Assualt on Falljah underway!

[frigidmagi]

MSN Reports

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - With warplanes pounding the city, U.S. troops fought their way into the western outskirts of Fallujah on Monday, seizing two bridges over the Euphrates River and helping Iraqi soldiers take the city's main hospital in the first stage of a major assault on the insurgent stronghold.

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The U.S. military reported its first casualties of the offensive — two Marines killed when their bulldozer flipped over into the Euphrates River.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told reporters in Baghdad that he had given the go-ahead for the assault.

“I have reached the belief that I have no other choice but to resort to extreme measures to protect the Iraqi people from these killers and to liberate the residents of Fallujah so they can return to their homes,” he told a news conference.

Allawi added that coalition forces had killed 38 men at the hospital and captured four foreigners. "They were stationed in the hospital in order to carry out terrorist actions,” Allawi said.

Overnight, an AC-130 gunship had raked the city with cannon fire as heavy explosions from U.S. artillery continued into Monday morning. Warplanes carried out some two dozen sorties against the city, and four 500-pound bombs were dropped over Fallujah before dawn. Orange fireballs from high explosive airbursts could be seen above the rooftops.

With U.S. forces moving in from the northwest and west sides of the city, commanders said the toughest fight was yet to come: when American forces cross to the east bank of the Euphrates and enter the main part of the city — including the Jolan neighborhood where insurgent defenses are believed the strongest.

Fight to retake city
U.S. and Iraqi commanders have vowed to stamp out Sunni Muslim guerrillas who control Fallujah, part of a campaign to put down insurgents ahead of vital January elections. Marine commanders have warned the assault could bring the heaviest urban fighting since the Vietnam war.

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Nov. 7: Analysts expect the combat will be fierce inside Fallujah. NBC’s Kevin Sites, who is accompanying the U.S. Marines, reports.
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Two Marine brigades and an Army brigade are currently positioned north of the city, the military said Monday.

By noon, Marines fighting their way into the city secured an apartment building in the northwestern corner of the city, said Capt. Brian Heatherman, of the 3rd Battalion 1st Marine Regiment.

“The Marines have now gained a foothold in the city,” said Heatherman, 32, from Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Iraqi commandos take hospital
Several hundred Iraqi troops were sent into Fallujah’s main hospital after U.S. forces sealed off the area. The troops detained about 50 men of military age inside the hospital, but about half were later released.

Many patients were herded into hallways and handcuffed until troops determined whether they were insurgents hiding in the hospital.

• Insurgent strongholds
Where Iraq is out of control

The U.S. military told NBC News that the decision to begin the Fallujah offensive by seizing a hospital using Iraqi forces was made for several reasons:

The facility will be needed to treat coalition casualties.
It was believed the enemy insurgents and foreign fighters would not heavily defend the hospital.
The Iraqi 36th Special Operations Battalion are considered the toughest, most capable and loyal of all Iraqi security forces and inserting them into Fallujah before any American ground troops arrive puts an “Iraqi face” on the entire operation.
A U.S. military official said there are concerns about “inflated civilian casualty figures,” so they wanted friendly forces at the hospital. It's believed the U.S. military will place embedded western journalists at the hospital to verify casualty reports.
In an apparent reference to the Iraqi troops, Fallujah clerics issued a statement Monday calling them the “occupiers’ lash on their fellow countrymen.”

“This statement is our last threat to you. We swear by God that we will stand against you in the streets, we will enter your houses and we will slaughter you just like sheep,” the statement said.

It's going down now. Good Luck men and God bless.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

I'll lock this one.