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“Unleashing the dogs of hell" |
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Iraq |
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Published: 08-Nov-2004
By: Katie Razzall
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It's America's second war on Iraq - Operation Phantom Fury.
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US marines and tanks are storming further into the city of Fallujah in a fearsome ground assault, determined to drive out insurgent forces.
Over the last few hours the city has been bombarded by intense air strikes, artillery and mortar fire.
Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has declared the assault would 'clean Fallujah from the terrorists.'
It all began in the early hours of this morning.
US and Iraqi forces seized the city's main hospital, and two bridges across the river Euphrates.
Then this afternoon, reports came of heavy bombardment and fighting centered on the railway station on the northern edge of the city, near the insurgent stronghold of Jolan.
Tonight it's been confirmed that US forces are pushing into the outer fringes of Fallujah, the first step in a full-scale ground offensive.
All day US marines have been probing at the edges of Fallujah.
Though it wasn't until after 4 this afternoon our time that the full-scale ground assault finally began into the north-east of the city.
Fallujah has been bombed for months and now it's artillery too.
And mortar batteries.
“There’s nothing more honorable than killing the enemy in defence of your nation and putting your life on the line for someone you don’t know”
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“We’re unleashing the dogs of hell..cos these guys have been hitting us and hitting us and hitting us. They don’t even know what’s coming. Hell’s coming”
Anonymous US Marines speaking today
Overnight, the hospital on the western fringe of Fallujah was the marines' first objective.
The Americans say it's a centre for anti - US propaganda and they secured it without a fight, though one Iraqi soldier did shoot himself in the foot.
A CBS reporter with the Americans said about fifty men of military age were detained but half were hospital staff and were released to go on treating their rather bewildered patients.
Meeting Iraqi troops near Fallujah, Iraq's US-appointed Prime Minister claimed 38 insurgents were killed at the hospital but there's no evidence of that.
He also said four foreign Arab fighters had been captured - but again, no proof.
“All the Iraqi people, including the people of Fallujah, want us to go ahead, finish the terrorists and have the rule of law..and this is what we intend to do”
Ayad Allawi, Iraqi interim Prime Minister
And so Marine commanders have also been doing the rounds, jollying along the Iraqi troops.
The occupation badly wants Iraqi troops to be filmed at Fallujah.
But 200 Iraqis alongside 12,000 Americans tells you all you need about who runs the show.
This afternoon the influential Sunni Muslim Clerics Association entered the political fray warning these Iraqi soldiers:
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“Beware of being deceived that you are fighting terrorists from outside the country, because by God you are fighting the townspeople and targeting its men, women and children and history will record every drop of blood you spill in oppressing the people of your nation"
Inside the city, people were today filmed burying seven bodies in the martyrs cemetary - it's not clear if they were fighters or civilians.
The bazaars are quiet and most of the population, perhaps two hundred thousand people, have left.
Prime Minister Allawi says that's because of what he calls the terrorists.
Reporters there say it's because of the American bombing.
One man, packing up to leave, complained about the bombing - where are the mujahdeen he asked?
His neighbour pointed out the damage caused, he said, by US bombs.
But some mujahedeen are still here, allowing local cameramen to film them.
They seem ready to fight against overwhelming, in fact suicidal, odds.
This morning it was reported that, in between explosions, the imams can be heard in Fallujah, the city of the mosques, calling on the mujahedeen to fight to the death.
What they cannot see is the vast force surrounding Fallujah, the attack jets, the helicopters and the troop transporters and earthmovers.
The insurgents fought the United States to a standstill here in April, this time America promises, it will be different.
Forget hearts and mind. Forget nation building.
This is the doctrine of overwhelming force.
As one Marine Corps officer put it, "our job is to kill people and break things".
So will it all work?
Well only this weekend insurgents killed 34 people in an operation in Samarra.
Yes, the same Samarra attacked and taken over by thousands of US Marines just a few weeks ago.
WITNESSING OPERATION PHANTOM FURY
Our International Editor Lindsey Hilsum is currently embedded with a US Marine combat unit which has just entered Fallujah. Jon Snow spoke to her by satellite phone this afternoon:
Jon Snow : Lindsey, what can you see right now?
Lindsey Hilsum : I'm speaking from the outskirts of Fallujah. We have been proceeding for some time through desert and through the suburbs. I am with a company of tanks and armoured vehicles. It's pitch black and we're moving in the dark. There was an obstacle in our way earlier and it was blown up.
On either side of me I can see dwellings, it looks to me as if they're deserted. And ahead of me I'm seeing bombing - bombing which reminds me of Baghdad last year when I was in the Palestine Hotel watching the government buildings being attacked . We're seeing missiles, we're seeing 2000 lb bombs raining down and I'm beginning to wonder how many more targets there can be left in Fallujah . At this distance it looks like a firework display but of course it's not, it's much more serious than that.
And as you move, do you see any sign of people?
No, earlier in the day we passed some houses and I could see some women and children . They have apparently been in an apartment block which the Americans were trying to take as a vantage point and as a staging area . The women and children were being ushered by the Americans away from the building and away from Fallujah. The Americans are very keen that as many civilians as possible get out, because obviously with the kind of bombardment that we're seeing and the kind of battle which is starting to come, civilians are going to be incredibly vulnerable in the next few days.
But so far in the movements we've done tonight, I haven't seen any people at all. And so far, no return fire.
Do you get any sense of how long this operation is going to take ?
Well, it depends on what resistance there is. I don't think there is any question that the Americans can retake Fallujah reasonably easily. With this array of air power and ground forces there's no question of that. What will count is whether those buildings inside Fallujah which are still standing will contain rebels wanting to take on the Americans, and how long they can last. It could be a day, it could be several days, we just don't know. Even if they do take Fallujah reasonably easily within a day or two, where are some of those insurgents going to go? Some of them are likely to have escaped already and they're going to pop up again and attack the Americans elsewhere.
Even if they take Fallujah, what the Colonels have been saying to me, that would only be the beginning of a counter-insurgency war across this part of Iraq.
Note : Lindsey's reports are subject to censorship by the US military.
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