Long-term Guerilla War Likely in Fallujah

“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

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”

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.