Fallujah was a city anxiously awaiting war yesterday. United States troops closed off the entrances to the Iraqi city with earth barricades, while military patrols entered the outer suburbs on reconnaissance missions. They used loud speakers to warn residents to stay indoors until today.
Iraqi police in the city visited mosques dropping off leaflets in Arabic from the US military, telling residents that there was a daily 7pm to 6am curfew. They ordered them not to congregate in groups or carry weapons, even if they were licensed. They instructed people that if US forces enter their homes, they should gather in one room and, if they want to talk to the troops, to have their hands up.
Outside the city, hundreds of US and Iraqi troops in tanks, trucks and other vehicles waited for the order to launch the operation, code-named "Vigilant Resolve".
Explosions and gunfire could be heard coming from the centre of the city, but streets on the outskirts were largely deserted. Schools were closed and the US military said it had also shut the nearby Baghdad-Amman highway indefinitely.
US commanders have been vowing a massive response to pacify Fallujah, one of the most violent cities in the Sunni Triangle, the heartland of the anti-US insurgency north and west of Baghdad.
The major operation follows the grisly slayings of four American security contractors in the city last week in which residents dragged the bodies through the streets, hanging two of the charred corpses from a bridge.
One US marine was also killed in fighting in the area yesterday, said Lieutenant Colonel Gregg Olson, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. He gave no other details.
Some 1,200 US marines and two battalions of Iraqi security forces were poised to enter the city to arrest suspected insurgents, said Lieutenant James Vanzant of 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. He would not say when the troops would enter the city.
"The city is surrounded," Lt Vanzant said. "It’s an extended operation. We want to make a very precise approach to this. We are looking for the bad guys in town."
The marines’ Lieutenant Eric Knapp said the troops will target the killers of the four Americans as well as rebels who have attacked US forces and Iraqi police in the past month. "Those people are specially targeted to be captured or killed," he said.
Another marine officer said US forces had a list of targets for raids. He would not give details.
A witness reported that a US helicopter attacked a residential area in the city early yesterday, killing five people. The bombing damaged five houses, said the witness, Mohammed Shawkat. There was no immediate US comment on the report.
Another witness, resident Ali Jasim, said there was shooting near one of the US barricades on a road out of Fallujah and some Iraqis who were trying to leave the city were hit. It was unclear whether they were killed or wounded.
The California-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force assumed responsibility for Fallujah, 50km west of Baghdad, from the US army’s 82nd Airborne Division on 24 March. The marines said they intended to take a softer approach with Fallujah residents, hoping to win popular support.
However, they have quickly found themselves mired in violence. On 26 March, marines and insurgents fought a lengthy street battle in the city that killed one marine and five Iraqis. And on the same day as the killing of the four US civilians, five marines were killed when a bomb exploded under their vehicle in a nearby village.
In other violence, the US army reported two marines and two soldiers killed in attacks in Iraq on Sunday and yesterday, bringing the US death toll to 12 in the past 24 hours.
A US military statement said the Kirkuk car bomb attack on Sunday afternoon killed a 1st Infantry Division soldier and wounded six other soldiers. Since the start of the war, 422 US soldiers have been killed in action. Thousands of Iraqis have been killed.
The hardline US approach in Fallujah contrasts with a softer line being taken in less violent parts of Iraq. US forces conduct some 1,400 patrols and raids across Iraq every day.
Whereas in the past missions always favoured strong-arm tactics, these days the emphasis is on what is being called "the relationship phase" with Iraqi civilians. Small units are key players in the new approach, commanding officers say. It’s their patrols and raids, rather than big sweeps and offensives, that are the staple of the military effort in Iraq.
"It’s much easier to kick down doors and arrest people, but you pay a price. What we’re doing is infinitely more complicated than combat operations. Soldiers have to exercise far greater judgment and they assume risks," says US battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Newell.
And commanders differ as to the emphasis they place on the velvet glove.
Lt Col Newell says his battalion, from the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division, came prepared for the softer touch, with nine months of peacekeeping experience in Kosovo. They arrived in Iraq less than a month ago, charged with stabilising the largely rural area of 260,000 people around Muqdadiyah.
"Initially we come into town and everyone says, ‘We have no problems. The bad guys come from over there.’ They just don’t open up. It may be from feelings toward us but a lot of people are just very scared."
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