Coalition forces were able to regain some control of these areas by May, but in cities like Najaf, the Mahdi Army never really left. Al-Sadr loyalists in his armed militia known as Jaish al-Mahdi (the Mahdi Army) eventually took to the streets and seized control of the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, and the cities of Al Kut, Karbala, and Najaf. In total, 27 American servicemembers were killed and more than 90 wounded during the first battle of Fallujah.Įlsewhere in Iraq, violence escalated as Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr engaged in a political battle with the new Iraqi government. American forces withdrew to the outskirts of the city and the Marines retained a loose cordon around the city, consisting mainly of checkpoints. On April 25, a locally raised Iraqi military force called the Fallujah Brigade under the command of Major General Jassim Mohammed Saleh assumed control of Fallujah.
International criticism of the mission sparked by footage of what was dubbed as excessive force also contributed. Pressure from the Iraqi governing council and the Coalition Provisional Authority forced the Marines to prematurely halt the operation. Central Command, ordered Sanchez to suspend the operation. On April 9, four days after the operation’s start, General John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. The attack was slow due to the size of the enemy, estimated to be about 2,000 insurgents the complexity of fighting in a densely populated large city a lack of armor capability and a complete loss of their Iraqi paramilitary support. Marine Regimental Combat Team 1 (RCT-1) initiated the assault on April 5. In response, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of the coalition forces in Iraq, ordered the I Marine Expeditionary Force to launch Operation Vigilant Resolve into Fallujah to deny its use as an insurgent sanctuary and to arrest those responsible for the killing of the contractors. Images of the hanging bodies were televised and broadcast world-wide. Two of the contractors’ bodies were hung from the ramparts of a bridge on the outskirts of the city. On March 31, 2004, insurgents ambushed, killed, and subsequently burned four American security contractors in Fallujah. In 2004 Fallujah had an estimated population of 250,000 to 300,000 residents. It is a densely populated, industrial city that grew as a way station along silk road branches that connected Baghdad to major population centers such as Aleppo, Syria.
Fallujah rests on the banks of the Euphrates River.
The city of Fallujah, located between the cities of Baghdad and Ramadi, became an insurgent hotbed and served as the base of operations for al Qaeda affiliate Jamat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad. The triangles’ points included the cities of Baghdad, Tikrit, and Ramadi. The insurgent stronghold was located within the “Sunni Triangle,” a densely populated region in central Iraq inhabited largely by Sunni Muslims. Bush declared that “ Major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” while standing beneath the “Mission Accomplished” banner onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, but a Sunni insurgency was already simmering. Some mistakenly believed that the war was over when President George W. The United States invaded Iraq in March 2003 and quickly overthrew Saddam Hussein and his Ba’ath Party government. The views expressed by General Rainey are his and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. James Rainey about the 2004 Second Battle of Fallujah Iraq. The excerpt is an edited conversation John Spencer had with Lt. Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from the book “Understanding Urban Warfare” published by Howgate Publishing and available for purchase at Amazon here.
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