Operation Phantom Fury---Day III---Live thread

CNNFOXMSNBC | Nov 11,2004 | All of us

[astounded]

Tunnel solution - pour fugas (in other words, napalm) into it, light fuse, stand back. Roasted terrorist...

[wildcatf4f3]

Report says Falluja now looks like Kabul after years of war,,,,Well it only took us 3 days,,,,,Happy Birthday USMC!

[MEG33]

I noticed...They faked surrenders in the drive to Baghdad,too..I hate it.

[wildcatf4f3]

We really need to announce TAKE NO PRISONERS!

[boxerblues]

Confusion marks mosque fight

[Allegra]

Isn't an "annoyance" something like a "nusance"?

Or a nuisance even!

We just had four incoming nearby...it has been wild and wooly all over Iraq the last few days...

[We Happy Few]

Reminds me of how we use to kill gophers in the yard. Stick a garden hose down the hole. If that doesn't work, get the smoke bombs.

[KoRn]

I find it funny how the terrorist leader flees the city before the invasion.

That should be a good example for his supporters who blow themselves up in car bombs for allah.

[MEG33]

((((Allegra))))

Almighty and eternal God,
Protect these soldiers as they discharge their duties. Protect them with the shield of your strength and keep them safe from all evil and harm. May the power of your love enable them to return home in safety, that with all who love them, they may ever praise you for your loving care.

For all of you in harms way we pray.

[OXENinFLA]

Bump!

[OXENinFLA]

Wed Nov 10, 7:42 AM ET
U.S. Marines prepare a hand-launched Dragon Eye aerial reconnaissance drone along the outskirts of the Iraqi city of Falluja November 8, 2004. U.S. Marines backed by air strikes battled through a rebel stronghold in Falluja on Wednesday and officials said kidnappers had seized three relatives of Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim prime minister in Baghdad. Picture taken November 8, 2004. EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/Lance Cpl. James J. Vooris-USMC
Wed Nov 10, 7:39 AM ET
U.S. Marines with Weapons Platoon, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, seize apartments at the edge of the Iraqi city of Falluja, November 8, 2004. U.S. Marines backed by air strikes battled through a rebel stronghold in Falluja on Wednesday and officials said kidnappers had seized three relatives of Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim prime minister in Baghdad. Picture taken November 8, 2004. EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/Lance Cpl. James J. Vooris-USMC
Wed Nov 10, 7:41 AM ET
An air strike is called in on a suspected insurgent hideout at the edge of the Iraqi city of Falluja November 8, 2004. U.S. Marines backed by air strikes battled through a rebel stronghold in Falluja on Wednesday and officials said kidnappers had seized three relatives of Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim prime minister in Baghdad. (USMC/Reuters)
Wed Nov 10, 5:11 AM ET
U.S. Marine from Charlie Company, second tank battalion stand atop his tank during offensive in Sunni Muslim city of Falluja, November 10, 2004. U.S. Marines backed by air strikes battled through a rebel stronghold in Falluja on Wednesday, as officials said kidnappers had seized three relatives of Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. REUTERS/Eliana Aponte
Wed Nov 10, 3:30 AM ET
Iraqi troops with U.S. Marines prepare to move into the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja, November 9, 2004. Fighting eased in Falluja on Tuesday after U.S. forces reached its center and consolidated positions there, less than a day after starting an offensive to tame Iraq (news - web sites)'s most rebellious city. (Eliana Aponte/Reuters)
Tue Nov 9, 8:17 PM ET
A tank fires a round into a building in this TV image as U.S. troops, along with Iraqi forces, powered their way into the center of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, Iraq (news - web sites), on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004, overwhelming small bands of guerrillas with massive force, searching homes along the city's deserted, narrow passageways and using loudspeakers to try to goad militants onto the streets. (AP Photo / APTN / Pool)
Tue Nov 9, 6:50 PM ET
U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) greets U.S. Army Sgt. Carla Best of Virginia Beach, Va., and her mother Vickie Ebeling during a visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., November 9, 2004. Sgt. Best sustained injuries while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Bush paid a visit to soldiers recently wounded in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites). REUTERS/Handout/White House/Eric Draper
Wed Nov 10, 2:40 AM ET
Photo released by the White House shows US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) talking with US Army Spc. Kenneth Lukes of Fort Atkinson, Iowa, during his visit to soldiers injured in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites), at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC(AFP/White House/Eric Draper)
Tue Nov 9, 8:17 PM ET
A soldier fires a RPG (rocket propelled grenade) in this TV image as U.S. troops, along with Iraqi forces, powered their way into the center of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, Iraq (news - web sites), on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004, overwhelming small bands of guerrillas with massive force, searching homes along the city's deserted, narrow passageways and using loudspeakers to try to goad militants onto the streets. (AP Photo / APTN / Pool)

[OXENinFLA]

PIC PING............

[prairiebreeze]

Shoot them or drown them in the Euphrates. Makes no difference to me.

Prairie

[daybreakcoming]

LOL - good catch. And YES to the Happy Birthday USMC!

[prairiebreeze]

Very cool pix. I especially like the small Dragon Eye drone.

Prairie

[OXENinFLA]

Very cool pix. I especially like the small Dragon Eye drone.

I'm betting they using it in conjunction w/ this to see what they've blowed up.

