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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Fallujah Battle: AC-130s, suicide bombers, etc. |
| 2004-04-08 |
| EFL. 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 to die this week in Fallujah, where U.S. commanders have vowed to root out insurgents who have put up stiff resistance. Fallujah’s hospital reported more than 280 Iraqi dead since the siege began Monday morning. "The mission is going particularly well. We made inroads into the city and we are driving the enemy resistance back," said Marine Lt. Col. Greg Olsen. "We’re winning every firefight." Sounds Good. The Marines have said they hold about a quarter of the city, one of the bastions of the Sunni-led insurgency that has plagued U.S. forces across central and northern Iraq (news - web sites) for months. But militants in the city showed equal confidence. "They can’t get in. We challenge them to enter," a guerrilla commander from inside the city told the Al-Jazeera TV network in a phone interview. And then his lips . . . you know. The commander, identified only as Abu Hafs, said he belonged to a group called the "Mujahedeen of the Victorious Sect," which includes non-Iraqi Islamic militants. "Morale is high for mujahedeen, and for the civilians," he said. . . . One officer said Marines encountered insurgents wearing suicide belts for the first time in the Fallujah campaign. Two Iraqis killed by Marines were found with belts bearing plastic explosives and metal for shrapnel. A raid on a weapons cache in a house also uncovered suicide belts. It was a disturbing sign because suicide tactics had not been seen before in Fallujah. Marines fought through the morning to recapture the Abdel-Aziz al-Samarrawi mosque, which they said had been cleared of gunmen a day earlier. After hours of fighting, with helicopters firing from overhead, tanks moved in around the neighborhood and Marines seized the mosque, witnesses said. Gunmen moved back into the area after a six-hour fight Wednesday, during which a helicopter hit the mosque’s minaret with a missile and a warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb on the mosque’s wall to allow Marines to flood inside. . . . In a sign of widespread anger over the siege of the city of 200,000 people — particularly the fighting around mosques — Muhammed Hassam al-Balwa resigned as president of the U.S.-appointed Fallujah city council. He told an AP reporter that the resignation was to protest "the killing of innocents in Fallujah and the striking of mosques." |
| Posted by:sludj |