[Marxism] Fw: Fallujah invasion begins

["acpollack2@xxxxxxxx" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxx>]

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CNN claims it was Iraqi forces taking hospital, but Times account - lead on its 
website - paints it as beginning of US assault.

All out Monday, hit the streets!

http://nytimes.com/2004/11/07/international/middleeast/07cnd-iraq.html?ei=5094&en=3eb8ca737af5890f&hp=&ex=1099890000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=
 The New York Times
November 7, 2004
U.S. Forces Begin Moving Into Falluja
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
and ROBERT WORTH

FALLUJA, Iraq, Monday, Nov. 8 - Explosions and heavy gunfire thundered through 
the outskirts of Falluja on Sunday night and early Monday as American soldiers 
and marines swept toward strategic bridges, hospitals and other objectives in 
what appeared to be the first stage of a long-expected invasion of the city.

Hours earlier, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, faced with an outbreak of insurgent 
violence across the country, declared emergency law for 60 days across most of 
Iraq. The proclamation gave him broad martial powers that allow him to impose 
curfews, order house-to-house searches and detain suspected criminals and 
insurgents.

"We declared it today and we are going to implement it whenever and wherever it 
is necessary," Dr. Allawi told pool reporters inside the fortified compound 
that houses the headquarters of the interim Iraqi government. "This will send a 
very powerful message that we are serious."

Troops were on the move by 9 p.m. to the west and south of Falluja, just across 
the Euphrates River, and after two hours of steady pounding by American guns, 
tanks, Bradley armored vehicles, artillery and AC-130 gunships, at least one 
objective - a hospital less than a mile from downtown Falluja - had been 
secured by American special forces and the Iraqi 36th commando battalion.

Tracer fire lit up the sky as the operation began, helicopters crisscrossed the 
battlefield, and at least one American vehicle was fired upon with a 
rocket-propelled grenade as American and Iraqi forces converged on the 
hospital, called Al-Falluja. Shortly before midnight, American forces were 
exchaning gunfire across a strategic bridge near the hospital with four to five 
insurgent positions on the other side.

"There has been extensive gunfire going across the river," said the American 
commander of the special forces operation at the hospital, which officials 
called a crucial early objective. "Bradleys have been shooting over to the east 
of us, and there has been extensive machine gun fire to the southwest of us," 
the commander said.

Dr. Allawi said he would hold a news conference on Monday to provide more 
details about the state of emergency. Once it becomes clear what exactly Dr. 
Allawi wants to put into effect, American-led forces will be deployed to help 
enforce the law, a senior American military official said on Sunday in an 
interview in Baghdad. That could include operating more checkpoints and 
increasing patrols.

Though Dr. Allawi has tried hard to cast himself as a strongman since taking 
office, Iraqi confidence in the interim government has plummeted in recent 
months as the insurgency in Falluja and elsewhere has gained in strength and 
lethality. Dr. Allawi's declaration of emergency law is as much intended to be 
a show of force in these days of uncertainty as it is to extend to his 
government and the United States-led forces broader powers to combat the 
guerrillas. Dr. Allawi said he had imposed the state of emergency only after 
getting the approval of his cabinet and the office of the president, Sheik 
Ghazi al-Yawar.

With only three months to go until the country's first democratic elections, 
American and Iraqi officials are grasping for any tool at their command to 
bring the insurgency under control. Guerrillas staged brazen attacks on Sunday 
that left at least 37 people dead across the country, showing they could seize 
the initiative even as American-led forces geared up for their major offensive 
in Falluja and the neighboring city of Ramadi.

At dawn, insurgents armed with bombs and Kalashnikov rifles raided three police 
stations and killed at least 21 people in the far west of rebellious Anbar 
Province, which encompasses those two volatile cities, said Col. Adnan 
Abdul-Rahman, an Interior Ministry spokesman. In an attack south of Baghdad, he 
said, guerrillas gunned down three officials from Diyala Province as those 
officials were driving to the funeral of a colleague who had been assassinated.

Insurgents dressed as police officers also abducted a dozen Iraqi National 
Guardsmen on their way home to the southern holy city of Najaf and murdered 
them all, The Associated Press reported, citing an official in a prominent 
Shiite political party. In a similar attack last month, guerrillas in police 
uniform stopped three minibuses carrying 49 freshly trained Iraqi army soldiers 
going on leave and gunned them down, most with shots to their heads as they 
kneeled or lay on the ground.

Several powerful explosions shook the capital in the afternoon. One came from a 
car bomb that detonated near the downtown home of the finance minister, Adil 
Abdel-Mehdi, killing one of his guards and shattering storefronts along the 
street, said Haithem al-Hassani, an aide in the Supreme Council for the Islamic 
Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite political party to which Mr. Abdel-Mehdi belongs. 
A suicide car bomb near a Catholic church killed an Iraqi bystander and wounded 
a second, while two others in the western Baghdad area aimed at separate 
military convoys killed two American soldiers and wounded five others, the 
military said.

