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Falluja truce has 'weakened resistance' Sunday 25 April 2004, 16:20 Makka Time, 13:20 GMT Resistance fighters are believed trapped inside the town The ceasefire brokered by Iraqi mediators in the Iraqi city of Falluja appears to have weakened the fighters battling US marines while also creating divisions within the Sunni Muslim community. The fighters have been trapped by the US siege in the flashpoint city west of Baghdad for the past three weeks, after having initially succeeded in winning national support for their cause. "The city has been completely surrounded for the past 10 days and the fighters are trapped...

CAMP FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Marines killed around 30 Iraqi insurgents overnight in a firefight near the flashpoint town of Falluja, Colonel John Coleman said on Saturday.   Marines spotted a small group of armed men, one with a mortar, and shot at them near a small village on the banks of the Euphrates, he said at the U.S. base of Camp Falluja, just outside the town. The insurgents were joined by about 30 others and the Marines called in air support, Coleman, the chief of staff of the Marine Expeditionary Force, told reporters. He said all the...

  Cease-Fire Agreement Reached In Fallujah; 13 U.S. troops Killed In Iraq By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 19, 2004 – U.S., coalition and Iraqi officials have agreed "to implement a full and unbroken cease-fire" in the city of Fallujah, chief Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor said today in Baghdad. The agreement, Senor told reporters at a press briefing, was reached over a series of meetings over the past several days. The cease-fire agreement, he noted, features several points: Coalition forces will allow "unfettered" access to Fallujah General Hospital for treatment of sick and injured....

<p>BAGHDAD — U.S. military commanders, frustrated by a weeklong truce and talks aimed at ending hostilities in Fallujah, say the pause in offensive operations is giving insurgents a chance to reorganize and rearm, military officers say.</p> <p>"There is a sense of frustration across the board," said a high-ranking military officer who asked not to be identified. If fighting starts again, Marines say they fear they will face a stronger enemy. "You fight them now or you fight them later," the officer said.</p>

 Clean socks a boon to infantry in FallujahSubmitted by: 1st Marine DivisionStory Identification Number: 200441645438Story by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen FALLUJAH, Iraq (April 14, 2004) -- The gruff bark from the platoon sergeant was music to the ears of the infantrymen of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. "Your dog-gone packs are here, now lets get a working party going," said Gunnery Sgt. James E. Dinwoodie, platoon sergeant for Weapons Platoon, Company E. After days of gunfire, sweat and grime, there's something to be said for the luxury of changing into clean socks, shirts and skivvies. Simple pleasures...

 "Cheaters of death" assist Marines wounded in Fallujah turmoilSubmitted by: I Marine Expeditionary ForceStory Identification Number: 200441511724Story by Gunnery Sgt. Claudia LaMantia and 1st Lt. Sarah Kansteiner CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (April 15, 2004) -- "You're going to be all right. We're going to take care of you." These were the consoling words echoed repeatedly as the sailors of Bravo Surgical Company, 1st Medical Battalion, 1st Force Service Support Group tended to wounded Marines from Operation Vigilant Resolve April 5. The sailors, poised on the outskirts of the restive town of Fallujah, are providing "good medicine in a bad place."...

THE guns finally fell silent over Fallujah yesterday, leaving the men of the US Army’s psychological warfare team with one overriding concern: where was “Fallujah Frank”? The “psy-ops” soldiers spend their days blasting the guerrillas with heavy metal music and taunting the gunmen into exposing themselves to American snipers. But three days ago they suddenly heard an echo. An Iraqi was driving around with a loudspeaker inside the besieged city haranguing rebels in their own stronghold. Fallujah Frank had made his dangerous debut. “There’s a Fallujah citizen — we call him Fallujah Frank — who’s addressing the Mujahidin or whoever’s...

