The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 10, 2004, Page 3, Image 3
iClerics urge vote boycott
after move on Fallujah
By JIM KRANE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq — U.S.
troops powered their way into the center
of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah
on Tuesday, overwhelming small bands
^of guerrillas with massive force, searching
^Bbomes along the city’s deserted, narrow
passageways and using loudspeakers to
try to goad militants onto the streets.
As of Tuesday night, the fighting had
killed 10 U.S. troops and two members
of the Iraqi security force, the U.S.
military announced. The toll already
equaled the 10 American military deaths
when Marines besieged the city for three
weeks in April.
U.S. officials issued no estimate of
insurgent casualties, but one American
commander said his battalion alone had
killed or wounded up to 90 guerrillas.
As the offensive moved into a second
full day, up to eight attack aircraft _
including jets and helicopter gunships _
blasted guerrilla strongholds and raked
the streets with rocket, cannon and
machine-gun fire ahead of U.S. and
Iraqi infantry who were advancing only
one or two blocks behind the curtain of
fire.
Small groups of guerrillas, armed
^^with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades,
mortars and machine guns, engaged
U.S. troops, then fell back. U.S. troops
inspected houses along Fallujah’s streets
and ran across adjoining alleyways,
mindful of snipers.
A psychological operations unit
broadcast announcements in Arabic
meant to draw out gunmen. An Iraqi
translator from the group said through a
loudspeaker: “Brave terrorists, I am
waiting here for the brave terrorists.
Come and kill us. Plant small bombs on
roadsides. Attention, attention, terrorists
of Fallujah.”
Faced with overwhelming force,
resistance in Fallujah did not appear as
fierce as expected, though the top U.S.
^commander in Iraq said he still expected
mm ral more days of tough urban
^^lghting” as insurgents fell back toward
the southern end of the city, perhaps for
a last stand.
Some U.S. military officers estimated
they controlled about a third of the city.
Commanders said they had not fully
I
secured the northern half of Fallujah but
were well on their way as American and
Iraqi troops searched for insurgents.
U.S. and Iraqi troops captured two
key landmarks Tuesday _ a mosque and
neighboring convention center that
insurgents used for launching attacks,
according to a Los Angeles Times
reporter embedded with U.S. forces.
“I’m surprised how quickly
(resistance) broke and how quickly they
ran away, a force of foreign fighters who
were supposed to fight to the death,” Lt.
Col. Pete Newell, a battalion
commander in the 1st Infantry Division,
told CNN.
Newell was quoted on CNN’s Web
site as saying his battalion had killed or
wounded 85 to 90 insurgents.
The move against Fallujah prompted
influential Sunni Muslim clerics to call
for a boycott of national elections set for
January. A widespread boycott among
Sunnis could wreck the legitimacy of the
elections, seen as vital in Iraq’s move to
democracy. U.S. commanders have said
the Fallujah invasion is the centerpiece
of an attempt to secure insurgent-held
areas so voting can be held.
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declared
a nighttime curfew in Baghdad and its
surroundings _ the first in the capital for
a year _ to prevent insurgents from
opening up a “second front” to try to
draw American forces away from
Fallujah. Clashes erupted in the
northern city of Mosul and near the
Sunni bastion of Ramadi, explosions
were reported in at least two cities and
masked militants brandished weapons
and warned merchants to close their
shops.
In Fallujah, U.S. troops were
advancing more rapidly than in April,
when insurgents fought a force of fewer
than 2,000 Marines to a standstill in a
three-week siege. It ended with the
Americans handing over the city to a
local force, which lost control to Islamic
militants.
This time, the U.S. military has sent
up to 15,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops into
the battle, backed by tanks, artillery and
attack aircraft. More than 24 hours after
launching the main attack, U.S. soldiers
and Marines had punched through
insurgent strongholds in the north and
east of Fallujah and reached the major
east-west highway that bisects the city.
“The enemy is fighting hard but not
to the death,” Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz,
the multinational ground force
commander in Iraq, told a Pentagon
news conference relayed by video from
Iraq. “There is not a sense that he is
staying in particular places. He is
continuing to fall back or he dies in
those positions.”
Metz said Iraqi soldiers searched
several mosques Tuesday and found
“lots of munitions and weapons.”
Although capturing or killing the
♦ Please see FALLUJAH, page 6
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Marines clear a house in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, Iraq,
on Tuesday.
Public Health dean
search narrows to 3
The only public health school in
South Carolina is one step closer to
choosing a dean after a list of three
finalists for the position in the Arnold
School of Public Health was given to
USC President Andrew Sorensen and
Harris Pastides, vice president for
research and health sciences.
As of Friday, the finalists for the
position are Dr. Jasjit Ahluwalia, a
Sosland Family Professor and
chairman of the department of
preventive medicine and public health
at the University of Kansas Medical
Center; Dr. Martin A. Philbert, senior
associate dean for research at the
University of Michigan School of
Public Health and associate professor
of toxicology, environmental health
sciences; and Dr. Donna L. Richter,
professor and interim dean of the
Arnold School of Public Health.
Richter is also associate dean for
public-health practice.
The school, which is nationally
recognized for its research centers and
initiatives, is named after Columbia
businessman Norman J. Arnold.
The mission of the School of Public
Health is to prepare the state’s public
health workforce to respond to acts of
bioterrorism and other associated
epidemics.
The Arnold School of Public
Health is home to the USC Center for
Public Health Preparedness.
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