IRAQ: UNITED STATES FORCES HIT REBEL STRONGHOLD OF FALLUJA

Record ID: 338375

  • Title: IRAQ: UNITED STATES FORCES HIT REBEL STRONGHOLD OF FALLUJA
  • Date: 8th November 2004
  • Summary: (W2) FALLUJA, IRAQ (NOVEMBER 7, 2004)(REUTERS) 1. NIGHT SHOT OF CITY/ AUDIO OF BOMBARDMENT 0.12 2. GV SUNRISE ON CITY; TOP VIEW OF CITY/ AUDIO OF GUNFIRE; SMOKE RISING; SLV PEOPLE FLEEING CITY; SLV SMOKE RISING; VIEW OF CITY 0.49 (W3) FALLUJA, IRAQ (NOVEMBER 7, 2004) (REUTERS) 3. SCU DAMAGED PAVEMENT AND SHELL NEAR PAVEMENT; SCU S
  • Embargoed: 23rd November 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: FALLUJA, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA7PHCC181I48KZVRQ4483GST7T
  • Story Text: U.S. forces hit rebel's stronghold of Falluja with
    the fiercest air and ground bombardment in months.

    U.S. warplanes and artillery pounded targets in
    Falluja on Sunday (November 7, 2004) but there was no sign U.S.

    forces had begun an offensive to storm the Iraqi rebel
    stronghold.

    Residents said air strikes interspersed with artillery
    shelling had set off huge explosions in the city from about
    3 a.m. (0000 GMT) onwards. There was no word on casualties.

    The strikes covered targets in the western and eastern
    edges of the city and reduced a number of houses and shops
    to rubble.

    "They are civilians and this is a food shop. I have
    come to receive food ration and I found the shop damaged.

    Families are homless. What did those people do? They (shop
    owners) have come to give families their food rations but
    they found their shops burnt. All the foodstuff and flour
    in shops have burnt. These are food stores," said a man
    standing in front of a damaged shop.

    The bombardment of Falluja kept up pressure on Iraqi
    insurgents and what the U.S. military says are foreign
    militants led by Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab
    al-Zarqawi based in the the Sunni Muslim city.

    Falluja usually has a population of about 300,000 but
    many families have fled to escape the expected U.S.

    assault, part of the U.S.-backed Iraqi interim government's
    drive to crush insurgents before elections scheduled for
    January 2005.

    The U.S. military said it had launched seven air
    strikes on weapons caches in Falluja, some 50 km (30 miles)
    west of Baghdad, between dawn and midnight on Saturday.


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