<p>These are not really dark times. Rather I think in some ways they are among the finest in our history. No other country would or could send its youth 7,000 miles away to end fascism, implement consensual government, and adhere to its principled mission amid cynicism, cheap caricature, and increasing danger.</p>

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces have detained around 200 Iraqi paramilitary soldiers who refused to take part in a U.S. offensive against the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja, their former comrades said Friday. The U.S. military declined to confirm whether the men were being held. Senior officers play down the significance of such incidents but, asked about reports of mutiny among Iraqi troops, have acknowledged a "command failure" took place during the Falluja offensive. Soldiers from the Baghdad-based 36th Security Brigade, part of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC), told Reuters that last week U.S. commanders took them at night...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- On a rooftop overlooking Fallujah's industrial wasteland, Lance Cpl. Tom Browne pokes his machine gun muzzle out of a hole in a barrier wall, singing to himself to pass the time. In the street below, the corpse of an insurgent suspect lies baking in the sun. Browne, from Boston, says he has killed several rebels, probably Iraqis, so far. "I don't even think about those people as people," he says. It wasn't supposed to be this way. The band of Marines in this insurgent stronghold received two big orders this year. They were told to...

Geopolitical Diary: Thursday, April 15, 2004 April 15, 2004 0615 GMT A significant portion of the current crisis in Iraq moved much closer to resolution today. Muqtada al-Sadr shifted his position as U.S. forces moved to jumping-off points for an attack on An Najaf. Al-Sadr was under pressure from two directions. Obviously, the prospect of being attacked by the United States was daunting, but the offer for a truce would not have come if Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had not finally intervened. Whether this was preplanned or whether al-Sistani used al-Sadr for his own ends remains unclear to us. In...

The radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr seemed to be ready yesterday to negotiate his way out of a worsening standoff with the US forces. As 2,500 American soldiers massed on the outskirts of the holy city of Najaf, Mr Sadr's representatives suggested that he was ready to make a deal with the US authorities, less than two weeks after he began the violent uprising in the south. In Najaf a senior aide said Mr Sadr had dropped his earlier conditions for talks, which included the permanent withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq's holy Shia cities and the release of...

<p>BAGHDAD -- Shi'ite cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr agreed yesterday to unconditional talks over his standoff with American forces that threatens to spark open warfare against the U.S.-led coalition in both southern Iraq and much of Baghdad.</p> <p>Separately, kidnappings of Westerners sparked by the recent fighting in the Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah took an ugly turn when Al Jazeera television announced that it has video footage of a hostage being executed. The hostage was one of four Italians working for a U.S. security firm. Al Jazeera said it would not broadcast the film.</p>

By JASON KEYSER and LOURDES NAVARRO, Associated Press Writers FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. warplanes and helicopters hammered gunmen Wednesday, straining a truce in besieged Fallujah. With more troops killed, April became the deadliest month for American forces since they set foot in Iraq.To the south, a 2,500-strong U.S. force massed on the outskirts of the holy city of Najaf for a showdown with a radical cleric, raising fears of a U.S. attack that would outrage the nation's relatively pro-U.S. Shiite majority. Russia said it would evacuate hundreds of its workers from Iraq after an outbreak kidnappings in which at least...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom - 4/14/4 - Baghdad, Fallujah, Najaf BREAKING: Baghdad - Hazem al-Aaraji grabbed, then released BREAKING: Fallujah BEHIND ENEMY LINES BREAKING: Fallujah PROOF OF PRECISE ACCURATE TARGETING BREAKING: Fallujah Successful raids and seizures BREAKING: Najaf - al-Sadr and his Mahdi army badge BREAKING: Tehran IRAN AT WAR WITH THE US QFN ==== QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS Exclusive to FReerepublic PICTURES YOU MAY NEVER SEE IN THE GENERAL MEDIA ========= Fallujah ========= BREAKING: In Fallujah, Marine heroes successfully raid and seize several weapon caches and tools used to make explosive devices AND the terrorists. BREAKING: PROOF...

