalists of former president Saddam Hussein and criminals.

...

More significantly, Marines note, insurgents were supposed to stop attacking U.S. positions. But front-line Marine posts are fired on almost daily in some places, prompting the Americans to respond with everything from sniper fire to precision-guided 500-pound bombs dropped by Air Force fighter jets.

"The only way to ensure that we really get these guys is for us to go in and take them out," a Marine officer said.

...

"Every one of them has a hunger deep down inside to finish the job," said Lt. Karl Blanke, a platoon leader with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. "We've now shed our blood in the city. The last thing we want to do is walk away from it."

News Source
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Author
-
Title
Baltimore Sun
-
Tom Bowman
-
IN FALLUJAH, A NIGHTMARE SCENARIO OF URBAN WAR
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

Before the latest round of attacks, the director of Fallujah's largest hospital told the Associated Press that 600 people, mostly civilians, had been killed, though the health minister in the U.S.-appointed government, Khudayer Abbas, said the death toll was less than half that.

Date range? 5th-11th? (based on AP)
Total 600
('though ... health minister in the U.S.-appointed government... said the death toll was less than half that')
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis  
US/military viewpoint

Marine Maj. Gen. John Sattler, operations director for the U.S. Central Command, which oversees coalition forces in Iraq, estimated that there are 1,500 insurgents in the city, a mix of foreign fighters, Baathist elements and criminals. Pentagon officials put the number higher, with 2,000 to 5,000 foreign fighters and an unknown number of local insurgents.

Those forces have spent the past two weeks of a shaky cease-fire shoring up fortifications in Fallujah, a city of 250,000 about 35 miles west of Baghdad. One neighborhood was estimated to have 800 to 1,000 foreign fighters, one official said.

...

Though talks continue, some current and retired officers say the only way to gain control of Fallujah is through force.

Ralph Peters, a retired Army officer who writes frequently on military strategy, said that with the insurgents digging in, the only way to resolve the standoff and send a message of U.S. resolve is through military action.

"You've got to do the dirty work immediately," said Peters. "The Marines can do it. They can do it well."

...

"It's high-cost warfare," said Russell Glenn, senior military and political analyst at the Rand Corp., a think tank in Santa Monica, Calif. "Noncombatants have been the ones who have suffered in far greater numbers. They end up getting used wittingly or unwittingly as human shields."

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Associated Press
-
JASON KEYSER
-
U.S. TO PULL BACK FROM FALLUJAH AS SADDAM-ERA GENERAL TAKES CHARGE OF SECURITY
Specific incidents / deaths

On Thursday, U.S. troops at the main checkpoint in and out of Fallujah opened fire on a car, killing several Iraqis, although there were differing accounts of the circumstances of the attack.

Marine Capt. James Edge said a car screeched into the razor wire near the main marine checkpoint into Fallujah and gunmen inside opened fire with assault rifles on the Americans. U.S. troops returned fire with a Humvee-mounted heavy machine-gun, killing at least three of the auto's occupants, Edge said. A fourth person was wounded but it was not clear if he was in the car or a bystander, Edge said.

An AP reporter, however, saw U.S. soldiers open fire on a pickup truck at the checkpoint, killing a seven-member family that was trying to flee the city. It was not clear if the accounts referred to separate incidents.

Date killed? 29th
Total 7 (assuming 'separate incidents', as details very different)
Civilian / Fighter 7/0
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

U.S. marines decided Thursday to end their bloody, nearly four-week-old siege of Fallujah, saying American forces will pull back and allow an all-Iraqi force commanded by former general under Saddam Hussein to take over security.

...

U.S. marines encircled Fallujah on April 5 and have fought an estimated 1,500 guerrillas in repeated battles as ceasefires unravelled.

Heavy U.S. bombardment of the city for the last two nights, televised around the world, heightened international pressure to negotiate a truce and spare civilian casualties in the city of 300,000.

The arrangement was negotiated between U.S. forces and Fallujah representatives, including four Iraqi generals.

The deal provides for a new force, known as the Fallujah Protective Army, to enter the city and provide security. It will consist of up to 1,100 Iraqi soldiers led by a former general under Saddam, said U.S. military spokesman Lt.-Col. Brennan Byrne.

"The plan is that the whole of Fallujah will be under the control of the FPA," Byrne said.

He identified the commander of the FPA only as Gen. Salah, a division commander under Saddam. Many of the guerrillas in Fallujah are thought to be former members of Saddam's regime or military.

