COMMAND POST - 600 Insurgents Killed
By Dan Spencer on Fallujah
The Associated Press reports that 600 insurgents have been killed since the start of the battle of Fallujah on Monday night:Military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity cautioned that the death toll was only a rough estimate and would change as bodies delivered to hospitals and morgues began to be tallied.The toll takes into account fighters killed in ground fighting, as well as by hundreds of air and artillery strikes that have collapsed buildings and pounded insurgent positions.
The military had no information on the numbers of civilians killed or wounded. U.S. Troops rescued a hostage chained to wall in Fallujah:U.S. troops discovered an Iraqi man chained to a wall in a building in northeastern Fallujah, the military said Thursday. The man, who was shackled at the ankles and wrists, bruised and starving, told Marines he was a taxi driver abducted 10 days ago and that his captors had beat him with cables. The Jolan neighborhood is being turned over to Iraqi forces:In what could be a sign of progress, the Marines began turning over the northern neighborhood of Jolan to Iraqi forces, signaling that they consider the area relatively secure.
Jolan, a dense, historic district of tight alleyways, was considered one of the strongest positions held by militants inside Fallujah and parts of it saw heavy fighting. Warplanes attacked a mosque used to attack U.S. and Iraqi forces: In one of the most dramatic clashes Wednesday, snipers fired on U.S. and Iraqi troops from the minarets of the Khulafah al-Rashid mosque, the military said. U.S. Marines called in an airstrike, and an F-18 dropped a 500-pound bomb on the mosque, destroying both minarets.Pool footage showed U.S. forces battling insurgents in a neighborhood surrounding the mosque. Troops were pinned down by gunfire on a rooftop, forced to hit the deck and lay on their stomachs."When they’re using a mosque to do command and control for insurgents and kill my fellow Marines and soldiers and airmen that are out here - no holds barred, the gloves are off," said Marine Staff Sgt. Sam Mortimer. From California Yankee.... |
