U.S. troops kill 600 Iraqi fighters
THE United States (U.S.) continued its offensive against suspected insurgents in Iraq yesterday. Warplanes and artillery bombarded southern parts of Fallujah, where troops attempted to squeeze Sunni fighters in a smaller cordon. The military said that about 600 fighters had been killed in the siege but acknowledged success in the city won't break Iraq insurgency.
The huge Fallujah campaign has also sent a stream of American wounded to the military's main hospital in Europe. Planes carrying about 90 bloodied and broken troops were expected yesterday at Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany. They join 125 wounded soldiers flown there already this week.
The large number of the wounded sent to Germany suggests that fighting may be more intense - at least in some areas - than the military had initially indicated. Only seriously wounded troops are flown to Landstuhl.
At least 13 U.S. soldiers and Marines have been killed so far in the Fallujah operation, according to military reports pieced together since Monday. The military has been slow in releasing official, comprehensive reports, citing security.
Military officials cautioned that the figure of 600 insurgents killed in Fallujah was only a rough estimate. Some 1,200 to 3,000 fighters were believed holed up in the city before the offensive. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Gen. Richard Myers, said yesterday that "hundreds and hundreds of insurgents" had been killed and captured.
The number of civilian casualties in the city is not known. Most of the city's 200,000 to 300,000 residents are believed to have fled before the attacks. The rest have been hunkered down in their homes without electricity during days of heavy barrages, with food supplies reported low.
In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded on a central commercial street yesterday morning, killing at least 17 people and wounding at least eight, police said. It was the latest in a wave of attacks that insurgents have unleashed this week, trying to divert U.S. and Iraqi forces and show they can still wage their campaign of violence despite the Fallujah assault.
