Marines ready for
Fallujah onslaught
U.S. forces compare their offensive
to a victorious 1968 battle
to claim Hue City
FALLUJAH, Iraq » Dust-coated U.S. forces were encircling the Iraqi rebel stronghold of Fallujah, awaiting final assault orders, as terrorists dramatically escalated their own attacks elsewhere in the Sunni triangle over the weekend.
American commanders were preparing for a major urban conflict that they compare in scope to the costly but victorious 1968 Vietnam War battle for Hue City.
"This town is held by mugs, thugs, murderers and terrorists," Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Unit, shouted to Marines at a staging ground yesterday. "You know what your mission is. Go out there and get it done."
More than 10,000 U.S. troops are poised for the Fallujah fight against an estimated 3,000 insurgents.
"This is the Hue City of our generation," says Lt. Col. Michael Ramos, commander of the Kaneohe-based 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, which is expected to play a key role in Fallujah.
In Hue in 1968, heavily outnumbered Marines reversed one of the North Vietnamese gains, reclaiming the city block by block, in four weeks of combat that left more than 142 Marines dead.
"My Marines, once they are unleashed, will bring a decisive victory and closure to (the Fallujah) operation," said Ramos, of Dallas. "We will be deliberate in our violence against the terrorists and insurgents, and we will be deliberate in our mercy to Iraqi civilians and the innocent."
They are up against a determined foe. Marines entering Fallujah are prepared to treat every vehicle and building as a potential bomb. A weekend report in the London Times, from inside Fallujah, quotes terrorist commanders claiming that they have rigged 118 car bombs, and have 300 volunteer foreign suicide bombers lined up to take on advancing American units.
The Times reported that trenches have already been dug in Fallujah's cemeteries, "in preparation for hurried burials of 'martyrs' in white shrouds."
"Never send a Marine where you can send a round," Capt. Gil Juarez advised his Light Armored Reconnaissance company as final preparations got under way. "The enemy is crafty. We just have to be methodical, with techniques that work. Put steel on the target. We need not panic in the face of the enemy."
There is concern that information about the offensive, which has been shared with officers of the Iraqi forces, whose several thousand troops are to take part alongside U.S. forces, could have been leaked. An Iraqi captain deserted on Saturday after receiving a U.S. battalion commander's briefing. He is a Kurd and is not believed to have left to compromise the plan. American commanders say he might have been afraid to fight. Indeed, a number of Iraqi soldiers also did not show up over the weekend, echoing the performance of Iraqi troops last April, when units melted away at the outset of fighting.
"To be honest, it doesn't bother me (if terrorists) know (the plan), if it induces a bit of fear in their hearts," Ramos said yesterday. "I'd like them to sleep uneasy tonight, because tomorrow they'll be captured or dead."
