US claims to have killed 600 rebels in battle for Fallujah
American and Iraqi troops, backed by warplanes and artillery, were today squeezing Sunni fighters into a smaller and smaller corner in Fallujah where about 600 rebels have been killed in the offensive.
The US military acknowledged success in the city will not smash Iraq’s insurgency.
The huge Fallujah campaign has also sent a stream of American wounded to the military’s main hospital in Europe.
Planes carrying around 90 bloodied and broken troops were expected at Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany tonight. They join 125 wounded soldiers flown there already this week.
The large number of wounded sent to Germany suggests that fighting may be more intense – at least in some areas – than the military had initially indicated. Only seriously wounded troops are flown to Landstuhl.
At least 13 American soldiers and Marines have been killed so far in the Fallujah operation, according to military reports pieced together since Monday. The military has been slow in releasing official, comprehensive reports, citing security.
Military officials cautioned that the figure of 600 insurgents killed in Fallujah was only a rough estimate.
About 1,200 to 3,000 fighters were believed holed up in the city before the offensive. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Richard Myers said today that “hundreds and hundreds of insurgents” have been killed and captured.
The number of civilian casualties in the city is not known. Most of the city’s 200,000-300,000 residents are thought to have fled before the offensive. The rest have been hunkered down in their homes without electricity during days of heavy barrages, with food supplies reported low.
US troops were steadily advancing through Fallujah from the northern side, pushing militants slowly into the southern half. With American units positioned to the south and east, and the Euphrates River on the west, insurgents were being squeezed into a corner, the military said.
Loud explosions rocked the city throughout the morning as gunfire reverberated across town and helicopters hovered overhead. Marines were seen perched on rooftops. Many buildings were heavily damaged, with few signs of civilians.
US officers in Fallujah have said many insurgents may have abandoned the city - long their strongest bastion – before the assault and moved elsewhere to continue their campaign of attacks.
“There has always been pockets of resistance in this type of fighting, just like there was in the Second World War – we would claim an island is secure and fight them for months after that,” Marine Captain John Griffin said.
“Claiming the city is secure doesn’t actually mean that all the resistance is gone, it just means that we have secured the area and have control.”
In what could be a sign of progress, the Marines began turning over the northern neighbourhood of Jolan to Iraqi forces, signalling that they consider the area relatively secure.
Jolan, a dense, historic district of tight alleyways, was considered one of the strongest positions held by militants inside Fallujah and parts of it saw heavy fighting.
In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded in a main street today, killing 17 people moments after a US military convoy had passed.
It was the latest in a wave of attacks that insurgents have unleashed this week, trying to divert allied forces and show they can still wage their campaign of violence despite the Fallujah assault.
Heavy fighting also continued in the northern city of Mosul, where insurgents overran several police stations. Militants were roaming the streets amid the sounds of explosions and gunfire.
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