US Dropping 500 Pounders on Fallujah, US Marines Say Payback

[Hoss68]

US Dropping 500 Pounders on Fallujah, US Marines Say Payback

Iraqis strike back - Street fighters ambush Marine advance into Fallujah

By: DARRIN MORTENSON - Staff Writer

FALLUJAH. Iraq ---- Tanks blasted buildings and American jets dropped 500-pound bombs into neighborhoods in northwest Fallujah Tuesday as Marines fought back against insurgents who launched a bold daytime ambush on a patrol just a few hundred yards from what troops had called a "safe zone."

At least two Marines were wounded in the first few minutes of fighting ---- one of them seriously with a bullet to the head. Both were from Camp Pendleton's 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.

Marine radio reports told of dozens of insurgents killed or wounded in the fighting, which lasted well into the night.

By nightfall Tuesday, the 2:30 p.m. ambush on a patrol had drawn two companies of troops ---- about 200 men ---- into street fighting in the city that insurgents have vowed to turn into a graveyard for Americans.

The bloodshed in the city began as Marine leaders prepared to tighten the noose around Fallujah and move in for precise raids to capture or kill known insurgents and destroy weapons caches and rebel operations centers.

U.S. commanders said about 2,000 Marines and nearly as many Iraqi government troops had sealed off and surrounded the city early Monday morning, and the forces were waiting for orders to move on the city section by section.

The planned offensive was described by many Marines as "payback" for the brutal ambush of four American security contractors in Fallujah on March 31 in which townspeople burned and mutilated their bodies.

The Marines intended to choose the time and place of their assault, but the insurgents determined the time and place with their attack Tuesday afternoon. The rebel attack came just a couple hundred yards from where a Marine engineer was killed early Monday morning when troops arrived to dig in along the northern edge of the city near the Euphrates River.

Before more than 20,000 Marines replaced U.S. Army forces in the restive region west of Baghdad two weeks ago, leaders promised that the Iraqis would have "no better friend" or "no worse enemy than the Marines."

They promised to go easier than the Army had on the general population, while being relentless against the insurgents. Some called it a "velvet glove" approach.

The heavy fighting that erupted Tuesday, however, seemed to prove that the velvet glove is off for Fallujah.

It all started with a burst from a rebel machine gun that felled the first Marine.

Once he was rushed back about 800 yards to a roadblock beneath a train trestle, two tanks rolled into the city and began blasting away with their main guns ----- perhaps the most firepower used by American forces in Iraq since a series of controversial punitive operations by the Army late last year.

As the town below erupted in gunfire and rocked with explosions, one Marine sat at the edge of the train tracks high up on the trestle and wept, shocked at the sight of his buddy, who was seriously wounded and barely conscious.

But without any time to grieve or collect himself, he was called back into the battle.

He wiped his tears and joined about 30 others who loaded onto Humvees and raced to the city edge to join the tanks in the growing battle.

"Here goes, boys!" a Marine yelled as the second vehicle sped towards town.

"Let's go! We're gonna get some!" another said as a second group headed out.

Arriving at the first set of buildings in town, the Marines jumped off the vehicles and spread out on foot, heading toward intense gunfire and into a huge cloud of dust and smoke blown out by the blast of the cannon of an A-1 Abrams tank.

Within a few minutes another Marine, who had been seen joking and laughing with his anti-tank team about an hour before, was shot in the leg as he fired a 50-caliber machine gun from atop a Humvee, witnesses said.

The fighting intensified throughout the afternoon. The number of insurgent fighters and the size of attacks surprised the troops.

Military leaders have insisted that Fallujah's insurgents amounted to "a few bad apples," and that removing them would end the strife in the city and allow the Marines to begin reconstruction projects and help rebuild the local economy and infrastructure.

Just a few minutes before the fighting started Tuesday, First Lt. Wade Zirkle described troubles in Fallujah as caused by "just a few in town," and he said it would be the Marines' job to "separate the good from the bad."

But during the fighting Marine leaders reported from the city that they were encountering groups of as many as 40 to 50 fighters in a single block. What's more, they reported fighting spread out over more than a square mile of the city.

By sunset Marines had called in air strikes, helicopters had strafed insurgent positions and troops had fired mortars into the city. A second company of Marines in armored amphibious assault vehicles rolled into Fallujah behind three more tanks.

In the last few minutes of light, just before mortars crashed about 1,000 yards from where the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment commander was directing the fight, a Marine radioed on the main frequency that a curfew was to be enforced after 7 p.m.

"If they're out there, they're up to no good and I want them dropped," the voice said.

Most of the fighting had stopped by 8 p.m., and the Marines regrouped somewhere in the city, preparing for what promised to be a long night.

"This is a lot more combat than last year, said Marine mortarman Lance Cpl. Nickolas Bogert, who fought during the invasion of Iraq last year along with the majority of men in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment.

At about 5 p.m. he directed his mortar team to fire high explosive rounds into Fallujah after troops in the city observed 40 or 50 fighters "looking ready for war."

"It's a whole different mentality this time," he said as Marines fanned out around him to look for snipers on surrounding rooftops. "You don't really know what's out there."

Staff writer Darrin Mortenson and staff photographer Hayne Palmour are reporting from Iraq with Camp Pendleton Marines.

[conlor]

It's part of the war on terrorism. Something needed to be done to show we won't tolerate the type of activities of last week!

[AndJusticeForAll]

I hope they decide to blow up that "mosque" and kill that so-called cleric.

[se0sea]

Originally Posted by AndJusticeForAll

I hope they decide to blow up that "mosque" and kill that so-called cleric.

Thats exactly what Ive been saying.We were always respectful of their mosques.But they use them as hideouts cause they know we wont touch them.Time to play dirty.

[AndJusticeForAll]

I just heard on the news that a mosque was hit by a missle from a US helicopter. They said that 40 people are dead. I hope one of them is that scumbag cleric.

[kruser79]

I just heard on the news that his second in command was killed by Spanish troops earlier today. It'd be quite a stroke if he was in the mosque......

[cb88]

I'm all for using "tactical nukes" in Fallujah.

Of course, that's just me, and I'm so un-pc.