US troops storm into Fallujah

FALLUJAH – US troops with crack Iraqi soldiers surged into the heart of Fallujah yesterday in a hail of explosions and gunfire on the second day of the largest operation in Iraq since last year’s US-led war.

“They are less than one kilometre (half a mile) from the centre,” a high-ranking US military officer told AFP. Thousands of US and Iraqi troops poured in after Prime Minister Iyad Allawi authorised a long-expected all-out offensive to retake the Sunni Muslim city from rebels and restore order ahead of elections promised by January.Shelling across Fallujah, a symbol of the insurgency that attacks the US-backed government on a daily basis, escalated as US troops advanced on the centre, fending off mortar and anti-aircraft fire.As columns of smoke plumed skyward, insurgents fought back elsewhere in Iraq, killing at least two Iraqis in a suicide car bombing against a national guard base and wounding several policemen in assaults on two police stations.Sunni and Shiite figures have condemned the assault, dubbed Operation Phantom Fury, with one Sunni political party threatening to quit the government unless it was halted.In Washington, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the forces would fight to the end to retake city, after a siege there in April left hundreds dead and ended in stalemate.In a two-pronged assault, thousands of US troops poured into the northwestern Jolan neighbourhood and the Askari district in the northeast, where they took control of the city’s station overnight.”The offensive is from north to south,” a high-ranking US officer told AFP.The troops “faced resistance at the beginning but there is almost no resistance now.They are less than one kilometre from the centre.”It was not immediately known if there were any casualties.Thousands of residents have already fled the city fearing attack.Fearful of roadside bombs as they stormed the Jolan sector, seen as the heart of rebel activity in the city, US marines smashed through a railway line and ploughed through fields, an AFP reporter embedded with the unit said.Knocking down walls, they moved house-to-house through the neighbourhood, spraying rounds of machine gunfire at buildings from where militants faught back with mortars.A smattering of specially trained Iraqi forces accompanied the marines, while many more were poised on the outskirts of the city, preparing to enter.Despite its superior manpower, the US military is anxious to put an Iraqi face on the Fallujah assault for political reasons as Iraq is a sovereign country.- Nampa-AFPThousands of US and Iraqi troops poured in after Prime Minister Iyad Allawi authorised a long-expected all-out offensive to retake the Sunni Muslim city from rebels and restore order ahead of elections promised by January.Shelling across Fallujah, a symbol of the insurgency that attacks the US-backed government on a daily basis, escalated as US troops advanced on the centre, fending off mortar and anti-aircraft fire.As columns of smoke plumed skyward, insurgents fought back elsewhere in Iraq, killing at least two Iraqis in a suicide car bombing against a national guard base and wounding several policemen in assaults on two police stations.Sunni and Shiite figures have condemned the assault, dubbed Operation Phantom Fury, with one Sunni political party threatening to quit the government unless it was halted.In Washington, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the forces would fight to the end to retake city, after a siege there in April left hundreds dead and ended in stalemate.In a two-pronged assault, thousands of US troops poured into the northwestern Jolan neighbourhood and the Askari district in the northeast, where they took control of the city’s station overnight.”The offensive is from north to south,” a high-ranking US officer told AFP.The troops “faced resistance at the beginning but there is almost no resistance now.They are less than one kilometre from the centre.”It was not immediately known if there were any casualties.Thousands of residents have already fled the city fearing attack.Fearful of roadside bombs as they stormed the Jolan sector, seen as the heart of rebel activity in the city, US marines smashed through a railway line and ploughed through fields, an AFP reporter embedded with the unit said.Knocking down walls, they moved house-to-house through the neighbourhood, spraying rounds of machine gunfire at buildings from where militants faught back with mortars.A smattering of specially trained Iraqi forces accompanied the marines, while many more were poised on the outskirts of the city, preparing to enter.Despite its superior manpower, the US military is anxious to put an Iraqi face on the Fallujah assault for political reasons as Iraq is a sovereign country.- Nampa-AFP