Last week, Iraq's top U.S. administrator, Paul Bremer, announced that the new Iraqi army would start recruiting top former Saddam-era officers who were not involved in the regime's crimes.

...

Three days of intense fighting around Fallujah had brought sharp international condemnation of the U.S. action.

"Violent military action by an occupying power against inhabitants of an occupied country will only make matters worse," UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned.

"It's definitely time, time now for those who prefer restraint and dialogue to make their voices heard," Annan said.

Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, a member of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, also called on the United States to end the fighting in Fallujah and said if the United States refused, his Iraqi Islamic party would consider withdrawing from the council.

"We call on the American troops that are bombing Fallujah to stop immediately and withdraw outside of the city," Abdul-Hamid told al-Jazeera television. "Otherwise, we'll be forced . . . to consider the subject of withdrawal."

US/military viewpoint

 

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Reuters
-
NINE U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ
Specific incidents / deaths

A Reuters journalist watched U.S. Marines open fire on a minibus at a checkpoint on the outskirts, setting the vehicle on fire. Up to four civilians died, a policeman said.

Date killed? 29th?
Total 'up to' 4
Civilian / Fighter 4/0
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

Thousands of people have fled the city of 300,000, where doctors say 600 died during a first U.S. offensive three weeks ago in retaliation for the killing of four American contractors.

Date range? 5th-26th?
Total 600
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed to Bush to show restraint, saying bloodshed could turn Iraqis against the occupying forces just as the U.N. is working with Washington to restore an Iraqi government on June 30.

"The more the occupation is seen as taking steps that harm the civilians and the population, the greater the ranks of the resistance grows," Annan told a news conference in New York.

There was no immediate resumption of the shellfire and air strikes that have shaken Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, this week in the most devastating display of U.S. firepower since the siege by U.S. Marines began in early April.

Local police chief Sabar al-Janabi told Reuters he was taking part in new talks with the Marines involving former Iraqi army officers and other leading citizens in the hope of reaching a deal to let U.S. troops join Iraqi police on patrol in town.

A Los Angeles Times reporter, quoted by CNN, said four former Iraqi army generals had agreed to try to bring control to Falluja, allowing U.S. Marines to withdraw. But the agreement is tentative and it is not clear if the Iraqi generals will be able to persuade insurgents to disarm.

US/military viewpoint

Bush said he would not brook defiance from some 2,000 or so Sunni fighters: "Our military commanders will take whatever actions necessary to secure Falluja," he said.

Commanders around Falluja and elsewhere in the restive "Sunni triangle" west and north of Baghdad have been appealing for more firepower. The Pentagon, in a reversal of policy, said it was now sending dozens of tanks and other armoured vehicles.

"That armour is either (in Iraq) now or is arriving as we speak," Major General John Sattler told Washington reporters.

About two dozen M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks are headed for the Marines, whose area of operations includes Falluja, a U.S. defence official said. A similar number was headed for the First Infantry Division, based at Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Los Angeles Times
-
John Hendren and Tony Perry
-
BATTLE FOR FALLOUJA SEEN AS INEVITABLE
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries] ...the fighters already have suffered 1,500 to 2,000 deaths, by U.S. military estimates.
Date range? 5th-28th?
Total 1500-2000
('by U.S. military estimates')
Civilian / Fighter 'fighters'
Selected info, comment, analysis The plans have been laid, the troops are positioned, and all is ready for a massive Marine assault on Fallouja - and with it the long-dreaded prospect of major urban warfare in Iraq.

...

Now, from Fallouja to the White House to the Pentagon and across the Capitol, officials are taking a deep breath.

From one end of the chain of command to the other, there is a palpable sense of how high the stakes may be in the looming battle between U.S. forces and insurgents holed up in the city of 300,000 in the Sunni Triangle:

� The virtual certainty of civilian casualties and their potential for spurring wider resistance to the U.S.-led occupation.

� The problem of ordinary Iraqis' increasingly negative attitude toward the U.S. presence.

� The American public's perception of how the war is going.

� The reaction of the international community as the June 30 deadline approaches for the transfer of power to a transitional Iraqi government.

� Whether U.S. casualty rates continue to climb or begin to decline.

Yet high as the risks may be, U.S. officials - and many outside analysts - say a full-scale assault is all but inevitable.

...

Since April 5, days after four American civilian contractors were killed and their bodies mutilated in Fallouja, Marines have encircled the city. And despite an 18-day cease-fire, skirmishes have erupted daily, with Marines calling in airstrikes Wednesday for the second consecutive day.