USS George Washington’s Hornets Support Vigilant ResolveStory Number: NNS040412-04Release Date: 4/12/2004 12:39:00 PMFrom Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet Public AffairsMANAMA, Bahrain (NNS) -- F/A-18 Hornets from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7, flying from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) in the Arabian Gulf, participated in Operation Vigilant Resolve in April. April 8, one of the Naval Air Station Oceana-based “Wildcats” from Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 131 conducted a 20mm strafing run against an enemy position. Another VFA-131 Hornet dropped two 500-pound GBU-12 laser-guided bombs on another enemy position in Fallujah, Iraq, April...

AT LEAST 700 Iraqi fighters and 70 United States-led coalition soldiers have been killed in clashes this month, the US military said yesterday, confirming it to be the bloodiest period since the end of the war. The final toll could be much higher, with US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt admitting the lack of reliable figures for civilian casualties. The deaths of four more US soldiers were announced yesterday. Three marines were killed "as a result of enemy action" on Sunday in Anbar province, which stretches from west of Baghdad. A soldier was killed and four hurt when their patrol...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - American troops killed hundreds of insurgents in and around Baghdad in fighting over the past week, but have more work to do to fully secure the city and roads to the south and west that are vital for U.S. supply transport, a top U.S. military official said Monday. In the heaviest battles seen in the capital since the fall of Saddam Hussein a year ago, U.S. troops battled Sunni insurgents on the western edge of Baghdad - at one point for nearly 72 hours straight - and fought rebellious Shiite militiamen in a densely populated neighborhood...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 4/12/04 - Abu Ghraib, Fallujah, Mosul BREAKING: Abu Gharib - military convoy attacked BREAKING: Fallujah - Terrorists DO NOT respect truce (again) BREAKING: Kerbala, Kirkuk, Mosul QFN ==== QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS Exclusive to FReerepublic PICTURES YOU MAY NEVER SEE IN THE GENERAL MEDIA =========== Baghdad =========== In Baghdad, American heroes with weapons hot, near the Adhamiya police station. In Baghdad, convoy terrorist attack on US army oil tankers by rocket-propelled grenades. Where was the instant retaliation? Much too later. U.S Army vehicle attacked on Baghdad's highway, April 10, 2004. In Baghdad, an Army...

600 dead in besieged Iraqi city - but marine commander claims victims mostly insurgentsThe United States last night robustly defended its controversial siege of Falluja which has cost the lives of more than 600 people over the past week, by claiming most of those who died were militants picked off with precision by US marines. As a tense ceasefire held in the turbulent city west of Baghdad and an international hostage crisis persisted across Iraq, the US marine commander in charge of the siege of Falluja claimed 95% of those killed were legitimate targets. The death toll in Falluja has...

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Hundreds of reinforcements joined Marines besieging Fallujah on Saturday, and the military said it would move to take the entire city if negotiations fail. Fighting raged through the center of the country, killing 40 Iraqis and an American airman. Gunfire crackled in Fallujah even as Iraqi government negotiators met with city leaders, trying to persuade them to hand over militants who killed and mutilated four Americans in the city March 31. Nearly 60,000 Fallujah residents — about a third of the population — have streamed out of the city over the past two days, a Marine commander...

Press Release Source: White House Press Office Radio Address of President Bush to the NationSaturday April 10, 10:07 am ET WASHINGTON, April 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a transcript of a radio address by President Bush to the nation: THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week in Iraq, our coalition forces have faced challenges, and taken the fight to the enemy. And our offensive will continue in the weeks ahead. As the June 30th date for Iraqi sovereignty draws near, a small faction is attempting to derail Iraqi democracy and seize power. In some cities, Saddam supporters and terrorists have...

Another cease fire.

 MAG-16 repositions forces to support Vigilant ResolveSubmitted by: 3d Marine Aircraft WingStory Identification Number: 20044993633Story by Sgt. Nathan K. LaForte AL TAQADDUM AIR BASE, Iraq(April 9, 2004) -- Marine Aircraft Group 16 recently moved elements of its Marine Light Attack Squadron 167 in support of Operation Vigilant Resolve, which began early this month. The move occurred April 5-6, and flight operations for the squadron kicked off as soon as boots and skids were on the deck. A small contingent of aviation maintenance Marines, aircrews and helicopters was sent to the Sunni Triangle area to bolster forces already in place...

