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10-11-2004 Scotsman US tightens grip in Fallujah By Gethin Chamberlain Defence Correspondent THE two marines were pinned down on a roof, pressing themselves against a low, crumbling wall as insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at them from a building near the middle of Fallujah. Commanders called in artillery fire on the building where the grenades were emerging, but the guns only flattened the building next door to the one occupied by the insurgents. "This is crazy," one of the marines said. "Yeah," his friend said, "and we've only taken one house." It was the same across Fallujah - as US and Iraqi forces thrust into the heart of the city, the insurgents fought desperately to hold them at bay. Gradually, though, the US-led forces began to gain the upper hand. By last night, they appeared to have snatched control of the centre, fighting bands of guerrillas in the streets and conducting house-to-house searches, on the second day of the major offensive to retake the Iraqi city from Islamic militants. An estimated 6,000 US troops and 2,000 allied Iraqi soldiers invaded the city from the north on Monday night in a quick, powerful start to an offensive aimed at re-establishing government control ahead of the elections. By noon yesterday, US armoured units had made their way to the road running east-west through the city centre and crossed over into the southern part of Fallujah. Small bands of guerrillas were engaging US troops, then falling back in the face of overwhelming fire from US tanks, 20mm cannons and heavy machine guns. On one road, US troops traded fire with gunmen holed up in a row of houses about 100 yards away. A US gunner on an armoured vehicle let loose with his machine-gun, reducing the upper part of a small building to rubble. Elsewhere, witnesses reported seeing at least two US tanks engulfed in flames. A Kiowa helicopter flying over Fallujah took ground-fire, injuring the pilot, but he managed to return to the US base. The once-constant thunder of artillery barrages was halted as troops moved into the city's narrow streets. US and Iraqi forces surrounded a mosque inside the city that was used as arms depot and insurgent meeting point, and cavalry commander Colonel Michael Formica said a security cordon around the city was being tightened to ensure insurgents dressed in civilian clothing don't slip out. "My concern now is only one - not to allow any enemy to escape. As we tighten the noose around him, he will move to escape to fight another day. I do not want these guys to get out of here. I want them killed or captured as they flee," he said. But at the same time, hundreds of armed insurgents were taking positions in the centre of the town of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, where residents said there was no sign of US troops. Most estimates suggested that the majority of Fallujah's civilian population had fled, but residents said scores of civilians had been killed or wounded during the fighting. Mohammed Abboud said he watched his nine-year-old son bleed to death in their home because he was unable to take him to hospital as fighting raged in the streets. In the midst of a US onslaught and hemmed in by a round-the-clock curfew, he said he had little choice but to bury his eldest son, Ghaith, in the garden. "My son got shrapnel in his stomach when our house was hit at dawn, but we couldn't take him for treatment," said Abboud, a teacher. "We buried him in the garden because it was too dangerous to go out. We did not know how long the fighting would last." Doctors said people brought in at least 15 dead civilians at the main clinic on Monday, but by yesterday there were no clinics open, residents said, and there was no way to count casualties. At least 16 Americans were killed during the first two days of fighting, including at least three killed in Fallujah yesterday, as guerrillas launched a wave of attacks in Baghdad and south-west of Fallujah. The 11 deaths on Monday were the highest single-day US toll in more than six months. Insurgents attacked three police stations in and near the town of Baquba yesterday, but there were conflicting casualty reports. Police initially reported that insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles had killed 25 people in the attacks on the Wahda, Tahrir and Mafraq police stations. Walid Abdul-Salam, the police chief of Diyala province, of which Baquba is the capital, said four policemen and four civilians were wounded in the attacks on police stations. The interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, declared a night-time curfew in Baghdad and its surroundings yesterday - the first curfew in the capital for a year - a day after a string of insurgent attacks in the city killed nine Iraqis and wounded more than 80. But anger over the assault was growing among Iraq's Sunni minority. International concerns also grew, with warnings that the military action could undermine Iraqi elections in late January and the UN refugee agency expressing fears over civilians' safety. An influential group of Iraqi Sunni clerics called for a boycott of the election. The vote is being held "over the corpses of those killed in Fallujah", said Harith al-Dhari, a director of the Association of Muslim Clerics. The assault, however, continued unabated, with Iraqi forces at the forefront of many of the attacks. The Iraqis appeared confident after taking the railway station, but the insurgents were not giving in. "They are all over the place," said an Iraqi officer, as his comrades took cover behind vehicles. "Some of them have been killed. They are lying in the street behind the trains. They have really long beards." Sitting inside the railway station, Iraqi soldiers tucked into US military meals-ready-to-eat beside an Iraqi flag. Others appeared with what they said were six Iraqis, two Egyptians and a Syrian in handcuffs. The men, looking downtrodden and wearing flowing Arab robes, were suspected of "terrorist" activity and ties with the al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant with a dollars 25 million (GBP 13.5 million) US bounty on his head. Asked why they suspected the men, one soldier said: "Do you think these foreigners and Iraqis are living in Fallujah for regular day jobs?" As they were led away, one Iraqi soldier told another that one of the Iraqi prisoners praised Saddam Hussein as he was arrested. "He should be brought over there and just shot," he said, pulling an imaginary trigger.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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