Second Fallujah, 2004

The battle, stage by stage

1. 1–7 November 2004

   The cordon and the feint

   Fallujah has been the insurgency's stronghold in al-Anbar since the Marines handed it to the 'Fallujah Brigade' in May. Most of its people have fled by late October; the Marines estimate fewer than 500 civilians remain (other estimates run to tens of thousands) alongside some 3,000 to 4,500 fighters, whose defences face south and east. Weeks of raids, air strikes, loudspeaker 'tank noises', probing attacks and feints on the southern and south-eastern outskirts encourage that belief. From 5 November the Army's 2d Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division ('Blackjack') closes a ring of about 270 degrees: Task Force 1-5 Infantry to the south, 1-5 Cavalry to the north-east and the 2d Reconnaissance Battalion with Iraqi special forces to the south-east, while Britain's Black Watch battle group helps isolate the area. Meanwhile the two assault regiments, RCT-1 and RCT-7, gather unseen in the desert north of the railway.

2. 7 November 2004, 19:00 – 8 November, 01:40

   The peninsula, the hospital and the bridges

   With Iraq under a state of emergency, Lt. Col. Stephen Dinauer's Task Force Wolfpack — built on the 3d Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, with Company B of 1/23 Marines, Company C of 1-9 Infantry and the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion — attacks up the western peninsula. The western ends of the two bridges are held by 21:00, and by 23:00 the Iraqi commandos have taken Fallujah General Hospital, judged an insurgent command node, without resistance. By 01:40 on 8 November all bridge objectives are secured, closing the city's western exits; the Small Craft Company on the river takes fire from the Jolan.

3. 8 November 2004, evening

   Through the railway berm

   Seabees and civil affairs Marines cut the city's power at dusk. After a heavy air and artillery preparation the assault battalions breach the railway embankment along the northern edge. In RCT-1's sector Company L, 3/1, with Iraqi soldiers, takes the train station and Company K, 3/5, the apartment complex in the north-west; 3/5 attacks into the Jolan at 19:26, Company I taking the Ma'ahidy Mosque and the Jolan cemetery. Army Task Force 2-7 Cavalry breaches the tracks just after midnight and drives south down Phase Line Henry. In RCT-7's sector 1/8 attacks south astride Phase Line Ethan; 1/3's bulldozers bog down and its Company C wins only a small foothold; Task Force 2-2 Infantry breaches in the east at about 19:40, where its Command Sergeant Major, Steven Faulkenburg, is killed.

4. 9 November 2004

   To Highway 10

   Company A, 2-7 Cavalry, reaches Jolan Park before dawn while 3/5 grinds through the Jolan house by house and 3/1 fights south to guard its flank, reaching Phase Line Donna by about 12:30 with Company I near the Old Bridge. That night Company C, 3-8 Cavalry, seizes the Martyrs' Cemetery on Highway 10 — Phase Line Fran. In the east Task Force 2-2's armour reaches Highway 10 by about 09:00, so fast that a seam opens with 1/3 and it must later turn back to clear bypassed blocks. 1/8's Company B takes the Islamic Cultural Center, full of weapons and bomb-making material, and Company C, with Iraqi troops, the al-Hadrah al-Muhammadiyah Mosque; Company A then crosses the wide road under fire to seize the Government Center, where Iraqi soldiers raise their flag. By nightfall 1/3 too is on Phase Line Fran: RCT-7 has crossed the city's northern half in about 43 hours rather than the 72 to 96 planned.

5. 10–12 November 2004

   The turn south

   North of Highway 10 the battalions clear what they bypassed. On 10 November Staff Sgt. David Bellavia of Task Force 2-2 fights through a house of insurgents during block-clearing in the north-east, for which he later receives the Medal of Honor. Iraqi battalions with RCT-7 take the al-Tawfiq and Hadrah mosques, and on 11 November Iraqi forces take over the Jolan. On 11 November the division orders both regiments to keep going south. Task Force 2-7 moves south-east from Highway 10 into Resala, Nazal and Jebail, and Task Force 2-2 south and west across the industrial district; on 12 November coalition officials claim about 80 percent of the city, with the insurgents pushed into its southern districts. Task Force 2-2's Company A loses 1st Lt. Edward Iwan on 12 November and its commander, Capt. Sean Sims, the next day.

6. 13 November 2004

   The 'Hell House'

   In 3/1's sector Marines of Company K's 3d Platoon are pinned down inside a house held by insurgents firing from an upper floor. First Sgt. Bradley Kasal of Weapons Company, with the Combined Anti-Armor Platoon, goes in with a squad to reach them; he and Pfc. Alex Nicoll are badly wounded in the legs, and when grenades are thrown at the wounded Kasal rolls onto his fellow Marine to shield him. Cpl. Robert J. Mitchell is also decorated; Sgt. Byron Norwood is killed. Kasal and Mitchell receive the Navy Cross. (The official citations do not locate the house; it is placed here schematically in 3/1's zone.) Elsewhere the regiments press on toward the southern edge. The same day an incident of unlawful use of force against an enemy combatant takes place, later investigated by the 1st Marine Division.

7. 14–16 November 2004

   The southern edge

   The attacking battalions reach the southern edge of the city; Task Force 2-7 swings west toward the river to isolate the south-western districts. On 15 November officials say most of the city is taken, with isolated pockets — some linked by tunnels — still fighting in the south, and clearing is slowed by booby-trapped houses. That morning Sgt. Rafael Peralta of Company A, 1/3, clearing his seventh house of the day, is mortally wounded; the Navy Cross citation states that he pulled an insurgent grenade to his body to shield his fellow Marines. On 16 November the command describes the fighting as mopping up. By one count 38 Americans have been killed and about 275 wounded so far.

8. 17 November – 23 December 2004

   Search and attack; the return

   The battalions turn back north, searching every block for caches, bomb factories and holdouts; the Army task forces leave within about two weeks, and sporadic fighting goes on until the operation is declared over on 23 December. The searches turn up some 350 arms caches, 26 bomb factories and eight hostage or torture houses (military figures). Thousands of the city's roughly 50,000 buildings and some 60 mosques are destroyed or damaged. On 23 December, after biometric screening is set up, residents of the al-Andalus district are allowed back through three entry control points under 3/5, Iraqi forces and police — more than 900 on the first day — with other districts reopening in phases. Estimates of civilian deaths range from about 600 to 800 or more.