US Fallujah Battle Plans Missing?

[LowerCaseRepublican]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/06/...tain/index.html

 

A company commander of the Iraqi security forces who received a full briefing on the expected Falluja assault is missing from a military base where U.S. and Iraqi troops are preparing for the possible operation.

 

The captain, a Kurd with no known ties to the Sunni city of Falluja, is thought to have taken notes from the battle briefing late Thursday. U.S. Marines and his fellow Iraqi officers found no sign of him Friday morning, except for his uniform and a weapon on his cot.

 

Marines are concerned that the information he knows could be passed along to insurgents. U.S. military sources believe insurgents have friends in the military and government.

 

The captain commands a company of about 160 men. He is among 10,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces expected to take part in the operation.

 

Marines say the captain's disappearance won't alter the tactics or timing of the Falluja operation.

 

Coalition officials hope the missing captain, who was not named, has merely headed home.

 

Someone stole the battle plans but they aren't being changed?

[Soxy]

Oooops, that's bad.

[Rex Kickass]

I remember reading something about a significant amount of Iraqi forces being compromised by the insurgency. Anyone got any figures about that?

 

I really hope the Iraq situation can settle down soon.

[DBAHO]

BLACK smoke towered over besieged Fallujah today after US and Iraqi forces took control of a hospital and two bridges in a prelude to what could be a decisive assault on the rebel stronghold.

 

Warplanes today pounded the city and gunfire echoed. An AC-130 plane unleashed cannons and machineguns from above.

 

Explosions from the artillery fire boomed out almost every minute.

 

US marines coupled with some specially trained Iraqi troops were poised on the city's outskirts, waiting to enter if given the go-ahead by the interim Iraqi government.

 

The Associated Press reported that two marines were killed when their armoured bulldozer flipped on the banks of Euphrates River during preparations for the oncoming battle.

 

Keen to put an Iraqi face on the mission to reclaim the Sunni Muslim bastion from rebel hands, the US military says local troops are a vital asset - they know the terrain and can identify the foreign fighters believed to have turned Fallujah into an operating base.

 

The special force, known as Shahwanis, "can be helpful, they can identify foreign accents, tell whether a person is Syrian or Jordanian," said Major Todd Desgrosseilliers, an executive officer with the marines.

 

"The Iraqis know what is going on there, they give us a flavour of what is unusual," he said.

 

US commanders estimate that 2000 to 2500 fighters, some loyal to Iraq's most wanted man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, are inside the city and are ready to fight.

 

"The predictions are that they are going to stay and fight us here," said Maj Desgrosseilliers.

 

The military believes that another 10,000 men could join in the battle.

 

Demonstrating their determination in the face of the enormous US and Iraqi military force, machinegun fire has erupted from Fallujah since the early morning as US warplanes pounded suspected fighter positions.

 

"There are aircraft carrying out precision engagements inside the city on identified enemy positions," said Maj Desgrosseilliers.

 

In what might mark the beginning of a major offensive to reclaim Fallujah, Iraqi special forces stormed the main hospital on the western edge of the city overnight, blindfolding some people and kicking down doors. No shots were fired.

 

Hospital director Dr Salih al-Issawi told Agence France-Presse that troops surrounding the hospital had warned the staff over loudspeakers not to leave the building.

 

He also said they refused to allow him and others to go into the centre of Fallujah to help out at a medical facility that had been set up there.

 

The hospital, the largest in the city, is located on the western side on the banks of the Euphrates, which separates it from the centre, leaving just three clinics to deal with any local wounded or dead if full-scale fighting erupts.

 

A US commander said marines also took control of two bridges spanning the Euphrates in the south-west of Fallujah, while a large white observation balloon was seen hovering above.

 

Some 20,000 US and Iraqi troops are gathered around the city, west of Baghdad, awaiting for Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to instruct them to charge or stand down as he battles to restore order in the country ahead of January elections.

 

The US-backed Prime Minister has declared a state of emergency in most of Iraq, giving his government extraordinary powers to crush a violent insurgency that claims daily victims.

 

US warplanes have conducted an intensifying campaign of aerial bombardments against the city, coupled with artillery fire in recent days as expectations of an all-out offensive rose and the chances of a peaceful resolution faded.

 

About 80 to 90 per cent of Fallujah's 300,000-strong population is thought to have fled to city due to fears of an imminent showdown.

 

Dr Allawi's spokesman said the tough-talking prime minister was engaged in a last-ditch attempt to avert a military showdown, but he was gloomy about the prospect of success.

 

Attempts to broker a peaceful solution between Baghdad and local leaders collapsed last month after Dr Allawi threatened Fallujah with invasion if they did not surrender militants, such as al-Qaeda front man in Iraq, Zarqawi.

 

City leaders insist that the Jordanian-born Zarqawi, wanted for a string of deadly attacks and hostage beheadings, does not reside there.

 

A previous siege of the city by US marines in April left hundreds dead and ended in a stalemate.

 

US troops have also banned men aged from 15 to 50 from entering or leaving Fallujah, warning they could become a target ahead of the offensive.

 

Women and children will be allowed to leave the city but cannot return until "order is restored", the US military said.