|
Long-term
Guerilla War Likely in Fallujah: Experts
Additional Reporting By Fikry Abdeen, IOL Staff
FALLUJAH,
November 9 (IslamOnline.net) – As thousands of US-led forces were
pushing their way into the bastion of Iraqi resistance, Fallujah,
Tuesday, November 9, military experts and strategists insisted the
battle is highly likely to drag on for days or even months of street
fighting.
“Fallujah
fighters have no other option but to resort to street fighting. They own
nothing but light weapons, rifles and anti-tank missiles,” general
Abdul Samea’ Hussein told IslamOnline.net Tuesday.
The
Egyptian military expert cited the techniques of those defending the
city, especially planting landmines in the streets to help hamper the
advance of the invading forces.
Thousands
of US Marine and Army forces, backed by hellish air strikes, ground
fire and tanks, began Monday, November 8, a
massive assault on Fallujah, west of Baghdad, after US-picked
interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi gave the go-ahead for an all-out
assault.
Hussein
expected it will take days or months to have the restive city fall
under the grip of the occupation forces, depending on the quantity of
food supplies and ammunition inside the city.
“The
food supply and ammunition at the hands of Iraqi resistance would
define the timeframe of the street fight in the city.”
Hussein
warned, however, that the complete closure slapped on the city by
Allawi could eventually push Fallujah residents to surrender,
especially once the food supply in the city comes to an end.
In
Washington, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the US forces
would fight to the end to retake city, after a siege there in April
left hundreds dead and ended in stalemate.
“It's
going to take time,” Rumsfeld told a news conference, for enough
ordinary Iraqis to reach a “tipping point” and turn on the
“insurgents”, according to The Associated Press.
“These
folks are determined,” Rumsfeld said, referring to the estimated
several thousand fighters believed to be spearheading the resistance.
Media
Blackout
 |
|
US
occupation forces have trained for street fighting
|
Hussein
touched on another point, namely the absence of any inside covering
from Fallujah, saying this – doubled with expected high toll among
attacking forces – could tempt US forces to use internationally
banned weapons.
For
his part, another Egyptian strategist, Tala’t Musallam insisted the
timing of onslaught on Fallujah was strictly business, dismissing it
could be directly linked to US president George Bush’s re-election.
Musallam
said that the assault took place once the right conditions were there.
“Training on street fighting, mobilizing the right firepower and
manpower, forcing most of the city’s residents to flee, in addition
to Allawi’s declaration of emergency laws that helped seal Fallujah
completely”.
About
80-to-90 percent of Fallujah's 300,000-strong
population are said to have evacuated the city, escaping the
hell of continuous US air raids that destroyed hundreds of homes and
killed hundreds of people, mostly women and children, according to
local and hospital sources.
Currently,
around 50,000 Iraqi civilians are still trapped in the city.
The
Interim Iraqi government declared Sunday, November 7, a
state of emergency across the war-torn country, except for the
Kurdish-run north.
“Protect
US Troops”
 |
|
Fallujah
has come under hellish US air raids
|
The
Egyptian strategist said that the Iraqi troops taking part in the
attack apparently have a main job, “to spare the US forces heavy
losses in the street fight against the resistance fighters”.
“This
technique of fighting is not a strong hat for occupation forces,
unlike resistance fighters inside the city. Both sides know that it
will be a long-term war, with casualties expected to be soaring. With
landmines used, US forces will make very slow gains in the city
compared to fighting in the open lands.”
He
noted buildings of the restive city would bar the occupation forces
from using long-range weapons, while the Iraqi resistance will benefit
from the dilapidated buildings to launch attacks to hinder the advance
of the invading forces.
The
ferocity of the resistance in the city and attacks of the resistance
groups outside Fallujah against the back lines of the occupation
forces with the aim of alleviating pressures off Fallujah fighters
would define the timeframe of the street fight inside the restive
city, Musallam added.
He
ruled out the fall of the Iraqi bastion of resistance into the hands
of the occupation forces.
The
prominent strategist warned that the occupation forces would commit
war crimes in the city to control the city, prove the success of the
US forces in Iraq and prepare for the general Iraqi elections in next
January.
In
April, at least 700 Iraqis, mostly
women and children, were killed and 1,500 others injured in
Fallujah when US occupation forces imposed a tight siege on the town
and intensified air strikes on its densely-populated areas.
Allawi
Slammed
Egyptian
general Salah El-Din Salim, on his part, criticized Allawi fiercely
over his stance on Fallujah.
“He
[Allawi] turned a deaf ear to demands of the Iraqi tribal chieftains
to grant them more time to reach a solution to the Fallujah standoff.
He also ignored an Egyptian request to spare civilians, a warning from
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan of the grave consequences of invading
the city,” Salim told Al-Jazeera satellite channel Monday.
The
massive offensive on Fallujah aims to break the Iraqi resistance in
the city and make it an example for other Iraqi cities witnessing
staunch resistance against the occupation forces, he said.
City
Center
On
the ground Tuesday, the assaulting US forces have been advancing
toward the center of Fallujah after controlling the city’s train
station overnight, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
“They
are less than one kilometer (half a mile) from the center,” a
high-ranking US military officer told AFP.
“The
offensive is from north to south. Troops faced resistance at the
beginning but there is almost no resistance now,” he added.
The
US war planes, tanks and artillery have pounded the western Iraqi city
with thousands of US occupation forces poured into the city at the
start of the operation dubbed as “Phantom Fury”.
It
was not immediately known if there were any casualties inside the
city, which has been off-limits to foreign reporters for months.
The
occupation forces have also advanced into the Jolan district, with US
marines smashing through a railway line and ploughed through fields,
fearing attacks by the Iraqi resistance, AFP reported.
They
moved house-to-house through the district, knocking down walls and
spraying rounds of machine gunfire at buildings from where Iraqi
resistance fighters fought back with mortars.
|