...

One senior official described the delay as part of "a whole developing public diplomacy, information operations campaign" designed to reduce negative reactions to a final assault.

Accordingly, U.S. officials have sought to focus attention on the insurgents' violations of the cease-fire. And they have described the response by American forces as purely defensive and retaliatory.

But the tanks, AC-130 gunships and attack helicopters used in these "counterattacks" have delivered such heavy firepower that some analysts believe they have a larger purpose: to soften up and hollow out the insurgent forces before a final assault.

Moreover, military sources said, Special Forces units and other special operations teams have carried out lower-profile offensive operations within the Fallouja perimeter, including raids on suspected guerrilla leaders' hide-outs.

Many military strategists believe that such attacks should be followed by a full-scale assault, the blueprints for which have been approved by the Pentagon.

US/military viewpoint

"We got the last unit in place today. We're tightening the noose," Col. John Toolan declared with grim satisfaction, standing on the roof of the Marine command post at the edge of the volatile Sunni Muslim city on Wednesday as occasional hostile rounds zinged overhead and American tanks rumbled toward their positions on the dusty plain.

...

"This is a real turning point," said W. Patrick Lang, a former head of Middle Eastern affairs at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"If we don't firmly take back Fallouja and establish in the minds of all these people in Iraq that we're in control, we'll have to fight battles like this all over Iraq, and on the roads. This is a crucial battle."

...

Defeating the Fallouja insurgents "would deal a blow to all the insurgents across the country," said Marine Maj. Gen. John F. Sattler, chief of operations for the U.S. Central Command, which is directing the Iraq war.

"I just believe that that would send a message to the rest of those who are possibly hanging on, thinking that they can hold out long enough or they can hold out until they can negotiate on their terms. I think that the message will be sent that ... that's only a pipe dream on their part."

...

After his usual early morning briefings by the CIA and the FBI, the president convened a National Security Council meeting that included a video link with Bremer and Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command. Abizaid was in Afghanistan, Bremer in Iraq.

Afterward, the president met with Rumsfeld.

Bush also spoke to reporters, saying, "Our military commanders will take whatever action is necessary to secure Fallouja on behalf of the Iraqi people."

...

Defeating the Fallouja insurgents "would deal a blow to all the insurgents across the country," said Marine Maj. Gen. John F. Sattler, chief of operations for the U.S. Central Command, which is directing the Iraq war.

"I just believe that that would send a message to the rest of those who are possibly hanging on, thinking that they can hold out long enough or they can hold out until they can negotiate on their terms. I think that the message will be sent that ... that's only a pipe dream on their part."

...

After his usual early morning briefings by the CIA and the FBI, the president convened a National Security Council meeting that included a video link with Bremer and Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command. Abizaid was in Afghanistan, Bremer in Iraq.

Afterward, the president met with Rumsfeld.

Bush also spoke to reporters, saying, "Our military commanders will take whatever action is necessary to secure Fallouja on behalf of the Iraqi people."

The president had been kept abreast of developments around Fallouja even during his brief helicopter trip to Baltimore on Tuesday afternoon, one senior White House official said.

"The president is in close contact with military leaders in Washington and in the region," said Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary. As events warrant, Bush's national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, regularly keeps him updated throughout the day, he said.

The White House activity is part of what Pentagon officials said is an intensive series of communications and consultations between field commanders, senior military leaders, principal administration officials such as Rumsfeld, and the White House.

...

U.S. officials believe that the Fallouja insurgents have raised their profile militarily, but have set themselves up for a larger defeat.

For one thing, the insurgents have not been able to expand their base beyond Al Anbar province. For another, the fighters already have suffered 1,500 to 2,000 deaths, by U.S. military estimates.

Critics of the Bush administration's policy argue that such a view is unrealistically rosy and that even a military victory could further alienate Iraqis and the Muslim world.

...

With 7,000 Marines in position around Fallouja, the final assault, officials said, will be an extension and expansion of what's being done now, including greater use of armor and attack aircraft.

"It's not a guns-blazing, culminating kind of thing. It's going to be much more subtle than that," a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But another senior military official, who described attacks Tuesday and Wednesday as relatively small retaliatory strikes, said there would be no mistake that one of the most significant battles since the U.S. invaded Iraq last year had begun.

"When we go in, you'll see, we're going to go in with heavy armor, and we're going to kill people," he said.

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