US forces continue to battle insurgents
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- US warplanes pounded Fallujah with 500-pound laser-guided bombs yesterday, and Marines battled insurgents near a train station and in neighborhoods that had seemed to be quieting. American forces decided to delay potentially dangerous patrols into the besieged city.
The violence, carried on live television with images of fiery destruction, occurred as the United States is under increasing international pressure to prevent a revival of the bloodshed seen in the city west of Baghdad during the first two weeks of April.
''Violent military action by an occupying power against inhabitants of an occupied country will only make matters worse," UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said. ''It's definitely time, time now for those who prefer restraint and dialogue to make their voices heard."
Commanders in Iraq said that the Marines were responding to guerrilla attacks and that the military was sticking to a more than two-week-old halt in offensive operations to allow negotiations.
''Even though it may not look like it, there is still a determined aspiration on the part of the coalition to maintain a cease-fire and solve the situation in Fallujah by peaceful means," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said in Baghdad.
''What's going on are some terrorists and regime elements have been attacking our forces, and our forces have been going out and killing them," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, appearing testy, told legislators in Washington.
Two days after US Marines destroyed a minaret on a mosque in Fallujah, Rumsfeld also showed reporters an undated picture of what he said was a mosque in Najaf with men holding weapons.
"You can see they have all kinds of religious instruments -- called rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s," he said after briefing members of Congress. ''That's what they do in their mosques."
Rumsfeld protested such events are not being mentioned by the news media.
Also yesterday, the US military said it had rushed more tanks and armored vehicles to Iraq in response to requests from commanders. The move to fortify US forces with armor like the M1A1 Abrams tank and Bradley fighting vehicle reverses a decision made months ago that lighter armor would be adequate for troops rotating into Iraq.
Guerrilla attacks broke out in at least three neighborhoods of Fallujah that had been relatively quiet during the past three days. And the US response intensified: When a Marine was wounded, warplanes dropped 10 laser-guided bombs -- most were 500-pound bombs, but at least one was 1,000 pounds -- on buildings that were the source of guerrilla fire, Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne said.
At least twice, AC-130 gunships opened up on guerrilla positions with their heavy cannons.
Throughout the day, the sound of each battle was heard -- the rattle of gunfire and the thud of mortars. Then came the noise that often marked Marine strikes to put an end to the fight: heavy explosions, raising flames.
Guerrillas fired on a train station outside the city's northern edge, prompting a battle in the Golan neighborhood, an insurgent bastion. Fighting also erupted in the northeast, southeast, and the center of the city.
The extent of the battle was difficult to gauge. Witnesses reported at least 25 buildings wrecked by fighting. Hospitals counted 10 wounded Iraqis, but ambulances could not reach areas where fighting was going on, and residents reported large numbers of dead and wounded.
At the White House, President Bush said ''most of Fallujah is returning to normal."
''There are pockets of resistance and our military, along with Iraqis, will make sure it's secure," he said.
But the fighting was causing international concern. Escalating violence in the Middle East prompted already nervous investors to sell stocks sharply lower yesterday, sending the Dow Jones industrials down more than 110 points.
Late in the day, Byrne announced that Marine patrols into the city due to start today had been delayed a day.
The United States decided over the weekend to send in the patrols of Marines and Iraqi security forces to establish a semblance of control over the city.
But with tensions rising, Marines moving on foot through the city streets would almost inevitably draw guerrilla attacks, which could then trigger heavier fighting.
Several families were seen fleeing the city yesterday during the battles. 