Second Battle of Fallujah

U.S. soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division prepare to enter and clear a building during fighting in Fallujah.

Operation Al-Fajr ("The Dawn" in Arabic), also known as Operation Phantom Fury, was a joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive against rebel strongholds in the city of Fallujah, authorized by the Iraq interim government. The U.S. military called it "some of the heaviest urban combat Marines have been involved in since Hue City in Vietnam in 1968." [1]

It was the second major operation in Fallujah; seven months earlier, Operation Vigilant Resolve had been an abortive attempt to capture the city. That earlier operation was terminated when local leaders promised to curb the rebels.

It was immediately followed by Operation Plymouth Rock.

Timeline

Ground operations began the night of November 7, 2004 with the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion attacking from the west and south, capturing the rebel-held Fallujah General Hospital without firing a shot. The same unit, operating under the command of the U.S. III Corps moved on the western approaches to the city securing the Jurf Kas Sukr Bridge.

American units launched their attacks along a broad front, jumping off from behind the railroad line that runs along the northern edge of the city. By daylight, the main train station had fallen to American troops. By the afternoon, troops had entered the Hay Naib al-Dubat and al-Naziza districts. Shortly after nightfall on November 9, American soldiers were along Highway 10 in the center of the city. By dawn most of the city was in American and Iraqi hands.

By November 13, after six days of fighting, the Americans described the action as mopping up pockets of resistance.

On November 16, NBC News aired footage that appeared to show an American Marine shooting a wounded Iraqi. The American marine was heard exclaiming that the Iraqi was "playing possum".

Quotes

• From their forward operating bases throughout the zone, Iraqi and Multi-National forces, led by the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, punched west across the Euphrates River in search of anti-Iraqi forces and those who aid them. While rounding up 30 suspects during the initial sweep, the Iraqis and their American allies seized a suspected insurgent training camp and took control of the Jurf Kas Sukr Bridge. The bridge, spanning the Euphrates southwest of Baghdad, is believed to be a favored corridor for insurgents moving into and out of key cities, including the capital hub and the current AIF sanctuary of Fallujah. [2]

• General George Casey described most of the people remaining in the city as an amorphous group of terrorists and insurgents and said that U.S. troops had secured a hospital used as a staging area by Sunni insurgents and two bridges across the Euphrates River [3].

• Donald Rumsfeld said, There aren't going be large numbers of civilians killed and certainly not by U.S. forces. [4]

• Robert Burns, AP military writer, wrote: Every U.S. military operation is given a code name, and at Allawi's request the Fallujah offensive is called "al-Fajr," which Casey said means "the dawn." He said it involved 10,000 to 15,000 American and British troops and an unspecified number of Iraqi troops [5].

• Edward Harris of MyWay News wrote on November 10, 2004: Maj. Francis Piccoli, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said U.S. forces now control 70 percent of the city and had pushed insurgents into a narrow section flanking the main east-west highway bisecting the city [6].

See also

• 2003 Invasion of Iraq

External links

• Operation Phantom Fury, October 5, 2004 - ?
• U.S. Commander in Iraq: Attack on Schedule - MyWay News, November 8, 2004
• U.S. ground forces hit Fallujah - Jim Krane, Associated Press
• U.S. Forces Hold 70 Percent of Fallujah - Edward Harris, MyWay News, November 10, 2004
• The real fury of Fallujah - Criticism of the operation from Asia Times Online, Nov 10, 2004