Shaffer
11-05-04, 07:03 PM
With U.S. and Iraqi forces gearing up for an expected major offensive in Falluja, interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Friday that "we intend to liberate" the city.
Overnight, U.S. warplanes attacked new targets in the insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.
Against this backdrop, Allawi said Friday the "window is closing" for a peaceful settlement in the "Sunni Triangle" city.
"We intend to liberate the people and bring the rule of law," Allawi said in Brussels, Belgium, where he was visiting the European Union and NATO to discuss aid for his fledgling government.
Meanwhile, forces continued their stepped-up attacks on insurgent targets.
In separate strikes, U.S. Air Force and Marine aircraft destroyed suspected insurgent buildings, barriers used as fortifications, an offensive position that stored explosives, fighting positions and a weapons cache.
A Marine spokesman said a significant amount of munitions was recovered, then destroyed.
A hospital official in Falluja said that two women were critically injured in a U.S. operation.
On Friday, an American soldier died and five others were wounded as "the result of an indirect fire attack" on a base near Falluja, the U.S. military said.
In Al Anbar province, where Falluja and Ramadi are located, two U.S Marines were killed and four others wounded Thursday, a U.S. military spokesman said.
In the northern Iraqi city of Balad, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy Thursday night, killing one 1st Infantry Division soldier and wounding another, the U.S. military said.
The number of U.S. military fatalities in the war totals 1,128.
Karl Penhaul, a CNN correspondent embedded with Marines near Falluja, said C-130s could be heard attacking targets, probably with 105 mm cannons.
The major assault on Falluja is expected soon, so the region can be pacified before the January elections for a transitional national assembly.
The strikes are aimed at the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi network and other militants, who have a strong presence in the city 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of the Iraqi capital.
The assault is being planned at a camp outside the city, where Marines are rehearsing urban warfare. They are studying fighting techniques used in Vietnam in the 1960s, in the Israeli-occupied territories, Chechnya and Somalia.
Commanders said they expect to encounter booby-trapped buildings, roadside bombs, suicide car bombs and rooftop snipers.
Military officials said there are scores of mosques used as insurgent sniping positions, command and control posts, and combat clinics.
Marines will work to surprise the insurgents by moving in quickly with infantry, tanks and attack helicopters.
Marines estimate most residents of the city -- which once had a population of 250,000 -- have fled, and about 50,000 civilians are left.
It is believed that the city holds 2,000 to 5,000 insurgents, who communicate with cell phones, carrier pigeons and flags.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has voiced concern about a possible assault.
In a letter dated October 31, Annan warned the United States, Britain and Iraq that military offensives being planned for Falluja and other insurgent strongholds could jeopardize the upcoming elections.
He said he worries about the "negative impact that major military assaults, in which the main burden seems bound to be borne by American forces, are likely to have on the prospects for encouraging a broader participation by Iraqis in the political process, including in the elections."
Booby traps found
In Ramadi, U.S. forces said they defused explosives rigged to detonate inside a youth center used by dozens of children. Tons of explosives were found hidden in a mosque.
In the Baquba region, north of Baghdad, insurgent attacks over the last 24 hours claimed the lives of three Iraqis.
Two of the civilians killed were children who died when a mortar landed on their house near a police station. Three women were wounded.
Overnight, U.S. warplanes attacked new targets in the insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.
Against this backdrop, Allawi said Friday the "window is closing" for a peaceful settlement in the "Sunni Triangle" city.
"We intend to liberate the people and bring the rule of law," Allawi said in Brussels, Belgium, where he was visiting the European Union and NATO to discuss aid for his fledgling government.
Meanwhile, forces continued their stepped-up attacks on insurgent targets.
In separate strikes, U.S. Air Force and Marine aircraft destroyed suspected insurgent buildings, barriers used as fortifications, an offensive position that stored explosives, fighting positions and a weapons cache.
A Marine spokesman said a significant amount of munitions was recovered, then destroyed.
A hospital official in Falluja said that two women were critically injured in a U.S. operation.
On Friday, an American soldier died and five others were wounded as "the result of an indirect fire attack" on a base near Falluja, the U.S. military said.
In Al Anbar province, where Falluja and Ramadi are located, two U.S Marines were killed and four others wounded Thursday, a U.S. military spokesman said.
In the northern Iraqi city of Balad, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy Thursday night, killing one 1st Infantry Division soldier and wounding another, the U.S. military said.
The number of U.S. military fatalities in the war totals 1,128.
Karl Penhaul, a CNN correspondent embedded with Marines near Falluja, said C-130s could be heard attacking targets, probably with 105 mm cannons.
The major assault on Falluja is expected soon, so the region can be pacified before the January elections for a transitional national assembly.
The strikes are aimed at the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi network and other militants, who have a strong presence in the city 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of the Iraqi capital.
The assault is being planned at a camp outside the city, where Marines are rehearsing urban warfare. They are studying fighting techniques used in Vietnam in the 1960s, in the Israeli-occupied territories, Chechnya and Somalia.
Commanders said they expect to encounter booby-trapped buildings, roadside bombs, suicide car bombs and rooftop snipers.
Military officials said there are scores of mosques used as insurgent sniping positions, command and control posts, and combat clinics.
Marines will work to surprise the insurgents by moving in quickly with infantry, tanks and attack helicopters.
Marines estimate most residents of the city -- which once had a population of 250,000 -- have fled, and about 50,000 civilians are left.
It is believed that the city holds 2,000 to 5,000 insurgents, who communicate with cell phones, carrier pigeons and flags.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has voiced concern about a possible assault.
In a letter dated October 31, Annan warned the United States, Britain and Iraq that military offensives being planned for Falluja and other insurgent strongholds could jeopardize the upcoming elections.
He said he worries about the "negative impact that major military assaults, in which the main burden seems bound to be borne by American forces, are likely to have on the prospects for encouraging a broader participation by Iraqis in the political process, including in the elections."
Booby traps found
In Ramadi, U.S. forces said they defused explosives rigged to detonate inside a youth center used by dozens of children. Tons of explosives were found hidden in a mosque.
In the Baquba region, north of Baghdad, insurgent attacks over the last 24 hours claimed the lives of three Iraqis.
Two of the civilians killed were children who died when a mortar landed on their house near a police station. Three women were wounded.