The Hindu : International : U.S. forces face heavy fighting in Fallujah

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 11, 2004

International

International

U.S. forces face heavy fighting in Fallujah

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA, NOV. 10. Advancing American troops and Iraqi fighters were locked in fierce combat in central Fallujah, with the U.S. military officials claiming that they had seized 70 per cent of the city.

Aided by sustained aerial bombardment, the U.S. troops used heavy weapons including tanks and artillery guns to carry forward their advance. As a result, large portions of the city have been reduced to rubble.

According to eyewitness accounts, fighting has been particularly fierce in the central Jolan district, where a concentration of Iraqi guerillas has been reported in the past. A Reuters report said that American planes made several bombing runs in the Jolan area in the space of 15 minutes. A U.S. assault with tanks in the early hours today, aimed at the takeover of the Mayor's compound, met little initial opposition. However, troops came under heavy fire from the resistance fighters at dawn.

American casualties

Arab journalists in the city reported counting bodies of eight U.S. soldiers lying in the streets of the city's Hammaniyya area overnight, along with the remains of many dead rebels. Two disabled U.S. tanks and three destroyed Humvee jeeps could also be seen. According to the Pentagon, the U.S. military's total toll for the Fallujah operation has risen to 11 Americans and two Iraqi government soldiers.

Resistance fighters could also be seen moving from street to street in small batches, attacking U.S. troops wherever possible, or avoiding them completely. Contrary to these reports, the U.S. military claimed that hundreds of Iraqi fighters were killed on Wednesday alone. Major Francis Piccoli of the U.S. Marines said the guerillas had been squeezed into a narrow strip of the city, close to the main east-west road, which passes through Fallujah.

Call for poll boycott

As the U.S. advance progressed, the political costs of the intrusion have begun to surface. Al-Jazeera television reported that the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), a powerful Sunni organisation has urged a boycott of the January 27 polls in the wake of the Fallujah assault. "The clerics call on the ... people of Iraq to boycott the coming elections that they want to hold on the remains of the dead and the blood of the wounded from Iraqi cities like Fallujah and others," said Harith al-Dhari, its top official.

In case the boycott call succeeds, it would undermine the basic objective of the assault, which was to restrain violence in order to facilitate the polls. Religious leaders in Fallujah, led by Jamal Shakir an-Nazal, and Hamzah al-Mufti also called for the launching a civil disobedience movement against the U.S.-backed Iraqi interim government, in case the attack on Fallujah continued.

The U.S.-led attack has resulted in Islamist groups outside Iraq calling for support for the resistance. According to Saudi Arabia's English daily, Arab News, 21 prominent Saudi religious scholars have signed an open statement legitimising the resistance by Iraqi fighters and calling for an end to cooperation or dealings with the U.S. occupation forces.

Allawi's kin abducted

Militants abducted three relatives of the interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, in Baghdad and reportedly threatened to kill them unless the Falluja siege is lifted. [AP reports that Mr. Allawi's cousin and the cousin's daughter-in-law were kidnapped from their home.]

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