Letzte Neuigkeiten aus dem Irak
Schwere Kämpfe am Rande Falludschas sowie in und um Ramadi.
US-Armee gibt unter anderem zu 2 Armee-Hubschrauber über Ramadi, durch Beschuss irakischer Widerstandskämpfer verloren zu haben.
Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 29 July 2004
Thursday, 29 July 2004.
THIRTEEN AMERICANS KILLED, ONE AMERICAN CAPTURED IN HEAVY FIGHTING THURSDAY NIGHT IN AL-FALLUJAH.
Violent battles rock northern part of the city as US offensive is blunted, turned back.
At about 8:00pm Thursday evening Mecca time, bloody clashes broke out between the Iraqi Resistance in al-Fallujah and US occupation troops, according to the local correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam. The fighting, which quickly escalated in intensity, initially raged in the Industrial Zone and in the al-Askari neighborhood in the north of al-Fallujah. US aircraft prowled the skies above the battle in support of the aggressor troops who appear to have been surprised by the resilient defiance of the Resistance fighters.
For their part, the Resistance fighters asked residents of al-Askari neighborhood to leave their homes as a precaution, since US air strikes on the area were considered likely. The US in the past has frequently struck civilian homes when fighting broke out. The Resistance instructed residents of houses particularly close to the fighting to leave the area quickly.
Later, as Resistance forces were involved in thwarting the US assault on the district, a group of American troops attempted to seize a command point in the al-Askari neighborhood. A force of tanks, Humvees, and armored vehicles accompanied by 13 US foot soldiers advanced towards the strategic point.
Resistance forces observed the movements of the US troops, however, and suddenly sprung at them from several directions in a counter attack with machine guns and heavy weapons that caught the Americans completely off guard and confused. In the course of the fighting, four American soldiers climbed onto one of the armored vehicles and just at that point Resistance fighters struck it with a C5K shoulder-fired rocket, sending up a great ball of flame and totally destroying the vehicle and the four soldiers who had climed aboard it, according to the correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam.
As a result of this stunning Resistance blow, the US aggressor troops were compelled to beat a retreat, leaving the armored vehicle to completely burn up. The nine remaining American soldiers on foot suddenly found themselves surrounded by Resistance fighters. They tried to fire their weapons but were cut down by the Resistance in a few moments. The armored vehicle was still fiercely ablaze when the correspondent filed his dispatch on that stage of the battle at 9:28pm Thursday, Mecca time.
In an earlier report on the fighting, the correspondent wrote that the Resistance had destroyed one US Humvee that was carrying four US troops, and then a second Humvee with five Americans aboard was also taken out. The two Humvees were totally destroyed, he wrote, and all nine invader troops were killed. It is likely that these were the foot soldiers he had reported being cut down by Resistance fire in the slightly later dispatch (above).
The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported in his dispatch posted at 9:17 Mecca Time Thursday night that the Resistance had also managed to destroy an American tank in the fierce battle in al-Askari neighborhood, but the number of casualties inside that tank was unclear. The correspondent wrote that as a rule, US tanks carry eight to 12 troops.
At 9:17pm Mecca time, the fighting in al-Askari and also in the Industrial Zone of al-Fallujah had largely subsided, the Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent reported. A little over one hour later, however, the US launched a second apparent assault on al-Fallujah, this time targeting the ash-Shuhada neighborhood with a massive attack. The Americans later broadened that second offensive.
The correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam, in a dispatch posted at 11:25 Mecca Time Thursday night, wrote that for about an hour, starting about 10:30, US forces had been continuously assaulting ash-Shuhada with tanks and Humvees under a thick cloud of US aircraft flying support of the ground attack.
Meanwhile, Resistance fighters outside the city attacked US columns of reinforcements heading towards the al-Fallujah from the south, northeast and north. The Resistance employed 120mm mortars and were able to pound the American attackers at a rate of 25 shells per minute, inflicting heavy losses on the columns of reinforcements. The US relief columns made relatively easy targets as they crossed open land on their way to the defiant city.
The US tried to take advantage of its total air superiority. Helicopters and airplanes prowled the edges of the embattled city districts searching for concentrations of Resistance fighters that they could strike.
Concerned for the residents of the front-line areas, the Resistance urged local people in the zones closest the fighting to evacuate immediately. As the fighting spread during the night, the districts subject to evacuation also became more numerous. In addition to the Industrial Zone and al-Askari neighborhoods, scenes of the earliest fighting Thursday evening, evacuation orders were issued for the neighborhoods of ash-Shuhada and ad-Dubbat.
The correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam wrote in his dispatch posted at 12:08am Friday morning Mecca time, that at that moment violent battles were under way between the Resistance and the attacking American enemy forces as the fighting raged into the early hours of the next day.
US soldier captured by Iraqi Resistance in al-Askari neighborhood of al-Fallujah Thursday night.
Late on Thursday evening, the local correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam reported that when US forces retreated from the strategic command point that they had tried to take in the al-Askari neighborhood, they left behind one of their soldiers who has now been captured by the Iraqi Resistance. The correspondent wrote, in a dispatch posted at 11:05pm Mecca time on Thursday, that the American found himself cut off from his fellows by Resistance fighters as the US invader forces crumbled and fled under the blows of the Resistance. He was taken captive by the Resistance.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=10788
http://icasualties.org/oif/news.aspx
(Name eines der US-Soldaten die bei dem Hubschrauber-Abschüssen über Ramadi getötet wurden)
Lt. Col. David S. Greene 39
Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 775, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Air Wing
Raleigh, North Carolina
Died due to enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on July 28, 2004
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/f ... page3.html