FALLUJAH, Iraq ---- American tanks blasted their way through the streets, and jets pounded neighborhoods with 500-pound bombs in Fallujah on Thursday as Marines continued for a fourth day fighting Iraqi insurgents who have made a determined stand in the city. Insurgents fought back with mortars and rockets that narrowly missed U.S. positions. They also deployed snipers with scopes and high-powered rifles that had Marines keeping their heads down all day and sometimes pinned them down. Troops in the fight say they have a green light for such heavy firepower because most residents have evacuated the area and because the...

Members of Iraq's US-appointed governing council have condemned the US military operation in Falluja after four days of bitter fighting. One member described the operation as "genocide" after doctors in the Sunni Muslim city of 300,000 reported 450 deaths and 1,000 injured this week. The fugitive leader of the country's parallel Shia unrest has demanded the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The US has declared a truce in Falluja but fighting continued as night fell. We went into pause but the enemy kept attacking us on the western side of the city - Maj Pete Farnum, US marine officer Late...

Fallujah — U.S. marines briefly halted offensive operations in Fallujah on Friday, but the suspension ended after only an hour and a half, a marine commander said, apparently after negotiations with a city delegation fell through. Lieutenant-Colonel Brennan Byrne said his forces, the 1st Battalion 5th Marine Regiment, were given the go-ahead to resume offensive operations. The halt was called at noon to allow a delegation from the city to meet with U.S. commanders, let humanitarian aid into the city and give city residents a chance to tend to their dead. Col. Byrne did not know why the suspension was...

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - Splits grew between Iraqi leaders and the U.S. administrators who picked them, as a senior politician met Friday with a radical Shiite cleric and announced he was suspending his membership in the Iraqi Governing Council. Another council member threatened to quit over the Marines' bloody siege of Fallujah. The Fallujah assault was halted Friday on request of the council to allow for talks on reducing the violence, U.S. coalition spokesman Dan Senor said. But a top commander, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, insisted the talks "are not negotiations." Several of the council's...

WASHINGTON (AP) - As a week of mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq drew to a close, the Bush administration pledged Friday to take the fight to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and other Iraqi resisters. "We're worried, but I am not panicked about it," said Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage of the upsurge in resistance to U.S. occupation. "They've chosen to fight," Armitage told the semiofficial Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram. "We'll fight. And they will see that we understand strength as well." The cleric's militia has been in battle with U.S. and other coalition forces this week. Armitage dismissed the al-Sadr...

WASHINGTON - With each new battle in Iraq (news - web sites), two things are tallied: The enemy killed and the enemy created. That observation by retired CIA (news - web sites) operations officer Milt Bearden highlights one of the U.S. military's worst dilemmas: as it fights street by street to crush an insurgency, it is causing resentment among the very Iraqis whose hearts and minds it hopes to win. This week's siege on the city of Fallujah to capture suspects in the deaths and mutilations of civilian U.S. contractors brought condemnation even from one of the most pro-American members...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - US forces pressed their drive against insurgents in the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah after trying to suspend the operation and allow talks on bringing relief supplies to the battered city. Amid conflicting reports on the state of the offensive from the coalition's Baghdad headquarters and its field commander, US marines prepared to advance on a residential area for possible house-to-house fighting. Intelligence reports said Friday that insurgent snipers were taking positions in mosque minarets in the town west of Baghdad where hundreds have been killed in six days of fighting. "It's going to get worse...

LANDSTUHL, Germany - The hills of southwestern Germany, lush with fir trees and red-tiled houses, are thousands of miles from the theater of war. But for American troops wounded in Iraq, Landstuhl is a first stop on the long road to recovery. Wards at the U.S. military hospital here also offer rare and fresh details about battles in Iraq, as American troops face the most serious challenge to the U.S. occupation since the fall of Saddam Hussein one year ago. Stretched out on hospital beds, the grime of war still visible on their bodies, soldiers and Marines described their battles...

