skunk
Nov 13, 2004, 06:15 AM
http://nytimes.com/2004/11/13/international/middleeast/13iraq.html?hp&ex=1100408400&en=9553e430c442567f&ei=5094&partner=homepage
U.S. Troops Set for Final Attack on Falluja Force
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 12 - American forces moved into position on Friday for a decisive battle with bands of insurgents, pounding some of their remaining strongholds with airstrikes and repelling attempts by some fighters to shoot their way out through the desert countryside south of the city.
But other fighters, among the most resilient the Americans have encountered in five days of battle, seemed resigned to making a last stand in Falluja's southern residential neighborhoods.
"Right now they've got no place to go," said Col. Craig Tucker, commander of a regimental combat team encompassing several battalions of American troops. "I think they've come here to die."
Twenty-two American servicemen have been killed and 170 wounded in Falluja since the invasion began on Monday evening, said Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the top Marine commander in Iraq. Of the Iraqi forces, 5 have been killed and 40 wounded, Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassim, an Iraqi commander, said.
An audio recording posted Friday on the Internet and attributed to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist who has become the Americans' enemy No. 1 in Iraq, praised the efforts of the jihadists in Iraq and said the blood spilled in Falluja "will light the way to God's victory."
"I call for the heroes of Islam in Falluja to endure just for a short time," he said, "and victory will come soon. I want you to remember our Prophet Muhammad when he fought in the past."
In the north, Mosul remained restive on Friday as the government deployed national guardsmen from outside the area to fill a security vacuum after hundreds of Iraqi policemen fled Thursday in the face of a guerrilla uprising.
The police chief of Mosul was fired, another senior Iraqi security officer was assassinated and the top American commander in the region said the loyalty and reliability of the city's entire 4,000- to 5,000-member police force was now suspect.
On Friday morning, Al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite television network, showed a videotape of a Lebanese-American hostage who had been kidnapped earlier. Reuters also reported that a Syrian driver who had been kidnapped in August with two French journalists, Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, had turned up in Falluja. No further details were available.
One prominent member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said the increasing mayhem raised questions about whether the United States could win the fight against a wider insurgency, whatever the outcome in Falluja.
"The insurgency is not abating," the member, Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who is a former officer in the 82nd Airborne Division, said in a telephone interview with reporters after he visited American forces in Iraq on Friday. "In some respects, it's becoming more pronounced in many parts of the country - not all parts of the country, but many parts of the country. It's hard to determine whether that's the last gasp or continued building momentum."
On Thursday, insurgents overran at least a half-dozen police stations in Mosul, set fire to squad cars and made off with weapons.
The crisis in Mosul has raised serious doubts about the ability of Iraqi security forces to take over policing duties anytime soon from the more than 140,000 American troops here.
"There is a struggle going on," Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, the commander charged with controlling the north, said in a telephone interview from his headquarters in Mosul. "I don't want to kid you and tell you that every neighborhood is one you can walk down the middle of," he said. "There are some very dangerous neighborhoods. It's not over."
This is insane. Completely insane. How could ANYBODY think that this Grozny-style assault on a city full of civilians is going to achieve ANYTHING other than provoking further conflict, hatred, resistance and slaughter?
U.S. Troops Set for Final Attack on Falluja Force
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 12 - American forces moved into position on Friday for a decisive battle with bands of insurgents, pounding some of their remaining strongholds with airstrikes and repelling attempts by some fighters to shoot their way out through the desert countryside south of the city.
But other fighters, among the most resilient the Americans have encountered in five days of battle, seemed resigned to making a last stand in Falluja's southern residential neighborhoods.
"Right now they've got no place to go," said Col. Craig Tucker, commander of a regimental combat team encompassing several battalions of American troops. "I think they've come here to die."
Twenty-two American servicemen have been killed and 170 wounded in Falluja since the invasion began on Monday evening, said Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the top Marine commander in Iraq. Of the Iraqi forces, 5 have been killed and 40 wounded, Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassim, an Iraqi commander, said.
An audio recording posted Friday on the Internet and attributed to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist who has become the Americans' enemy No. 1 in Iraq, praised the efforts of the jihadists in Iraq and said the blood spilled in Falluja "will light the way to God's victory."
"I call for the heroes of Islam in Falluja to endure just for a short time," he said, "and victory will come soon. I want you to remember our Prophet Muhammad when he fought in the past."
In the north, Mosul remained restive on Friday as the government deployed national guardsmen from outside the area to fill a security vacuum after hundreds of Iraqi policemen fled Thursday in the face of a guerrilla uprising.
The police chief of Mosul was fired, another senior Iraqi security officer was assassinated and the top American commander in the region said the loyalty and reliability of the city's entire 4,000- to 5,000-member police force was now suspect.
On Friday morning, Al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite television network, showed a videotape of a Lebanese-American hostage who had been kidnapped earlier. Reuters also reported that a Syrian driver who had been kidnapped in August with two French journalists, Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, had turned up in Falluja. No further details were available.
One prominent member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said the increasing mayhem raised questions about whether the United States could win the fight against a wider insurgency, whatever the outcome in Falluja.
"The insurgency is not abating," the member, Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who is a former officer in the 82nd Airborne Division, said in a telephone interview with reporters after he visited American forces in Iraq on Friday. "In some respects, it's becoming more pronounced in many parts of the country - not all parts of the country, but many parts of the country. It's hard to determine whether that's the last gasp or continued building momentum."
On Thursday, insurgents overran at least a half-dozen police stations in Mosul, set fire to squad cars and made off with weapons.
The crisis in Mosul has raised serious doubts about the ability of Iraqi security forces to take over policing duties anytime soon from the more than 140,000 American troops here.
"There is a struggle going on," Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, the commander charged with controlling the north, said in a telephone interview from his headquarters in Mosul. "I don't want to kid you and tell you that every neighborhood is one you can walk down the middle of," he said. "There are some very dangerous neighborhoods. It's not over."
This is insane. Completely insane. How could ANYBODY think that this Grozny-style assault on a city full of civilians is going to achieve ANYTHING other than provoking further conflict, hatred, resistance and slaughter?
