One party called the Islamic Party, the main Sunni Muslim party in government, has withdrawn in protest at the operation in Falluja. A spokesman said this was the wrong approach, that violence would only beget violence.
...Tens of thousands have already left the city - we spoke to a resident who escaped to the outskirts this morning and spoke of a terrible situation there with bodies littering the streets in some areas and water and electricity being cut.
The US soldiers have been gearing up for this for a long time. They seem almost excited to be getting there - some were preparing by listening to heavy metal music and one soldier told me it made it seem a bit more like a video game.
I don't think this will be an easy job but it's in the forces' best interests to get this over with. They don't want to alienate the population. However, they have been using homes as shelters and the only way they can do this is to use heavy weaponry, and this means destroying buildings.
...It's a tricky situation because the fight is active and they will return punishing fire if they are being fired upon. This must be a very terrifying situation for civilians caught nearby.
Must be, Jen. Gosh. Jennifer doesn't think this will be an easy job. Wow. What a remarkably astute analysis. More non-reality-based reporting. Apparently these reporters have never been outside coalition forces' influence. And, in that case, it's safe to say the U.S. forces themselves may be in denial about the alienation of the population. Done deal, dudes.
The first shockwaves from the assault on Falluja have struck Baquba - another city in the Sunni triangle, where police stations have been targeted by guerrilla fighters.
There are reports of a number of police officers being killed or wounded by insurgents, attacking police stations with gunfire and rocket propelled grenades.
Also in Kirkuk, a suicide bomber blew up his car at a National Guard base in the city.
But with no independent reporters in Falluja it's hard to know the truth of what exactly the picture is there.
...The battalion I'm with went in to the city 12 hours ago and has managed to get a kilometre into the city. That shows every street, almost every house, is being contested.
...Meanwhile the marines say they have reached one of their first objectives - the largest mosque in Falluja.
They say this is used as a meeting place for leaders of the insurgency. They claim it is heavily fortified and an arms cache and that people who work with the coalition, and are caught by the insurgents, are taken there and killed.
They're now wondering if they'll find bodies when they go in.
...We just felt a shock wave through us as what we believe was a few thousand pound bomb was dropped on targets on the perimeter of the city.
We're getting chat coming back over the radio that there is resistance. Put simply, when it shows itself they blow it away it's a simple as that.
The US are going in with overwhelming force. They are going in very quickly. They are going in with assets that the insurgents can't command.
But they do have a healthy respect for their opposition. The company commander here called them "plenty mean and plenty tough".
But he added that they were about to encounter a level of violence they couldn't imagine.
A smattering of specially trained Iraqi forces accompanied the marines, while many more were poised on the outskirts of the city, preparing to enter.
...Doctors inside the besieged city painted a grim picture amid a chronic lack of medical equipment, trained staff, water and electricity.
That's a bit different story than other reports which say the Iraqis are in force ahead of the U.S. soldiers to make this an Iraqi-led operation. It does confirm other reports that they are going house-to-house knocking down walls and firing. How's that work for the civilians under curfew who have been forced to stay huddled in their homes? Not so good, I'd guess. House-to-house destruction is exactly what they promised the Fallujans, and is not quite what they have presented to the rest of us gullible dupes.
Source (ABC)
"There is not a single surgeon in Falluja. We had one ambulance hit by US fire and a doctor wounded," he told Reuters. "There are scores of injured civilians in their homes whom we can't move. A 13-year-old child just died in my hands."
...Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, said victory in Falluja would not end the insurgency. "These folks are determined. These are killers. They chop people's heads," Mr Rumsfeld said.
You may comment on that yourelf.
Source (Guardian)
Some of that missing ammo accounted for.
However, the US military has denied that any of its helicopters have been shot down.
No, of course not.
Liberated. That could be annihilated. It certainly can't mean liberated. The city is still under seige and experiencing fierce fighting. One neighborhood can be "liberated"? Nice try, but no cigar.
Take out the hospitals, then the clinics. Good tactic.
"There aren't going to be large numbers of civilians killed, certainly not by US forces," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon news conference, adding that no one knew how many civilians remained in the city.
There. It's as simple as that. Derr Rumsfiend hath spoken. As for the civilians who do remain in Falluja...
"There is no confusion, if you're on the street, you're a bad guy. Ninety per cent of the civilian population has left," said the official.
That would leave about 30,000 civilians still in the city, which at its peak had a population of between 250,000 and 350,000 people.
It seems that the demand for Falluja to throw out the "insurgents" and "bad guys" has worked in reverse, eh?
...Iraq's official Sunni Muslim political party has threatened to quit the US-backed government unless the attack is halted, a spokesman said today.
...Iraq's Defence Minister Sheikh Hazem Shaalan warns that worse is to follow...
"Tomorrow is the large-scale operation to retake the city," he said.
"We've called it Operation Dawn. God willing, it's going to be a new, happy dawn for the people of Falluja."
God. What freaks. I can't even imagine when the people of Falluja will experience another happy dawn.
U.S. forces
The resistance, known to Western reporters as "insurgents".
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