 |
|
Iraqis
boil with anger at the
US
onslaught on Fallujah. (AFP)
|
While
US troops say they tightened their grip on Fallujah Friday, clashes
raged with fighters in
Iraq
's main northern city of
Mosul
, where gunmen roamed the streets, and in the capital where one
US
soldier was killed.
Despite
the imposition of a night-time curfew, at least five Iraqis were
killed in the Sunni Arab town of
Hawijah
, as unrest flared across Sunni areas of central and northern
Iraq
.
Despite
the declared
US
military successes, commanders expressed fear that many
“insurgents” (US term for resistance fighters) had fled Fallujah
before the battle for the city started Monday and were now operating
in other Sunni Arab flashpoints such as
Iraq
's third city of
Mosul
.
As
the Fallujah assault entered its fifth day, US tanks rolled freely,
while thousands of US troops, backed by Iraqi soldiers, moved
house-to-house to root out pockets of insurgents.
“What
is left (to take), comparatively speaking, is a small piece of what we
started with,” said marine spokesman Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert.
“We
control it (Fallujah) in the sense that we are ever present but it
will still take some time to secure it,” he told AFP, without giving
a timeframe.
A
relentless barrage of
US
firepower over the past week has turned Fallujah into a ghost city,
said an AFP reporter embedded with the marines.
Victory
in Fallujah looked set to come at a heavy price and also appeared
unlikely to crush “an insurgency” that has plagued
Iraq
since last year's US-led invasion, threatening nationwide elections
promised for January, according to AFP.
In
the face of the onslaught in Fallujah, some resistance fighters
appeared to have shifted elsewhere, with bombings and other attacks
across the Sunni belt prompting curfews on seven cities.
In
the capital, a
US
soldier was killed when his unit came under attack by improvised
explosive devices, small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the
US
military said.
Two
other soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were wounded.
Gunmen
roamed the streets of
Mosul
, but the
US
military insisted the city of more than a million people remained
under control a day after it unleashed air and ground strikes on
suspected resistance positions after the governor asked for help.
One
US
soldier and several Iraqi fighters were killed in Thursday's clashes.
In
Hawijah, at least five Iraqis were killed and six wounded when
anti-occupation fighters clashed with police, national guards and US
troops, police said.
“We
do not know if the dead are civilians or rebels,” said the town's
police chief, Colonel Ahmad al-Obeidi.
Other
Fallujahs
 |
|
US
troops are facing fierce resistance across
Iraq
. (AFP)
|
Strategists,
meanwhile, warned that fighters led by the most wanted man in
Iraq
, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, may be already regrouping for other Fallujahs,
even as the
US
war machine unleashes its might on the rebel city.
Both
US and Iraqi commanders have expressed astonishment at the weak level
of resistance they have encountered in Fallujah, which analysts say
proves that many fighters have bolted out already to lick their wounds
and fight another day, leaving the defense of the city to home-grown
fighters.
“Some
of the fighters may have swam across the river and melted away into
the hinterlands,” Major General Abdul Qader Mohan, Iraqi commander
for Operation Dawn in Fallujah, told AFP. “They saw this (assault)
coming.”
In
Samarra
, a predominantly Sunni city north of
Baghdad
, a
US
military captain told AFP on condition of anonymity that while US-led
forces are winning the military fight, resistance fighters have
increasingly “terrorized” the city's residents.
“Security
is still our biggest concern,” the captain said.
The
officer said that
Samarra
's police chief resigned Thursday; a worrying development because he
gave no reason for quitting and had been handpicked to keep the city
in line after heavy fighting last month.
Iraqi
and
US
forces launched a massive operation in
Samarra
in early October to regain control of the city, but US military
commanders acknowledge that many of the fighters went to ground after
the brief assault.
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