More Marines move into Falluja as they try to convince the bad guys to give up (while the getting's good)
Hundreds of reinforcements joined Marines besieging Fallujah on Saturday, and the U.S. military said it would move to take the city if cease-fire talks fail. Fighting raged through the center of the country, killing 40 Iraqis and an American airman.
In what could be a step toward quelling the violence, the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is negotiating with several members of the Iraqi Governing Council to end the Shiite uprising in the center and south of Baghdad, a member of the council told Reuters.
[Wise move, Moqtada! The secret is to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em and you ain't got squat!--Jen]
[...]
Gunfire crackled in the city, even as Iraqi government negotiators met with Fallujah leaders to persuade them to hand over militants who killed and mutilated four Americans in here on March 31. Insurgents offered to call a truce if U.S. troops leave Fallujah — a condition the Americans appeared unlikely to accept.
[These terrorists are almost hilarious!
"Even though we're getting badly creamed, we demand you stop kicking our butts and give us what we want!"
Too funny!--j.t.]
Nearly 60,000 Fallujah residents, about a third of the population, have fled over the past two days, a Marine commander said.
[...]
Elsewhere, militants hit a U.S. air base with mortars in Balad, north of Baghdad, killing an airman. Other fighters attacked government buildings and police stations in Baqouba, setting off firefights in which about 40 Iraqis were killed. Several U.S. troops were wounded, said Capt. Issam Bornales, spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade.
Insurgents also fought U.S. troops in Baghdad's northern, mainly Sunni neighborhood of al-Azamiyah.
Masked gunmen caused havoc on the road between Baghdad and Fallujah, a key supply route, rocketing a second fuel convoy in the area in as many days. Nearby, guerrillas hit a U.S. tank with an rocket-propelled grenade, setting it ablaze.
[...]
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt called on Fallujah's insurgents to join a bilateral cease-fire. But he said a third battalion of Marines had moved to the city — joining two battalions totaling 1,200 troops and a battalion of nearly 900 Iraqi security forces.
Kimmitt warned that if talks between city leaders and members of the Iraqi Governing Council failed, the military would consider renewing its assault on Fallujah. Marine commanders were skeptical negotiations would succeed.
"The prospect of some city father walking in and making 'Joe Jihadi' give himself up are pretty slim," said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Batallion, 5th Marine Regiment.
"What is coming is the destruction of anti-coalition forces in Fallujah ... they have two choices: Submit or die," he told reporters.
[...]
Kimmitt said Marines were respecting a unilateral halt in offensive operations called Friday but said gunmen continued to fire on troops, who were responding.
"Were we not at this point observing suspension of offensive operations ... it could well have been that we would have had the entire the city by this point," Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad.
Asked what he hoped from the negotiations — in which U.S. officials were not taking part — Kimmitt said: "We would like to hear that they will lay down their arms ... (and) are prepared to turn over the perpetrators of the attacks on the Americans."
He said 60 insurgents have been captured in the Fallujah campaign so far, including five foreign Arabs.
[...]
In the south, the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr remained in control of Karbala and nearby Najaf and Kufa.
[But we retook Kut yesterday!] Braced for an American assault, hundreds of militiamen with assault rifles roamed the streets and guarded makeshift checkpoints.
[...]
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are in Karbala and other Shiite cities to mark al-Arbaeen, the end of the mourning period for a 7th-century martyred Shiite saint. Ceremonies last until Sunday night.
[The Muslims can't stand it that we have Easter and Passover so they dreamed up this one to get in on the holiday.]
U.S. forces continued to fight gunmen in Kut, where hundreds of troops moved in Friday to wrest the city from the control of al-Sadr's militia. An AC-130 gunship and helicopters blasted militia positions as the Americans seized police stations and government buildings, Kimmitt said.
[...]
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, meanwhile, made a surprise visit to Italian troops in the southern city of Nasiriyah, which saw fighting with al-Sadr followers earlier in the week but has largely become quiet in the meantime.
"I bring you the embrace of the Italians," he told the troops. "Your actions are in support of peace, for the fight against terrorism, and in defense of democracy."
So the battle goes apace...and we will win, of course.
I can't believe the partisan Left (both media and pols) whining about how Iraq is "Vietnam" and a "quagmire" and opining that we might even lose to the Mahdi army! Unbelievable.
This is the U.S. military, my friends...and the troops of her fine allies.
Lose? Fuggedaboutit.
These guys couldn't stop our march up to Baghdad a year ago when they were an "organized" army.
Their 8-year war with Iran in the '80's was a draw.
And they're now looking down the guns of the leanest, meanest, fighting machine on the planet!
Even with clear superiority, you can tell that Brig. Gen. Kimmit is holding the Marines back to minimize casualties.
If the jihadis insist, we will kill them.
If they're smart (which I don't think they are), they'll surrender.
But we will win the day and the victory and then we can go back to peacefully establishing democracy in Iraq without the interference and murder instigated by Islamist theocratic wannabe dictators like al-Sadr and his little band of killing fanatics.
