(Note: the map used in this post has been copied from Global Security; the main roads are highlighted in green. I have modified this map to highlight Route 10, the Railroad, suspected Coalition positions and advances, and other terrain features. American/British forces are the blue boxes, friendly Iraqi forces are the green boxes. I think I have pinpointed the positions of 2 of the 5 Iraqi battalions based on news sources, if anyone has further information I would greatly appreciate it.)
Click on the map for a larger image.
The Islamofascists in Fallujah have approached the end. Early reports indicate enemy casualties at over 600. Pockets of scattered resistance exist throughout the city. Two top aides to Zarqawi, along with 70 terrorists, are believed to have been killed in an artillery attack. The bulk of the fighters who have fled the onslaught from the north are being forced to the southern neighborhoods, either to conduct a last stand or attempt an escape.
Since Monday, U.S. and Iraqi troops have been fighting their way through the northern half of Fallujah, reaching the east-west highway that bisects the city and battling pockets of fighters trapped in the north while other insurgents fell back into the south.
After sunset yesterday, U.S. soldiers and Marines began their main assault across the central highway into Fallujah’s southern half after air and artillery barrages pummeled the sector throughout the day, the military said. Sunni fighters in the sector appeared to be trying desperately to break open an escape route through the U.S.-Iraqi cordon closing off Fallujah’s southern edge, commanders said. Insurgent mortar fire and attacks have focused on bridges and roads out of the city more than on U.S. troops descending from the north, they said.
Commanders say that since the offensive began, their seal around the city is tight and that fighters still inside have little chance of escaping. About 15,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops are involved in the cordon and the assault inside the city.
The direction of the insurgent’s fire indicates they are hoping for a breakout. Armed with rifles, RPGs and mortars, they are no match for the vast array of armor, artillery and air support blocking their exit. They are trapped.
“They can’t go north because that’s where we are. They can’t go west because of the Euphrates river and they can’t go east because we have a huge presence there. So they are cornered in the south,” Master Sergeant Roy Meek told Reuters. Tank crews who have swept south over the last 24 hours said they had driven insurgents to the southern part of Fallujah toward a guerrilla stronghold the Americans call ‘Queens’.
The Islamofascists being driven south believe their fate is “victory or martyrdom, and both are great honors.” Elements of the 1st Cavalry Division and the British Black Watch lay in wait to the south of Fallujah. The jihadis may futilely attempt to martyr themselves against American forces, but their death and our victory are assured.
20 Comments
No poor bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other bastards die for theirs.
An oldy but a goody
No time to be squeamish, I know, but I almost feel sorry for the poor deluded jihadis. Just wait until they discover that deflowering virgins is much more difficult after death than they had been led to believe. Should have put in more hours when they had the chance.
All I can say is that it must be a tough day for any corpulent film makers who have gone on record as saying that the Islamofascist insurgents are the “minute men” or freedom fighters of Iraq, ’cause those bad boys are going down.
—Tom Nally, New Orleans
Further on corpulent film makers, I note that Moore is planning a sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11, with the most amusing title “Fahrenheit 9/11 and 1/2”.
Apparently 51% of Americans weren’t told the truth, and Moore sees himself as the man to put this right.
How are “those boys going down”? I wish they were too. But they’re only getting stronger throughout the country. You have to look at the reality of this situation. This insurgency may still be going on in 10 years.
Ryan
You’re of the same ilk that said 15+ years ago that we couldn’t win the cold war.
Why are liberals such weaklings!!
It took 50 years to win the Cold War and I’m suggesting it will take 10 (8 more) to win in Iraq. Before the War started, all my conservative friends told me they thought the fighting in Iraq would be over in 2 weeks. I told them I thought 8-10 years.
This is totally different from the Cold War. In the Cold War, Russians did not like communism. Every survey of Iraqis has shown that a majority want us to leave.
If you’re right and all these operations are going to work, then why are steadily more insurgents instead of less? Why were there 6 attacks a day after the war and now there are 150? I definitely want us to win but this war is looking more unwinnable every day. Anyone who cannot see the fact that Iraq is getting worse and not better is simply lying to themselves.
