These are the archives for the week ending 12th November 2004
200 wounded in 3 days
More than 200 soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq, mostly
in the offensive on the Iraqi rebel bastion of Fallujah, have arrived
at the US military hospital here over a three-day period, a spokeswoman
said on Friday. Thirty-four wounded were flown in on Friday, 102
were brought in on two planes on Thursday and 68 were admitted on
Wednesday, making a total of 204, said spokeswoman Marie Shaw.
A few of the wounded were from US operations in Afghanistan or other parts of Iraq, but "most are coming from Fallujah," Shaw said. "We are very busy. Another plane is expected on Saturday morning.
TurkishPress.com 12/11/04
Violence spreading
Armed insurgents rampaged Thursday through Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, detonated a massive car bomb in the capital and apparently seized control of two smaller urban centers. This violence took place as U.S. forces continued their major offensive in Fallujah. The scattered and spreading guerrilla attacks appeared to be part of a threatened effort by insurgents to open new battle fronts away from Fallujah, an anti-American bastion 35 miles west of Baghdad in the Sunni Triangle.
Washington Post, 12/11/04
Good & Evil
"We're not here to kill people. We just want to separate the good from the evil"
US staff sergeant involved in the attack on Falluja, quoted on BBC Today programme 9/11/04
Marines told to 'kick some butt'
Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, the top enlisted Marine in Iraq, told troops the coming battle of Fallujah would be "no different" than the historic fights at Inchon in Korea, the flag-raising victory at Iwo Jima, or the bloody assault to dislodge North Vietnamese from the ancient citadel of Hue they seized in the 1968 Tet Offensive. "You're all in the process of making history," Kent told a crowd of about 2,500 Marines. "This is another Hue city in the making. I have no doubt that each and every one of you is going to do what you have always done - kick some butt."
Everett Navy Base News 8/11/04
US with Iraqi Face
American forces are keen to put an Iraqi face on the assault and have stressed that Iraqi troops will be playing a significant back-up role in the battle. However, many Islamic clerics have called on Iraqi troops not to fight alongside their American allies. US officials have admitted that at least 200 Iraqi troops deserted before the Fallujah attack. The desertions illustrate the predicament faced by men torn between orders from commanders and outrage from their countrymen.
The Age, Australia 9/11/04
Tony Blair defends Falluja assult
Tony Blair mounted a strong defence of the assault on Falluja, as he dismissed a warning from the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, that the operation would undermine January's elections in Iraq. "This is a town that is literally held hostage by terrorists and insurgents, which if they stopped and laid down their weapons, could take part in the Iraq elections", Mr Blair told MPs.
Guardian 9/11/04
Clinic attacked, civilians starving
Twenty Iraqi doctors and dozens of civilians were killed in a US air strike that hit a clinic in Fallujah, according to an Iraqi doctor who said he survived the strike. There are fears that heavy civilian casualties could be damaging for US-led forces. "In the early morning the US attacked the clinic, a place that we were using for treating the injured people in the city," Dr Sami al-Jumaili said, describing the air strike. "I really don't know if they want to tackle the insurgents or the innocent civilians from the city." Witnesses described dead bodies lying in the streets with hungry street dogs crowding around them. Reports from inside Fallujah said residents were fast running out of food. Tens of thousands of civilians are believed to be still inside the city.
Independent 11/11/04
An exercise in futility
American military planners expected to face thousands of Iraqi resistance fighters in the streets of Falluja, not the hundreds they are currently fighting. They expected to roll up the network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his foreign Islamic militants, and yet to date have found no top-tier leaders from that organization. As American forces surge into Falluja, Iraqi fighters are mounting extensive attacks throughout the rest of Iraq. Far from facing off in a decisive battle against the resistance fighters, it seems the more Americans squeeze Falluja, the more the violence explodes elsewhere. It is exercises in futility, akin to squeezing jello.
Scott Ritter in Aljazeera, 9/11/04
Insurgents will choose their battles
Insurgents are fleeing the city of Fallujah ahead of the coming US onslaught and swarming into the area of Iraq patrolled by Scotland's Black Watch regiment. The evacuation of the Sunni city of Fallujah by rebel fighters leaves the Black Watch stuck in the most dangerous area of Iraq. Eyewitnesses say insurgents have been "spilling out the city in all directions". Analyst Charles Heyman, of Jane's Consultancy Group, said: "I think there is a message being put out here: the Sunni areas are out of control and are probably going to stay out of control. The situation is much worse on the ground than many appreciate. Outside the main urban areas, the insurgents in the Sunni triangle hold the countryside."
Sunday Herald 7/11/04