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - At least 450 Iraqis were killed and more than 1,000 wounded in fighting in the city of Falluja this week, the director of the main hospital, Rafi Hayad, told Reuters U.S. Marines launched a major mission last weekend to confront guerrillas in the town. The U.S. military said on Friday it had agreed a temporary suspension of offensive operations in Falluja.

<p>April 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S.-led forces in Iraq plan to maintain a halt in their offensive against the town of Fallujah in the heart of the ``Sunni Triangle'' where resistance to coalition forces is specially fierce, after reports the truce had failed after 90 minutes, Cable News Network said.</p>

There is confusion over the status of a ceasefire called by US troops besieging the Iraqi town of Falluja. The suspension of hostilities was declared in an effort to open talks with local insurgents. The move came on the fifth day of a battle for control of the Sunni town that has left up to 300 Iraqis dead. A US commander on the ground said fighting had resumed after talks fell through, but a US general said the suspension was still in place. One year to the day after the fall of Saddam Hussein, fierce battles are continuing further south...

Both BBC and Sky reporting that offensive operations are resuming in Fallujah

<p>FALLUJAH, Iraq — U.S. forces killed dozens of insurgents and seized three suicide explosive belts during heavy fighting in this Sunni Muslim city yesterday, while preparations for a religious festival complicated plans to retake southern cities held by followers of radical Shi'ite cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr.</p>

<p>It's no Mogadishu, it's no Tet -- in fact, the ugly, baiting murders in Fallujah and Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr's made-for-TV rebellion may be an extraordinary opportunity for the United States and Iraqi democrats, if the military operations and politics are handled with finesse.</p>

Fighting in Iraq escalated today as Shiite Muslims took control of parts of three cities and insurgents kidnapped foreigners from Japan, South Korea and Jerusalem. A U.S. Marine was killed in a battle to control Fallujah, while followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took full control of the city of Kut and held part of Najaf, the Associated Press reported. Insurgents also controlled part of the town of Kufa, residents said. Captors who hold Japanese hostages were shown on Al-Jazeera TV with rifles and swords, threatening to "burn them alive" if Tokyo did not remove its troops from Iraq. The...

Marines Fight Insurgents in Fallujah 38 minutes ago By ABDUL-QADER SAADI, Associated Press Writer FALLUJAH, Iraq - Marines backed by tanks and helicopters battled Sunni insurgents around Fallujah Thursday, trading fire from the minaret of a mosque and peppering the outskirts of the city with mortar rounds. Thousands of Iraqis traveled 30 miles from Baghdad to deliver supplies and medicine to the besieged city. For the second time in the four-day battle for Fallujah, U.S. forces called in one of their most devastating weapons — an AC-130 gunship that laid down heavy fire. One Marine was killed Thursday, the fourth...

Marines Prepared, Trained for Iraq Mission, Says Commander By Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 8, 2004 -- Although the rules of engagement specifically identify mosques as protected structures, Iraqi insurgents forfeited that protection when they used a mosque in central Fallujah, Iraq, April 7 to launch attacks on U.S. forces, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade told reporters at Camp Pendleton, Calif., today. Marine Maj. Gen. Keith Stalder said that when a platoon-size group of enemy forces occupied the mosque and the grounds immediately surrounding it and fired on Marines, that mosque lost the...

US vows to wipe out cleric's army Baghdad | April 08, 2004 6:02:40 PM IST The US military in Iraq has vowed to "destroy" the militia which backs a radical Shia cleric responsible for much of the latest wave of violence. US-led forces are already conducting operations against Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army, said a US military spokesman. More than 100 Iraqis have died in three days of clashes in areas to the west and south of the capital, Baghdad. About 20 coalition troops have also been killed, including 12 US marines in a single attack in the town of Ramadi....