Looks like that sequel might be off if he can’e lay off the tacos.
Too bad
this isn’t real.
Ryan,
We better start surrendering now. You think we can borrow some white flags that France has left in their inventory or do they still need them?
I assume you are referring to Mosul. You say it is growing stronger… the 600+ dead really mean it is growing stronger. No, quite the contrary. The insurgents are fleeing their old stronghold. We shut down their slauhgterhouses just like we shut down Uday and Qsay’s rape rooms. You think the guys in Mosul are new recruits or do you think they are existing insurgents trying to divert our attention from exterminating their brothers in Fallujah?
Two weeks ago, the lefts wisdom was that Fallujah would be too difficult to take and that we would incur heavy casualties. So far 16 dead versus 650+. The insurgents have military ability in an actual fight on par with the French. The insurgents fight much better when they are beheading people or shooting or blowing up women and children. So far, Baghad and the rest of Iraq fell in 3 weeks. This time, Fallujah in mere days. So now it is, “Well sure we took Fallujah, but we made them really mad and now they are recruiting more fighters.” Just like we made the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan real made and they sure showed us what happens when they get mad. Just like we made the Germans mad when we took Normandy. Or like the Germans made the French real mad in the 6 weeks it took them to start sipping wine in Paris. Don’t exterminate another Army or more people will rush to join it.
Please Ryan, please just say, “Well, sure, we won the war in Fallujah, but do we have a plan to win the peace?” I venture to say we have a plan to win the piece in Afghanistan and it is working, and our plan to win the piece in Iraq includes stopping playing games with these clowns and letting the Iraqis and the world know that we are serious. It is precisely the left’s fears and the anti-war people, the John Kerry’s, the Ted Kennedy’s, and the Howard Dean’s that are why we were losing the peace and why we didn’t just go in there and clean house months ago. Why is the news from Iraq all good in the last two weeks? Oh, yeah, because now the insurgents are no longer dying to persuade America to leave them alone, they are just dying. They best pack a lunch because John Kerry ain’t gonna save them now. It is not taking too long for our military to send them all to Allah.
But we will see who is right. You can take the Iraqis and I will take our Marines. Let the insurgents recruit. They are real good at car bombs but this is the same fighting force that at the same time fought down Hitler and Japan and island hopped the entire Pacific. Our President just let them actually be Marines again for the first time in a year. It is going to get tough to recruit pretty quick because remember Iraq is a fairly secular country and secular minded people are less inclined to sign up to meet Allah. Bring in Iranians and Syrians. Our Marines will send them to meet the 70 Virgins too.
Let’s see some surveys Ryan.
We’ll win the peace 650 martyrs at a time.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-28-poll-cover_x.htm
There’s the link to the poll of Iraqis.
I don’t think we should surrender but I’m just pointing out the realities that the situation is getting worse. Mosul is not the only city. It is getting worse throughout the whole Sunni area of the country. Turkmen are now participating in the insurgency too. I think we can eventually defeat this but it isn’t going to be anytime soon. Public opinion has to be in our favor to win and that simply isn’t the case.
Ryan-
I will definitely take a while, but we are the Sunnis only hope to avoid genocide at the hands of the Shias and Kurds. The Sunnis are 20% of the folks in Iraq and the other guys HATE them.
Our fall back position is what we did very successfully in El Salvadore… our thugs killed their thugs. John Negropointe was US Ambassador to El Salvadore at the time… he was just named Ambassador to Iraq… what a coincidence.
