2 isle Marines
killed in Fallujah

U.S. forces occupy
the entire city with
pockets of resistance

Two more Kaneohe Marines were killed in the battle for Fallujah, where American troops are now reported to have "occupied" the entire Iraqi city, U.S. military officials said yesterday.

The Pentagon last night reported the Friday deaths of isle Marines Lance Cpl. David M. Branning, 21, of Cockesville, Md.; and Lance Cpl. Brian A. Medina, 20, of Woodbridge, Va.

Earlier in the week two other members of Kaneohe's 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment were killed in the house-to-house fighting in the battle for Fallujah, which began Monday. Lance Cpl. Aaron Pickering and Petty Officer Julian Woods, a Navy corpsman assigned to the Kaneohe's 1st Battalion, died Wednesday.

The deaths of Branning and Medina bring the total number of military personnel and civilians with Hawaii ties killed in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan to 37.

The offensive against Fallujah has killed at least 24 American troops and an estimated 1,000 terrorists, and rebel attacks elsewhere -- especially in the northern city of Mosul -- have forced the Americans to shift troops away from Fallujah.

But yesterday, U.S. military officials said there were no more major concentrations of terrorists still fighting in Fallujah after nearly a week of intense urban combat.

A U.S. officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Fallujah was "occupied but not subdued." Artillery and airstrikes also were halted after nightfall to prevent mistaken attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces who had taken up positions throughout the city.

Iraqi officials declared the operation to free Fallujah of terrorists was "accomplished" but acknowledged the two most wanted figures in the city -- Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi -- had escaped.

U.S. officers said, however, that resistance had not been entirely subdued and that it still could take several days of fighting to clear the final pockets.

Terrorists, meanwhile, stepped up attacks in areas outside Fallujah, including a bombing that killed two Marines on the outskirts of the former terrorist bastion 40 miles west of Baghdad.

Military activity also surged along the Euphrates River valley well to the north and west of Baghdad, with clashes reported in Qaim on the Syrian border and in Hit and Ramadi, nearer to the capital.

A series of thunderous explosions rocked central Baghdad after sunset yesterday, and sirens wailed in the fortified Green Zone, which houses major Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy. There was no immediate explanation for the blasts, but the Ansar al-Sunnah Army later claimed responsibility for firing several rockets at the zone. The claim's authenticity could not be verified.

A car bomb exploded on the main road to Baghdad airport, and there was fighting near the Education Ministry in the heart of the capital.

Terrorists also attacked a military base outside Baghdad yesterday, killing one coalition soldier and wounding three others, the U.S. military said. The nationalities of the casualties weren't immediately available.

Baghdad's international airport was ordered yesterday to remain closed to civilian traffic for a further 24 hours, according to government adviser Georges Sada.

The airport was closed for 48 hours under the state of emergency imposed last Sunday and has remained shut under a series of one-day extensions ever since.

At least four people were killed and 29 wounded, police said, during a U.S. airstrike on terrorists and clashes yesterday in the Abu Ghraib suburb of western Baghdad. One Iraqi was killed and 10 wounded in fighting between U.S. troops and terrorists in the northern city of Tal Afar.

The drive against remaining terrorist holdouts in southern Fallujah was aimed to eradicate the last major concentration of fighters at the end of nearly a week of air and ground assaults.

"We are just pushing them against the anvil," said Col. Michael Formica, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade. "It's a broad attack against the entire southern front."

Eleven of Hawaii's Marine deaths come from the same unit, the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, which left Kaneohe in July for what was supposed to be a routine seven-month deployment with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit of Okinawa. However, the 31st MEU was ordered to Iraq and the unit arrived there in mid-October and will be there until May.

The bloodiest day for the Kaneohe Marines was Oct. 30, when a suicide bomber drove into a convoy, killing Lance Cpl. Jeremy D. Bow, 20; Lance Cpl. Michael P. Scarborough, 28; Lance Cpl. Travis A. Fox, 25; Cpl. Christopher J. Lapka, 22; Lance Cpl. John T. Byrd II, 23; Pfc. Andrew G. Riedel; and Pfc. John Lukac, 19.