Thousands of American troops fought their way into the most dangerous parts of Fallujah on Monday night at the start of an all-out assault to win back control of the Iraqi insurgent stronghold.
The much-heralded attack began shortly after dusk in a two-pronged push by marines into suburbs in the north, while United States army soldiers fired volleys of mortars into the southern parts of the city.
A soldier from Britain’s Black Watch battalion was killed and two injured by a roadside bomb as they played their part in the Fallujah assault, working along the west bank of the Euphrates river to disrupt insurgent movement between the Iraqi stronghold and Baghdad.
The incident took place north of their base at Camp Dogwood, and follows the death of three Black Watch soldiers in a suicide bombing last week.
US commanders and Iraqi officials hope the Fallujah assault, which is deeply unpopular with some Iraqis, will subdue the ever-more violent Islamist insurgency and prepare the way for elections due in January.
The top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, said on Monday night that ”a major confrontation” was expected.
”We expect that we will have a fight in there over the next few days. As I said, I do believe some [insurgents] have relocated already to other places, but others have come in.”
He said there were between 10 000 and 15 000 US troops and more than five battalions of Iraqis involved in the operation.
A force of 4 000 marines and soldiers from the marine regimental combat unit took the railway and pushed into the Jolan district in the city’s north-west, a known base for foreign Arab fighters, while another force of 4 000 fought their way into the Askari neighbourhood in the north-east.
All day the city had come under a barrage of aircraft bombing raids, which grew more intense as night approached.
From one mosque a cleric exhorted the insurgents to fight: ”God is greatest, God is greatest, God is greatest, oh martyrs,” he said. ”Rise up mujahideen.”
There were frequent heavy exchanges of fire. Video footage from inside the city showed people burying seven bodies, some insurgents, in a makeshift cemetery established in a football ground during the last assault in April.
In preparation for the attack, codenamed Phantom Fury, Ayad Allawi, the Iraqi prime minister, had announced a security crackdown under the 60-day state of emergency.
He put Fallujah under indefinite curfew from dusk on Monday night. Highways were closed, weapons in the city were banned, the borders with Syria and Jordan were closed and the international airport in Baghdad was shut.
”We have started to take necessary measures to provide security and peace in Iraq,” Allawi told a televised news conference.
In Washington, the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld said the taking of Fallujah was essential for the stabilisation of the country. ”I’ve said that a country, to be successful, simply cannot allow there to be safe havens for people who are determined to kill innocent Iraqis and to bring down the government … you can’t allow that in a country. That has to be stopped.”
US marine tanks were seen advancing into Fallujah one block at a time last night under an overwhelming barrage of bombing from jet fighters.
Around 3 000 insurgents are thought to be holed up in Fallujah, most of them Iraqi, but supported by a significant group of foreign Arab fighters. The rebels are armed with rocket-propelled grenades, shoulder-launched missiles and mortars, though suicide car bombs may prove to be their most deadly weapon.
On Monday Allawi flew in to the US base outside Fallujah to rally the several Iraqi battalions involved in the attack. ”Your job is to arrest the killers but if you kill them, then so be it,” he told a crowd of soldiers.
”May they go to hell,” the soldiers shouted. ”To hell they will go,” the prime minister replied.
Earlier, a hardline Sunni group, the Muslim Clerics Association, called on Iraqi troops not to fight in the Falluja operation, saying it would be a ”grave mistake”.
In an internet statement on Monday night, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s group declared: ”Oh people, the war has begun and the call for jihad has been made.”
Although much of the civilian population has fled, at least 100 000 people are thought to remain in the city.
As the attack began in Fallujah, two suicide car bombs exploded outside two churches in Baghdad killing three people and injuring at least 34. A second suicide bomber struck later at the hospital treating two of the survivors, killing five policemen. Another suicide car bomber attacked a US convoy driving to the airport, killing at least two people. – Guardian Unlimited Â