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US set to storm Fallujah, Ramadi
US marines prepared on Friday to storm the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi to crush Sunni Muslim insurgents and Arab fighters. US warplanes bombarded  Fallujah with at least 10 missiles late on Friday night, witnesses said. There was no immediate word on casualties, but hospital officials said an earlier strike killed six Iraqi men. "We are gearing up for a major operation," Brigadier General Denis Hajlik told reporters at a base near Fallujah early on Friday. "If we do so, it will be decisive and we will whack them." Hajlik, deputy commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said the expected assault would involve Iraqi forces. Iraq's US-backed interim government has vowed to pacify the whole country before nationwide elections due in January. US planes have launched almost daily air strikes on what the military says are safe houses used by a network of Iraqi and foreign fighters led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But a full-scale US-led offensive could be as devastating as a marine attack in April that Washington called off after a world outcry over civilian casualties in Fallujah. Local doctors reported more than 600 dead in the fighting.
Posted by: Fred 2004-10-30 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=47305 |