{"id":335,"date":"2004-11-10T22:07:54","date_gmt":"2004-11-11T04:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=335"},"modified":"2004-11-10T22:22:42","modified_gmt":"2004-11-11T04:22:42","slug":"point-insurgents-cornered-in-fallujah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=335","title":{"rendered":"Point: Insurgents Cornered in Fallujah"},"content":{"rendered":"

It looks like things are progressing as planned<\/a>, if not better, for the coalition forces in Fallujah.<\/p>\n

The top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, has told US President George W. Bush that his troops are “making very good progress” securing Iraq, as American forces and their Iraqi allies paralysed insurgent forces in Fallujah and cut off their escape routes from the city.<\/p>\n

“He said that things are going well in Fallujah,” Mr Bush said on a day when US forces cornered insurgents after a swift advance that seized control of 70 per cent of the militant stronghold.<\/p>\n

….<\/p>\n

The senior US Marine commander there said Wednesday echoed that message.<\/p>\n

“We are comfortable that they are not able to communicate, to work out any coordination,” Lieutenant General John Sattler said of Fallujah’s insurgents. “They are now in small pockets, blind, moving about the city. We will continue to hunt them down and destroy them.”<\/p>\n

….<\/p>\n

Lt-Gen Sattler, appearing with a senior Iraqi general, declined to discuss the positions and strategy of the American and Iraqi forces still fighting in Fallujah. But he said they have followed their battle plan and left the remaining insurgents with no good options.<\/p>\n

“When they attempted to flee from one zone to another they were killed,” Lt-Gen Sattler said. “We feel very comfortable that none of them moved back toward the north or escaped on the flanks.”<\/p>\n

Major General Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan, speaking through an interpreter, said it was “possible but unlikely” that any insurgents had escaped in the days since the city was sealed off. Asked to describe the fighting tactics of the insurgents, he replied, “They have no tactics.”<\/p>\n

The US military and the interim Iraqi government are eager to put an Iraqi face on the Fallujah offensive. In addition to letting the Iraqi general take the lead in responding to reporters’ questions, officials showed a video of Iraqi soldiers in Fallujah hoisting an Iraqi flag and singing the Iraqi national anthem.<\/p>\n

Lt-Gen Sattler declined to specify how many US and Iraqi troops had been killed and wounded in the fighting.<\/p>\n

“They would be catalogued as light at this time,” he said, adding that to be more specific would provide the insurgents with potentially useful information about the effectiveness of their tactics.<\/p>\n

Both Lt-Gen Sattler and the Iraqi general expressed confidence the Fallujah offensive would restore order in that hotbed of Sunni resistance, but they cautioned that much fighting remained.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Along with this progress, evidence of the terrorist atrocities<\/a> is being uncovered in the wake of the advance.<\/p>\n

Iraqi forces fighting alongside US troops in Fallujah yesterday claimed to have found the houses in which civilian hostages were held by militants and beheaded in front of a camera.<\/p>\n

Iraqi troops found video disks with recordings of the killings, the black clothes worn by militants in the videos and records of the names of hostages, Major-General Abdel Qadir Jassem said. “We have found hostage slaughterhouses in Fallujah that were used by these people,” said General Jassem, who has just been named military governor of Fallujah by the US-appointed Iraqi Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi.<\/p>\n

Although General Jassem said records of prisoners’ names had been found, he could not say whether information had been uncovered about the humanitarian worker, Margaret Hassan,held since 19 October, or the two French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, held since 21 August.<\/p>\n

General Jassem said that records of “hundreds” of prisoners had been found. At least 28 foreigners are known to be held and 38 are known to have been killed. But Iraqis have been abducted and killed in much higher numbers.<\/p>\n

The beheadings of hostages have become the most haunting image of what is unfolding in Iraq. Although most television networks, both Western and Arab, have refused to show the grotesque execution videos, they are widely available on the Internet and thousands of Westerners have watched them.<\/p>\n

Since the first video was released, of the American contractor Nick Berg being beheaded with a knife, there has been a steady stream of similar videos. At least 38 foreign hostages have been killed in Iraq. Although some were shot, many have been beheaded on camera, including the British hostage Kenneth Bigley.<\/p>\n

It was the beheadings, more than anything else, that forced the Americans’ hand into going into Fallujah. The last aid agencies were leaving and any effort at reconstruction was impossible with contractors facing abuction and murder.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All this evidence does is show how important it is to continually press the evil Islamists until they reach their breaking point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It looks like things are progressing as planned, if not better, for the coalition forces in Fallujah. The top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, has told US President George W. Bush that his troops are “making very good progress” securing Iraq, as American forces and their Iraqi allies paralysed insurgent forces in Fallujah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}