ABC News: 31 U.S. Troops Killed So Far in FallujahMarine Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski said he and other commanders learned from April’s failed three-week Marine assault on Fallujah, which was called off by the Bush administration after a worldwide outcry over civilians deaths. This time, the military sent in six times as many troops and 20 types of aircraft. Troops also faked attacks before the assault to confuse enemy fighters.
”Maybe we learned from April,” Natonski said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We learned we can’t do it piecemeal. When we go in, we go all the way through. We had the green light this time and we went all the way.
“Had we done in April what we did now, the results would’ve been the same.”
Natonski spoke during a visit to the 1st Cavalry Division’s 2nd Brigade, the unit charged with isolating Fallujah under a security cordon..............
Planning for Fallujah began in September, with Natonski given responsibility for the combat phase, said Lt. Col. Dan Wilson, a Marine planner with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
After troops uproot the insurgents, contractors are supposed to swarm into Fallujah to cart away rubble, repair buildings and fix the city's utilities, Wilson and Natonski said.
The Iraqi government already has picked leaders for Fallujah, and thousands of Iraqi police and paramilitary forces have been recruited to impose order.
Natonski described the six days of ground war as a "flawless execution of the plan we drew up. We are actually ahead of schedule."
Several pre-assault tactics made the battle easier than expected, he said.
Insurgent defenses were weakened by bombing raids on command posts and safe houses. Air-dropped leaflets also may have demoralized some defenders and convinced some residents the city would be better off under government control, he said.
In the days before the raid, ground troops feinted invasions, charging right up to Fallujah's edge in tanks and armored vehicles. Natonski said these fake attacks forced the insurgents to build up forces in the south and east, perhaps diverting defenders from the north, where six battalions of Army and Marine troops finally punched into the city Monday.
The deceptive maneuvers also drew fire from defenders' bunkers, which were exposed and relentlessly bombed before the ground assault.
"We desensitized the enemy to the formations they saw on the night we attacked," Natonski said.
Another key tactic was choking off the city, the responsibility of the 2nd Brigade of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, Natonski said.
That prevented insurgents from slipping out during the assault, although many, including top leaders like Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi and Omar al-Hadid, are believed to have fled.
"We never expected them to be there. We're not after Zarqawi. We're after insurgents in general," Natonski said.
”Maybe we learned from April,” Natonski said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We learned we can’t do it piecemeal. When we go in, we go all the way through. We had the green light this time and we went all the way.
“Had we done in April what we did now, the results would’ve been the same.”
Natonski spoke during a visit to the 1st Cavalry Division’s 2nd Brigade, the unit charged with isolating Fallujah under a security cordon..............
Planning for Fallujah began in September, with Natonski given responsibility for the combat phase, said Lt. Col. Dan Wilson, a Marine planner with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
After troops uproot the insurgents, contractors are supposed to swarm into Fallujah to cart away rubble, repair buildings and fix the city's utilities, Wilson and Natonski said.
The Iraqi government already has picked leaders for Fallujah, and thousands of Iraqi police and paramilitary forces have been recruited to impose order.
Natonski described the six days of ground war as a "flawless execution of the plan we drew up. We are actually ahead of schedule."
Several pre-assault tactics made the battle easier than expected, he said.
Insurgent defenses were weakened by bombing raids on command posts and safe houses. Air-dropped leaflets also may have demoralized some defenders and convinced some residents the city would be better off under government control, he said.
In the days before the raid, ground troops feinted invasions, charging right up to Fallujah's edge in tanks and armored vehicles. Natonski said these fake attacks forced the insurgents to build up forces in the south and east, perhaps diverting defenders from the north, where six battalions of Army and Marine troops finally punched into the city Monday.
The deceptive maneuvers also drew fire from defenders' bunkers, which were exposed and relentlessly bombed before the ground assault.
"We desensitized the enemy to the formations they saw on the night we attacked," Natonski said.
Another key tactic was choking off the city, the responsibility of the 2nd Brigade of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, Natonski said.
That prevented insurgents from slipping out during the assault, although many, including top leaders like Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi and Omar al-Hadid, are believed to have fled.
"We never expected them to be there. We're not after Zarqawi. We're after insurgents in general," Natonski said.
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