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ASSOCIATED PRESS Marines of the 1st Division arrested Iraqis at the railroad station in Fallujah, Iraq, yesterday as U.S. Army and Marine units pounded the city with air strikes and artillery.

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Quick-paced assault
takes 70% of city

FALLUJAH, IRAQ » Block by block, street by street, U.S. Marines and Army troops yesterday began seizing control of Fallujah, making unexpected gains against limited resistance, despite some chaotic delays entering the city.

U.S. Marines said American forces had taken control today of 70 percent of Fallujah in the third day of a major offensive to retake the terrorist stronghold. Maj. Francis Piccoli, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said enemy fighters were bottled up in a strip of the city flanking the major east-west highway that splits Fallujah.

Army and Marine units had pushed south to the highway overnight, Piccoli said.

"There's going to be a movement today in those areas. The heart of the city is what's in focus now," he said.

The military said at least 71 terrorists were killed in intense urban combat in the city's deserted and narrow lanes, but the number was expected to rise sharply once U.S. forces account for those killed in airstrikes.

As of last night, at least 10 U.S. service members and two Iraqi soldiers had been killed in the assault.

Also today, one U.S. soldier was killed and a second was wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad. In northern Iraq, six Iraqi soldiers died and two were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near an Iraqi military camp.

In the first significant political fallout over the offensive, the country's most prominent Sunni party said it was withdrawing from the interim Iraqi government, and the leading group of Sunni clerics called for a boycott of the coming elections.

After a day of violence in several cities across the country, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declared a daily curfew in Baghdad from 10:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m., to last indefinitely, the first in the capital in more than a year.

The Associated Press reported that a statement posted on an Islamic Web site in the name of eight known terrorist groups in Iraq, warned Baghdad residents to stay home today "to avoid putting their lives in danger."

In Fallujah, the Kaneohe-based 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, pushed all the way to the main east-west road that bisects the city -- a line that commanders thought might take four days to reach.

"So we made it," said a surprised Carlos Cabezasrojas, a sweating lance corporal from Secaucus, N.J., as his Bravo Company launched its final attack of the day. "I got my confirmed kill, too."

That "kill" came as Bravo Company pushed south. He spotted two men who fired rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and then tried to bury an explosive device.

"I got the first one," said Cabezasrojas, kneeling with his M-16 rifle at the edge of the farthest point of advance. "The whole squad got the second."

The relative ease of advance yesterday contrasted sharply with the barrages that met U.S. forces when they breached the city limits overnight Monday.

The northeast sector penetrated by the isle Marines yielded more stray dogs than armed terrorists. But bold incidents throughout the day underscore that the 3,000 terrorists here are not a spent force.

Expecting and finding countless explosive devices and booby traps, American units took few chances as they moved methodically through the city. Every vehicle is treated as a potential car bomb; every person a possible enemy. Approval even came over the radio net to shoot dogs to prevent them from being rigged with explosives.

Bravo's final attack of the day -- mounted jointly with vehicles of the light armored reconnaissance (LAR) company -- showed how Fallujah is being claimed on the ground by overwhelming firepower.

Capt. Gil Juarez, the LAR company commander, began the assault by blasting his 25 mm turret gun down a street toward the target house. Teams also fired small mortars. "You want me to fire one more volley?" Juarez asked a Bravo Company officer. "Please, sir, if you would."

As scores of infantry troops began walking down the street, the armored vehicles moved ahead, aiming their guns down each side street, and blasting any car in sight. Rebels have claimed to have rigged more than 100 car bombs for U.S. troops.

Doors along the way were blown open. At least one car fired upon burst into flames. Troops detonated improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

While the Marines moved quickly on the ground, they endured a rain-soaked, dangerous 13-hour ordeal getting into the city.

The Marines were supposed to blow a path across train tracks, but they are well-built and didn't break the first time. Then an armored bulldozer got stuck in the breach, even as Marines began to target nearby houses, lighting up the night sky with artillery blasts and air strikes.

With no radio and poor night-vision goggles, the backup bulldozer couldn't find the breach. The Raider Scouts were tasked to find it, and guide it to the breach. Twice they had to dismount, under heavy fire, and climb on to the bulldozer.

"He finally stopped when I flashed him in the eyes 20 times," said Lance Cpl. Jason Canellis, from Vandera, Texas, who raced to the dozer under a pounding attack. "He had no idea where to go."