My Way News: "The drive against remaining insurgent 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.'
As a prelude to the Saturday assault, a U.S. warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb on an insurgent tunnel network in the city, CNN embedded correspondent Jane Arraf reported.
U.S. and Iraqi forces also have begun moving against insurgent sympathizers among Iraq's hardline Sunni religious leadership, arresting at least four prominent clerics and raiding offices of religious groups that had spoken out against the Fallujah assault.
U.S. officials said they hoped the latest attack would finish off the last pocket of significant resistance in Fallujah. Next was a planned house-to-house clearing operation to find boobytraps, weapons and guerrillas still hiding in the rubble.
In Baghdad, Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem Dawoud proclaimed the Fallujah assault - code-name Operation Al-Fajr, or 'Dawn' - was 'accomplished' except for mopping up 'evil pockets which we are dealing with now.'
'The number of terrorists and Saddam (Hussein) loyalists killed has reached more than 1,000,' Dawoud said. 'As for the detainees, the number is 200 people.'"
'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.'
As a prelude to the Saturday assault, a U.S. warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb on an insurgent tunnel network in the city, CNN embedded correspondent Jane Arraf reported.
U.S. and Iraqi forces also have begun moving against insurgent sympathizers among Iraq's hardline Sunni religious leadership, arresting at least four prominent clerics and raiding offices of religious groups that had spoken out against the Fallujah assault.
U.S. officials said they hoped the latest attack would finish off the last pocket of significant resistance in Fallujah. Next was a planned house-to-house clearing operation to find boobytraps, weapons and guerrillas still hiding in the rubble.
In Baghdad, Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem Dawoud proclaimed the Fallujah assault - code-name Operation Al-Fajr, or 'Dawn' - was 'accomplished' except for mopping up 'evil pockets which we are dealing with now.'
'The number of terrorists and Saddam (Hussein) loyalists killed has reached more than 1,000,' Dawoud said. 'As for the detainees, the number is 200 people.'"
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