FALLUJAH, Iraq ---- As the sun set on Fallujah Wednesday, Cobra gunships swooped over the heads of Marines, firing rockets into buildings where U.S. troops have been battling insurgents for days. Troops cheered the helicopter attack, which could have signaled progress against a stubborn enemy that had so far limited the Marines' advance into the heart of the city. In a third day of fighting Wednesday, at least three Marines were wounded, one seriously from a shrapnel wound to his head. Marines reported killing dozens of insurgents during the long night as tanks and AC-130 Specter gunships blasted away with...

US: Fierce Falluja fighting recalls Vietnam Thursday 08 April 2004, 22:57 Makka Time, 19:57 GMT Occupation forces are only advancing slowly in Falluja Ten Iraqi resistance fighters and two occupation soldiers were reported killed on Thursday as US marines met ferocious resistance in the besieged western Iraqi town of Falluja several days into their offensive. The tough fight put up by insurgents in Falluja, west of Baghdad, prompted the marine commander to make comparisons with the Vietnam War. As the day drew to a close, sniper fire and mortars were being fired around the main marine compound in the industrial...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Thousands of Iraqi sympathisers, both Sunni and Shiite Muslim, forced their way through US military roadblocks in a bid to bring aid from the capital to the besieged Sunni rebel bastion of Fallujah. Troops in armoured vehicles attempted to stop the convoy of cars and pedestrians from reaching the western town where US marines have met ferocious resistance in a two-day-old offensive against the insurgents. But the US contingents were overwhelmed as residents of villages west of the capital came to the convoy's assistance, hurling insults and stones at the beleaguered troops. Some 20 kilometers (12 miles)...

Things have been busy here. You know I can't say much about it. However, I do know two things. One, POTUS has given us the green light to do whatever we needed to do to win this thing so we have that going for us. Two, and my opinion only, this battle is going to have far reaching effects on not only the war here in Iraq but in the overall war on terrorism. We have to be very precise in our application of combat power. We cannot kill a lot of innocent folks (though they are few and far...

Coalition Working to Pacify Fallujah, Destroy Sadr Militia By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 8, 2004 – Coalition forces are working to pacify Fallujah and other parts the Sunni Triangle area, and they are destroying the militia led by Muqtada al-Sadr in the central and southern areas of Iraq, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq said today. Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 7, said during a briefing from Baghdad that the coalition will not allow thugs, extremists and terrorists to stop the transition to Iraqi sovereignty or to try...

BAGHDAD – Until now, the US-led coalition plan for securing transitional Iraq had hinged on training new Iraqi forces. The coalition says it has 70,000 Iraqi police officers and 20,000 members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps equipped and on duty. In February, Gen. Martin Dempsey, who is in charge of coalition troops in Baghdad, decided that Iraqis were ready to take over some security operations in the city. He began moving US troops from forward positions in Baghdad to bases on the outskirts of the city. But reports are coming in from around the country that Iraqi security forces...

Arabs of the Palestinian Authority were out in the hundreds to condemn the United States and express support for the "resistance" in the wake of an ongoing American counter-terrorism offensive in Iraq. Dozens of Iraqis have died in US and coalition operations in several Iraqi cities. The protests took place in PA-controlled areas of Gaza, Judea and Samaria throughout the day yesterday. There were denouncements of American "massacres", "random killings" and "war crimes" in Iraq and expressions of support for the "steadfastness" of the Iraqi people under what was called American occupation. In Ramallah, locale of PLO leader Yasser Arafat's...

MORE than 280 Iraqis have been killed and 400 wounded this week in the US Marines' siege against insurgents in Fallujah, the director of city's hospital said today. Spokesman Taher Al-Issawi said that the toll was likely higher. "We also know of dead and wounded in various places buried under rubble, but we cannot reach them," because of fighting, he said. The US assault on Fallujah began on Monday, when Marines surrounded the city of 200,000 people. Since then, US forces have been waging heavy street battles, using warplanes and tanks against Sunni insurgents dug in heavily-populated neighbourhoods.