US forces push into centre of Fallujah
American forces pushed through the centre of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah today, fighting bands of guerrillas in the streets and conducting house-to-house searches on the second day of a major offensive to retake the Iraqi city from Islamic militants.
A total of 16 Americans have been killed in the past two days across Iraq - including three killed in Fallujah today – most of them as guerrillas launched a wave of attacks in Baghdad and south-west of Fallujah, a senior Pentagon official said.
The 11 deaths on Monday were the highest one day US toll in more than six months.
As fighting raged in Fallujah, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi declared a night-time curfew in Baghdad and its surroundings – 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.
Anger over the assault on the mainly Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah grew 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, director of the Association of Muslim Clerics.
If Sunnis refuse to vote on a large scale, it could wreck the legitimacy of the election, seen as vital in Iraq’s move to democracy.
In Fallujah, heavy street clashes were raging in northern neighbourhoods. By noon, US armoured units, attacking from the north, had made their way to the road running east-west through the city’s centre and crossed over into the southern part of Fallujah.
Still, the military reported lighter-than-expected resistance in Jolan, a warren of alleyways in north-western Fallujah where guerillas were believed to be at their strongest.
That could be a sign that insurgents left the city before the operation started or that the troops have not yet reached the centre location to which the resistance has fallen back, Pentagon officials said.
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.
Allawi called on Fallujah’s fighters to lay down their weapons to spare the city and allow government forces to take control. “The political solution is possible even if military operations are ongoing,” his spokesman said.
In Fallujah’s urban battles today, small bands of guerrillas – fewer than 20 - were engaging US troops, then falling back in the face of overwhelming fire from American tanks, 20mm cannons and heavy machine guns, said Time magazine reporter Michael Ware, embedded with troops.
Ware reported that there appeared to be no civilians in the area he was in.
On one thoroughfare in the city, US troops traded fire with gunmen holed up in a row of houses about 100 yards away. An American gunner on an armoured vehicle let loose with his machine gun, grinding the upper part of a small building to rubble.
Elsewhere, witnesses reported seeing at least two American tanks engulfed in flames. A Kiowa helicopter flying over Fallujah took groundfire, injuring the pilot, but he managed to return to the US base.
The once constant thunder of artillery barrages was halted, since so many troops are moving inside the city’s narrow streets. US and Iraqi forces surrounded a mosque inside the city that was used as an arms depot and insurgent meeting point, the BBC reported.
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.
Guerrillas continued their campaign elsewhere.
