U.S. Army bulks up in Baghdad, Marines fight in Fallujah
From From the Wolf Blitzer Reports staff in Washington:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- City by city, insurgents and coalition forces slugged it out with lethal intensity on Wednesday.
In Fallujah, pitched street battles took place between Sunni insurgents and U.S. Marines. Witnesses reported Marines fighting door-to-door with militiamen, trying to hunt them down.
"They have brave Marines and civil defense corps soldiers in the city, taking out the enemy, one by one, and all the enemies of the Iraqi people," said U.S. Army spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt.
Elsewhere in the area, a U.S. helicopter and an Abrams tank were hit and damaged.
Some observers believe this operation in Fallujah should have been launched before U.S. civilian contractors were killed there last week.
"They're finally going in and trying to pacify these parts of Iraq that were left lawless and left in the hands of the opposition figures for twelve months. This was an enormous mistake," says CNN analyst Ken Pollack.
Just northwest of Fallujah, in Ramadi, U.S. generals say American forces have "firm control" of the city -- 24 hours after 12 Marines were killed in a ferocious attack. More than twenty Marines were wounded and dozens of Iraqi insurgents were killed. The Pentagon believes the attackers were suspected remnants of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.
In Baghdad, the U.S. Army bulked up its forces in the teeming slum of Sadr City, a stronghold of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The United States estimates al-Sadr's militia, the Mehdi Army, to be 3,000 strong. The coalition expects more resistance as it seeks to apprehend al-Sadr on murder charges.
Muqtada al-Sadr himself is still holed-up further south, in the holy city of Najaf. His army has control of that city, but a U.S. general says coalition forces have a "strong presence" on the outskirts.
In Karbala, al-Sadr's militias fought with Polish coalition troops.
And to the east, in Kut, al-Sadr's forces also engaged Ukrainian soldiers. The Ukrainians took casualties and withdrew from the city.
