![]() ![]() Thirty to fifty thousand people were still inside the city when the U.S. forces temporarily withdrew from Fallujah and planned for a full onslaught.įollowing the evacuation of civilians, Marines cordoned off the city, even as some residents scrambled to escape. ![]() The following February, amid mounting tensions, a local militia beheaded four Blackwater employees and strung their bodies from a bridge across the Euphrates River. soldiers from the 82nd Airborne division fired into a crowd of protesters demonstrating against the occupation and the closure of their local school building, killing 17 civilians and injuring 70. The first sign of serious hostility appeared in April 2003, after U.S. The United States did not expect to encounter resistance in Fallujah, nor did it initially face any in the early days of the war. military forces launched Operation Phantom Fury 50 miles west of Baghdad in Fallujah, a city of 350,000 people known for its opposition to the Saddam regime. But the crisis, and its possible connection to weapons deployed by the United States during the war, remains woefully under-examined. invasion of Fallujah, there are reports of an alarming rise in the rates of birth defects and cancer. More than half the civilian population of about 300,000 people have fled the city.Seven years after the U.S. Marines, Army soldiers and Iraqi forces have surrounded Fallujah, where commanders estimate about 3,000 insurgents are holed up. Heatherman said there were some Iraqi casualties as troops seized the building, where Marines found an improvised bomb hanging above a doorway, the AP reported. Brian Heatherman of the 3rd Battalion 1st Marine Regiment. Marines secured an apartment building in the northwestern corner of the city and “have now gained a foothold in the city,” said Capt. Before dawn, four 500-pound bombs were dropped on the city. jets fired rockets at insurgent positions, according to the AP. On Monday, artillery and mortars pounded targets in Fallujah and surrounding areas as U.S. An Iraqi policeman was shot dead as he was driving to his home in Baghdad and his car was stolen. Two provincial officials were assassinated south of the capital city as they traveled to the funeral of another official, according to the Post. A car bomb that detonated outside the home of the interim finance minister, Adil Abdul-Mahdi - who was not home at the time, killed two people. More attacks in and around Baghdad killed two U.S. Many of the officers had been lined up and shot, according to news reports.Ī total of 21 Iraqi National Guard recruits were killed Saturday and Sunday as they returned to their homes in Najaf after signing up, reported the Washington Post.Īlso over the weekend, a series of car bombings and mortar attacks killed more than 30 people in Samarra, a Sunni Muslim city about 65 miles north of Baghdad. In Haditha and Haqlaniya - two towns northwest of Fallujah, insurgents killed 22 Iraqi police officers on Sunday. He also temporarily closed Baghdad’s international airport and the borders with Jordan and Syria.Īllawi’s spokesman declared a state of emergency in all but the Kurdish north of Iraq on Sunday after violence in six cities over the weekend left more than 80 people dead. “I can’t say how long the operation will take but we will target the terrorist forces present in Fallujah.”Īllawi imposed a curfew in the city and nearby Ramadi to begin at dusk Monday. “We are determined to clean Fallujah from the terrorists,” he told a news conference, Reuters reported. The Iraqi soldiers reportedly stormed through the building, pulling handcuffed patients into the hall while searching for gunmen.Īllawi said he gave his authority to the multinational force to conduct the long-awaited offensive, dubbed “Operation Phantom Fury”, in the city considered the country’s strongest bastion of Sunni insurgents. military and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said was controlled by insurgents, according to the Associated Press. Iraqi troops captured 38 people, including four foreigners, when they entered Fallujah’s main hospital, which the U.S. ![]()
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