Wed Nov 10, 2:40 AM ET
US Marines fire at insurgents in Fallujah with a 155mm Howitzer canon. Skirmishes erupted in the centre of Fallujah as US forces fanned out through the streets after seizing one third of the Iraqi city in fighting with rebels.(AFP/Patrick Baz)

[Allegra]

Almighty and eternal God, Protect these soldiers as they discharge their duties. Protect them with the shield of your strength and keep them safe from all evil and harm. May the power of your love enable them to return home in safety, that with all who love them, they may ever praise you for your loving care.

Amen! {{{{{{{{MEG}}}}}}}}

[TexKat]

U.S. Takes 'Half Falluja,' Allawi Cousin Kidnapped

By Michael Georgy and Fadel al-Badrani

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S.-led troops battled through "half of Falluja" on Wednesday, but Muslim militant kidnappers threatened to behead three relatives of Iraq's interim prime minister if he did not call off the offensive.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's 75-year-old cousin Ghazi Allawi, his wife and their son's wife were seized near their home in Baghdad on Tuesday, an Allawi spokesman said.

The previously unknown Ansar al-Jihad group said the hostages would die unless Allawi, "head of the Iraqi agents," halted the Falluja offensive and freed prisoners.

"If the agent government does not meet our demands within 48 hours we will behead them," it said in a statement dated Wednesday and posted on an Islamist Web site.

"This is yet another criminal act by terrorists and will not thwart the determination of the government to combat terrorism," a brief statement from Allawi's office said.

The three were seized a day after Allawi ordered a full-blooded assault by U.S. and Iraqi forces aimed at ridding Falluja of rebels and suspected foreign Islamist fighters to pave the way for nationwide elections planned for January.

Air strikes, artillery shelling and mortar fire shook the Sunni Muslim city during intense clashes interspersed with periods of relative calm, a Reuters reporter in Falluja said.

The military said U.S. and Iraqi forces had "fought their way through half of the city, including the Jolan District, suspected of being the epicenter of insurgent activity."

It said those forces had met light resistance from "small pockets of fighters" on their way through the city.

"We've reached the heart of Jolan," Major Clark Watson told Reuters. "It's too early to say we are controlling it ... because there will always be pockets of resistance."

Helicopters later fired missiles at targets in Jolan before Marine infantry and Iraqi troops moved back in.

"There are still many snipers in buildings in Jolan," Alaa Abboud, an Iraqi soldier just back from the area, told Reuters.

AMERICANS SUFFER 11 DEAD

The U.S. military said 11 American troops and two Iraqis had been killed since 10,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines and 2,000 Iraqi troops launched the offensive on Monday night.

It said the mayor's office had been captured at about 4 a.m. (0100 GMT). Key bridges, civic buildings, mosques and weapons caches had also been seized in the offensive.

The firepower raining down on Falluja is sure to have caused civilian casualties, but no clear figures have emerged since the all-out assault began late on Monday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was "very worried" about the plight of the wounded in Falluja.

An ICRC spokesman said thousands of civilian fugitives from Falluja needed water, food, medical care and shelter. Local people say children have been among those killed.

As the battle for Falluja raged, gunfire and explosions echoed across the northern city of Mosul, but it was not clear who was fighting. The U.S. military, which has said rebel leaders have probably fled Falluja, had no immediate comment.

Gunmen also took to the streets in Baghdad's western district of Ghazaliya, stopping traffic and blocking a bridge. Residents said fierce clashes broke out later.

A U.S. Humvee crashed in Baghdad after a sniper shot at the driver, a Reuters cameraman said. The vehicle rolled on its side. A U.S. military spokesman said he would check the report.

North of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier and wounded another, the military said. A policeman was killed and two wounded in a similar attack near Samarra, police said.

Rebels with grenade launchers stormed a U.S.-built town hall in Muatasim south of Samarra and then dynamited it, police said.

Allawi and his U.S. backers say disgruntled supporters of Saddam's once all-powerful Baath party and militants led by Jordanian al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have turned Falluja into the center of Iraq's bloody insurgency.

But the assault has fueled insecurity among Sunni Arabs, who make up some 20 percent of Iraq's 25 million people, but who wielded disproportionate power under Saddam.

The influential Muslim Clerics' Association urged Iraqis to boycott any elections held "on the remains of the dead and the blood of the wounded from Iraqi cities like Falluja and others." (With reporting by Luke Baker, Lin Noueihed, Aladdin Sa'ad and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad, Sabah al-Bazee in Samarra and Maher al-Thanoon in Mosul)

[WifeMotherDaughterSister]

We've not "met", but I want you to know that you are in my prayers. Stay safe, may sound strange, but I was so relieved to see your post. :)

Prayers to all of ours in harm's way.

[TexKat]

A neighbor looks at a bullet hole in the window of his home across the street from the Allawi family kidnapping scene, caused by stray bullets during the incident, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday Nov. 10, 2004. Two members of Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's family were abducted from their Baghdad home Tuesday evening, his cousin, Ghazi Allawi, and his cousin's daughter-in law. A posting on an Islamic Web site by a group calling itself Ansar al-Jihad group claimed responsibility for kidnapping three of Allawi's relatives, and threatened to behead them in 48 hours if their demands aren't met. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)