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Smashing through the narrow residential streets of Falluja is not the textbook way to conduct a counterinsurgency campaign, where winning hearts and minds is even more important than reasserting control over contested territory. American commanders understood that, and for months hoped to avoid the attack that began a week ago. Since then, the military advance has been relentless, while the political reaction in the Sunni Arab community has been highly negative. If Sunni hostility continues to deepen, Falluja could turn into a very costly victory. Many of Falluja's armed insurgents simply dispersed to other predominantly Sunni cities as soon as...

November 14, 2004 By ALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 14 - Foot soldiers combed the smashed and deserted houses in southern Falluja this afternoon after a mechanized unit smashed through the neighborhood, called Shuhada, the day before, routing insurgents in their last major redoubt within the city. In house after house, the searches have turned up large caches of weaponry, like artillery shells and mortar rounds, along with electronics for making bombs and mujahedeen literature. Fearing booby traps, the troops generally entered the houses only after tanks rammed through walls or specialists put explosive charges on doors. As the searches moved southward...

Hundreds of US troops have been diverted from Falluja to Mosul, as violence continues to spread to other areas of Iraq. Cpl. William Johnson, from Philadelphia. After four days of fighting, insurgents are reported to be in control of parts of Mosul, where residents say gunmen are roaming the streets. Meanwhile, in Ramadi, clashes continued between troops and rebels. Lance Cpl. Hector Orrantia. And a US soldier has been killed and three others injured in an attack on a military base near Baghdad. A ban on civilian air traffic over Baghdad has been extended, which closes the airport indefinitely to...

ALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 13 - Army tanks and fighting vehicles blasted their way into the last main rebel stronghold in Falluja at sundown on Saturday after American warplanes and artillery prepared the way with a savage barrage on the district. Earlier in the afternoon, 10 separate plumes of smoke rose from southern Falluja, as if etched against the desert sky, and probably exclaiming catastrophe for the insurgents. "It's a broad attack against the entire southern front," said Col. Michael D. Formica, the Army commander in charge of the cordon effort around the city. "We're just pushing them against an anvil."...

FALLUJAH, Iraq - After nearly a week of intense urban combat, the city of Fallujah is now ``occupied but not subdued,'' and there are no more major concentrations of insurgents still fighting American forces, U.S. military officials said yesterday. Artillery and airstrikes were halted after nightfall to prevent mistaken attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces who had taken up positions throughout the city. Iraqi officials declared the operation to free Fallujah of militants ``accomplished'' but acknowledged the two most wanted figures in the city - Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi - had escaped. U.S. officers...

Baghdad, Nov. 13 - Ten Iranian agents were arrested during a raid on a local mosque in Falluja following attacks by coalition forces. News of the arrests came at a press conference by the heads of the multinational and Iraqi forces in Falluja.

U.S. and Iraqi forces in southern Fallujah came under a burst of bullets and rockets fired by Iraqi resistance fighters Friday night in what commanders described as one of the fiercest battles since the offensive broke out on Monday night. The U.S. is facing tough resistance and starting to loose control over the city unlike previous claims that the U.S. military has managed to control about 80 percent of the city Since the Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi gave orders to start the offensive on Monday, U.S. forces said it has gained control of the city's northern half while driving insurgents...

Central Command news release 04-11-04 illustrates efforts by major news organizations to setup photo ops to show the killing of American soldiers. In this ambush our Marines killed a cameraman who worked for a major news agency. Inspection of the videotape revealed footage of previous attacks on vehicles including use of RPG’s, an IED, and small arms. I copied the news release, will sens it to you next week by FAX if you can leave me a number under comments. As you view news footage, ask yourself whether the pictures were possible unless the insurgents told them the where and...

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Trooping past bodies and abandoned weapons, U.S. Marines blasted their way through walls and hammered open doors yesterday in the hunt for terrorists in Fallujah. As the main offensive pushed into the southern part of the city, Marines scoured a northern district looking for fighters hiding behind the front line. "What we're doing now is killing any that snuck in behind us or we might have missed earlier. And blowing up weapons caches," said 2nd Lt. Adrian Pirvu, 22, of Dearborn, Mich., leading a patrol from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. Explosions began rocking Fallujah...

ALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 12 - The farther south the marines push through this rebellious city, the more often they notice that the men shooting at them are wearing tan uniforms with a smart-looking camouflage pattern that is the color of chocolate chips. Those are the uniforms of the Iraqi National Guard. On Friday, after several hours of nonstop gun battles around a mosque in southern Falluja had killed about 100 insurgents, the marines said that those tan uniforms had cost one of their own his life the day before. It happened in what they first called an ambush, but now...

Get some! http://tv.reuters.com Click on "RAW FOOTAGE Fierce Fighting in Falluja" under the Now Playing section.

This thread honors the service and sacrifice of our Armed Forces, and reminds us of why we here at home can go about our daily business in peace. Street-to-street is the toughest type of warfare. Air cover is being flown by pilots from the USS John F. Kennedy, as well as the U.S. Air Force from bases in the area.

<p>Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld likes to say that U.S. forces will fight battles "at a time and place of our choosing," another way of saying, "seize the initiative." That was the idea behind this week's assault on the insurgent sanctuary of Fallujah. But as intensifying violence around Iraq (news - web sites) showed Thursday, it is not an idea exclusive to the Pentagon (news - web sites)....</p>

Well it is no surprise that 600 have been killed - if indeed that figure is accurate. The marines now are pushing out south of the main road. The insurgents are believed to be confined to a narrow corridor which runs about 2km south of that road. And the technique is literally to insert the ordinary marines - the grunts as they call themselves - wait until they draw fire and then hit back with everything they have got. So you see a fleeting glimpse of one of the militants in the back of a room or jumping across a...

MORE THAN EIGHTEEN MONTHS after it began, Operation Iraqi Freedom may be entering its decisive phase. At last, the battle is being joined in the Sunni heartland. The stronghold of Saddam Hussein's rule was left relatively untouched in the initial invasion, was given a death-bed reprieve last spring, and has been the rallying point for insurgents since the fall of Baghdad. With elections scheduled for January and the Alawi government in Baghdad at risk, the inevitable could no longer be postponed. Thus, the long-awaited "Battle of Falluja" has been joined. But though the fighting in the town of 300,000 is...

"Wellington once observed that "nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won." Nothing about it is nice; but better them than us."   -- T.C. WretchardAs many of Freepers know, there's a very significant battle going on in Fallujah right now. Want a one-stop shop that will help you keep track of media reports so you know what's going on as things develop, and link you to some of the smartest background analysis around so you understand the why and how, as well as the what? OK, you got it. One power-packed briefing, in depth...

FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 11 — U.S.-led forces have gained control of most of Falluja and insurgents are trapped in the southern part of the Iraqi city, Marine officers said on Friday.

THE MARINES Black Flags Are Deadly Signals as Cornered Rebels Fight Back By DEXTER FILKINS FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 11 - The stars began to glimmer through a wan yellow-gray sunset over Falluja on Thursday evening. The floury dust in the air and a skyline of broken minarets and smashed buildings combined for the only genuine postcard image this country has to offer for now. Sitting on a third-story roof, Staff Sgt. Eric Brown, his lip bleeding, peered through the scope of his rifle into the haze. Moments before, a lone bullet had whizzed past his face and smashed a window...

US-led troops involved in fighting against insurgents in the Iraqi city of Falluja have found four imprisoned men believed to be Iraqi hostages. Three of the men were contractors working for the US military, a US marines spokesman said, and the fourth said he was a taxi driver. All of the men had been beaten and starved and were wearing handcuffs. US-led forces say they have rid more than 70% of the city of insurgents in the battle, which began on Tuesday. Troops are now trying to secure the southern districts of the city. The rebels are said to...

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR IS REPORTING THAT A SOVIET "TEST KIT" WITH SARIN SAMPLES WAS FOUND BY IRAQI ARMY PERSONNELL, BUT THAT MORTARS FOUND NEAR IT SHOWED A POSSIBLE INTENT TO WEAPONIZE IT. !!!! BREAKING NEWS: NPR REPORTS SARIN GAS POSSIBLY FOUND IN FALLUJAH. EMBEDDED NPR REPORTER ANN GARRELS REPORTS A MARINE UNIT IN FALLUJAH FOUND WHAT THEY BELEIVED MAY BE SARIN GAS. GO TO    AGAIN, GARRELLS SAYS THAT THE EXPERTS HAVE NOT EXAMINED THE FIND AS OF YET. WE'LL UPDATE ON THIS AS WE HEAR ANYTHING. New rebel tactics emerge in Fallujah. Marines faced a tough fight...