| Large-scale operations to retake Iraqi's rebel-held Fallujah will begin Tuesday, Iraq's Defense Minister Sheikh Hazem Shaalan said after the launch of a major offensive against the city late Monday. "The assault was launched today... Fallujah is completely surrounded and under siege," he told reporters in Baghdad after US and Iraqi forces launched a ground and air attack codenamed Operation Phantom Fury. "Tomorrow is the large-scale operation to retake the city," he added. "We've called it Operation Dawn. God willing, it's going to be a new, happy dawn for the people of Fallujah." He said some insurgents have already started fleeing the rebel city, which has been ringed by thousands of US troops for weeks, and vowed to track them down. "Some of the terrorists have moved to areas southwest of the city and Baghdad," he said. "But our intelligence services are tracking them and we are going to get them and teach them a lesson that they would never forget." He said thousands of leaflets were dropped on Fallujah Monday to tell people how to deal with the Iraqi forces. "We also apologised to the people of Fallujah before the start of the operation and warned them that it was going to start, and we intend to compensate them handsomely for their losses," he said. Shaalan, who accompanied Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on a visit to Iraqi forces camped outside Fallujah, would not say how many Iraqi soldiers were taking part in the operation. However, a defense official in Washington said about 12,000 US and Iraqi forces were taking part in Operation Phantom Fury. Shaalan said there would be more operations against other hotspots in Iraq like the northern city of Mosul where he said some foreign fighters from countries to the west have gathered, without mentioning Syria by name. "We will launch operations in Mosul, because some groupings that came from neighbouring western countries are trying to step up terror operations there." Mosul has seen a rash of car bombings against Iraqi and US forces in recent weeks. |