Posted on 01/03/2005 2:34:55 PM PST by demlosers
Fierce fighting continued in Fallujah over the weekend, with US airpower pounding resistance positions early Saturday morning and Mujahideen mounting a fierce response that left casualties on both sides as the battle for control of the city continues.
In a dispatch posted at 10:05pm Saturday Mecca time, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the Mujahideen on Saturday mounted a fierce barrage on the US base in the agricultural area to the northeast of Fallujah. The attack began at 8 o’clock local time and was still continuing when the correspondent filed his report. In addition to the US camp in the agricultural area, the former base of the Iranian dissident organization Mujahidi Khalq to the east of Fallujah was also bombarded by Mujahideen rockets. The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent reported seeing thick smoke rising from the camps, a sign that direct hits had been scored on equipment.
On the basis of a survey of witnesses’ the number of explosions that took place in the course of a single hour during the Mujahideen barrages was more than 40.
Inside Fallujah a relative calm, aside from some light clashes in the an-Nazal neighborhood, the casualties from which remained unknown at the time of this filing.
An officer in the First Brigade of the US Marines, who gave his name as Hak, said that the blasts that could be heard were only from military exercises underway in the city. That claim was disproved, however, by the US aircraft bombing in the same area. This fighting was still under way when the Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent filed his report.
Fighting Reported Early Saturday
Fighting erupted Saturday between US forces, backed up for the first time by Allawi “national guards,” and more than 250 Resistance fighters. The battles raged for about an hour in the neighborhoods of ash-Shurtah, al-Jaghifi, and al-Jawlan. US aircraft bombed the ash-Shuhada’ neighborhood in an extremely concentrated attack. In addition to F16 and F22 aircraft, the American ground forces attacked with heavy artillery and tanks as well as mortars.
Shaykh Abu As‘ad ad-Dulaymi, the official spokesman for the Mujahideen, told Mafkarat al-Islam’s reporter in the city that the Saturday battle left 35 US tanks, 13 armored vehicles, bulldozers, and 16 Humvees destroyed. Mujahideen also shot down a US Apache helicopter over the ash-Shurtah neighborhood.
Shaykh ad-Dulaymi said that there were more than 200 US dead in Saturday’s fighting, and that 74 Mujahideen were martyred. Thirteen other Mujahideen were wounded. Forty-four houses were totally destroyed. Three Mujahideen rocket launchers and 120 mortars were also destroyed.
Eyewitnesses confirmed Shaykh ad-Dulaymi’s account, telling Mafkarat al-Islam that they saw dozen smoldering US vehicles being hauled out of the city on very big American trucks amidst an unprecedented information black out. A few local people witnessed that operation and noted that the Americans brought in the large trucks late at night at about 11pm under cover of darkness. A shopkeeper by the name of Muhammad Qasim who works in the al-Andalus neighborhood said he saw a reporter try to take a picture of one of the giant trucks, but US troops descended on him, beat him and broke his camera.
Hello Bob, yes? Well we figure it is time for you to return to Iraq, yes we know you headed out for greener pastures back in April 2003, but realy sir, we need Baghdad Bob back on the scene. Yes we will set you up in Fallujah this time around. We really do need you on the scene quickly. Sure. We have huge caches of US dollars still in Syrian banks. No problem Bob, you just get your ass back to Iraq will quick.
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