That brought to at least 1,125 the number of American troops who have died in 
the war.

The wave of attacks came a day after insurgents launched coordinated bomb and 
mortar attacks in Samarra and the surrounding area, killing at least 30 people, 
many of them Iraqi police officers. Those strikes demonstrated that a major 
American-led offensive last month in Samarra, a "no go" zone for the Americans 
during much of the summer, had failed to rid the city of insurgents or secure 
key parts of town. The senior American military official said that a 
"resurgence" of the insurgency had taken place because there was "a lag in 
providing sufficient Iraqi police."

"The challenge with police has been an ongoing one," he said.

On Sunday, American troops began enforcing a round-the-clock curfew aimed at 
keeping all Iraqis off the streets of Samarra.

The precarious situation there, coupled with the other assaults over the 
weekend, raised questions about the goals and potential effectiveness of the 
planned American-led attack on Falluja. About 10,000 American troops, mostly 
marines, have amassed outside the city, where thousands of insurgents have dug 
in behind barricades and streets lined with roadside bombs and other ambush 
devices. American and Iraqi officials say that city and Ramadi, just 30 miles 
west, must be subdued before the elections scheduled for January so that 
residents can participate freely in the polling and bolster the legitimacy of 
the outcome.

But the slippage of Samarra back toward chaos raised doubts about whether Iraqi 
security forces and politicians can properly maintain order in Falluja should 
an American-led offensive kill or drive out most of the guerrillas there. Some 
reports indicate that many foreign fighters have already left Falluja, perhaps 
to stage attacks elsewhere or to strike back in Falluja once the Americans 
install Iraqi forces. A weak Iraqi presence in the city following an offensive 
would simply mean another descent into a power vacuum.

Early Sunday and again Sunday night, American forces continued heavy aerial 
bombardments and artillery shelling of parts of Falluja, with explosions 
lighting up the night sky. The attacks were intended to weaken the defenses 
that the guerrillas had built up in anticipation of the coming battle, the 
senior military official said. It has become clear that the insurgents will try 
to channel the American troops along certain routes as they enter the city, 
routes that are heavily booby-trapped with hidden bombs and could be rife with 
snipers, he said.

"We're trying to shape the conditions to conduct further operations" if ordered 
to attack by Dr. Allawi, the official said.

When asked by pool reporters whether he had ordered the offensive to begin, Dr. 
Allawi repeated words he has stuck to throughout the last week: "The window is 
closing, absolutely," he said. "We can't wait indefinitely."

Negotiations between the leaders of Falluja and the interim government fell 
apart weeks ago. American and Iraqi officials have expressed skepticism about 
whether the city leaders have any sway over the mujahedeen, while the city 
leaders say certain conditions of the government - including allowing American 
troops to conduct patrols and searches in Falluja - are absolutely unacceptable.

A guerrilla fighter in the city who gave his name as Abu Muhammad said in a 
telephone interview that the streets remained deserted on Sunday, with only a 
few people scurrying to shops in the western part to buy groceries. The 
Americans had set up a checkpoint on the road leading west to Habbaniya and 
were still letting families pass in both directions while conducting searches 
of some cars, he said. During the overnight bombardment, he said, as mosques in 
the city blared "God is great" through their speakers, the Americans blasted 
Western music from their own sound systems.

"We will see in the end who will win - those who worship God or those who 
deride him," Abu Muhammad said. "We are ready to face them, we will not let the 
city down, and with God's help we will teach them a lesson and inflict heavy 
casualties on them."

Depending on how it goes, an American-led invasion of Falluja, a city dominated 
by Sunni Arabs, who make up a fifth of the Iraqi population, could jeopardize 
the January elections by alienating Sunnis across the country and spurring them 
to boycott the polling.

It is also unclear how Iraqis will react to Dr. Allawi's declaration of martial 
law.

In theory, the broad powers now bestowed on Dr. Allawi will give him greater 
flexibility in fighting the insurgency. Legislation allows for him to extend 
martial law every 30 days beyond the initial 60-day period. There are certain 
checks on what he can exercise: His decisions are subject to review by a senior 
court, he cannot delay the elections scheduled for January and he cannot make 
changes to the interim constitution written last spring.

The law does give Dr. Allawi the right to order extensive surveillance of 
people and communications, and to even monitor or suspend the activities of 
civic groups or businesses believed to have criminal ties. The prime minister 
can impose cordons on areas and limit freedom of movement and of assembly for 
those suspected of crimes. He also has the power to freeze the financial assets 
of criminal suspects.

In July, when the legislation was announced, Bekhtiyar Amin, the human rights 
minister, defended it by saying it was "very similar to the Patriot Act of the 
United States and there are very few differences between them."

The Patriot Act, drawn up by the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 
attacks, has come under intense criticism in the United States because of 
charges that it severely restricts civil liberties.

Edward Wong provided reporting from Baghdad for this article. Iraqi employees 
of The New York Times also contributed reporting.

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