Ryan,
There is also a poll that most Iraqis favored the re-election or president Bush. Nobody wants to be occupied or unsafe. Naturally they want to be soveriegn, but the majority support the efforts of the US. Those that think we let the real insurgents escape Fallujah, or didn’t anticipate the rise in violence across the country are mistaken. We accepted the political and logistical realties and a plan was formulated to deal with them. There is a long term strategy in place to not only take back Falluajh, but to disrupt the insurgency’s supply and communication lines leading back to Syria and Iran. Both led straight to Fallujah. Without a main base of operations it will be increasingly difficult for the insurgency to coordinate attacks. The recon gathered during this operation will be invaluable to getting an even better understanding of the enemy and how to destroy them. We will now keep them on the run, just like in Afghanistan, and they will not have time to sleep, eat, or take a dump without worrying that their havens have been compromised. The big picture looks grim for them and shows the world that we can not only fight in the mountains of Afghanistan – which the Russians couldn’t – but we can win decisive vistories in short order in urban combat. Google the MOUT. It’s a good read.
Well put Justin,
Heck why stop at surrendering in Fallujh, let surrender the whole of Iraq. Maybe the rest of the Middle east. Oh screw it, lets give the Islamofacists the keys to the Whitehouse and Congress, because we sure don’t want to make them mad at us.
Ryan practicing your Arabic and studying the Koran??? Because either these cockroaches will be dead or those are the tools of the future if you have your way.
BTW why are there any Liberals still alive? Its all bad it is only going to get worse, we all die someday, so might as well commit suicide. The nhinilist philosophy of the left just defies any rational thought.
Ken: That’s my point exactly. I think we will win eventually because a lot of Iraqis do want us to succeed even though they say they want us gone in the surveys. The educated in Iraq overwhelingmly want us to succeed. If 20 or 30% of the country supported the insurgency for example, that would be enough to cause a lot of trouble for a lot of years.
The only way we could lose is if we cancel the election due to lack of security. I really hope GWB isn’t stupid enough to do that.
It’s difficult to see any solution to the problem in the Sunni heartland short of destroying everything.
Here is a *new and different* approach. Let’s take all the *good guys* in Iraq, put them in boats in the Persian Gulf and then nuke the whole country until it is glass. Then, to be sure we got them all, sink the boats. 🙂
Just kidding, of course. I began to suspect things were going well in Fallujah when the MSM was silent about things. They must be thankful to have a few deaths to report. And, there is a spot of trouble in Mosul, so we can hear the *same ol’ story*–it’s a mess. Thank goodness we have a source that keeps us informed of what is really going on. Thanks, Bill.
Phil: “Thank goodness we have a source that keeps us informed of what is really going on. Thanks, Bill.”
Isn’t that the truth!?!? As usual, Bill, great job! And thanks for the map; it is a great resource for tracking things over there.
Ryan: This insurgency may still be going on in 10 years.
As long as a terrorist lives and breathes anywhere near Iraq, the insurgency will live on. But that doesn’t mean Iraq can’t win this war and establish their democracy. Success in Iraq will not be defined by the absence of insurgents. It will be defined by the predominance of freedom and democracy. President Bush’s re-election gives the Iraqis their best chance to make that happen, and it will not take 10 years.
Cattle driving the rats out of Falluja
Bill at the fourth rail describes what’s going on in Falluja as a
Ryan,
The good news is ten years from now if the insurgency is still going on, we may have another Clinton in the White House. She can invite Al Zarqawi to stay in the Lincoln Bedroom while she negotiates an “insurgent state” for them. Hell, we should start giving Al Zarqawi a Nobel Peace Prize now.
I never said that victory criteria is lack of terrorists or insurgents, nor has anyone. Afghanistan still has some insurgents and still has some Taliban, but they have been driven into hiding and are not disrupting the lives of everyone else on a day to day basis the way that they were. We have not pulled out of Afghanistan and may have to stay for quite a while, but you don’t see significant American Deaths every day from Afghanistan. For that matter, you didn’t see significant American Deaths from Germany and Japan or South Korea, which we still “occupy”.
Middle East Peace does not mean that everyone lives in harmony with white doves flying. If that is the criteria, we don’t have peace in the US. Middle East Security and representative governments that do not torture and kill their own citizens, as well as relegating the militant violent Islamo-facists to second class citizens due to the economic and social prosperity that the rest of the citizenry enjoy is the answer. That is victory. At that point, we will be able to let these countries charge huge debts to the world bank, devalue their currency, and live like the rest of the “second world” countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Russia. =)