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Second Battle of Fallujah

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Operation Phantom Fury
Part of the Iraq War

A building in Fallujah destroyed by air strike during the battle.
DateNovember 7 - December 23 2004
Location
Fallujah, Iraq
Result Decisive U.S. and Iraqi victory
Belligerents
United States United States
Iraqi Security Forces		 Mujahideen Shura of al-Falluja
Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Commanders and leaders
United States Richard F. Natonski Abdullah al-Janabi
Omar Hussein Hadid
Strength
10,000 - 15,000 (including 5,000 non-combat troops)[1] 4,000 - 5,000 (combatants)
Casualties and losses
(December 23, 2004)
U.S.:
95 killed, 560 wounded[2][3]
Iraqi:
11 killed, 43 wounded		 (December 23, 2004)
1,350+ killed (U.S. est.)
1,500 captured[4][5][6]
unknown number of civilians killed

The Second Battle of Fallujah (code-named Operation Al-Fajr - "The Dawn" in Arabic, and Operation Phantom Fury) was a joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive led by the U.S. Marine Corps against the Iraqi insurgency stronghold in the city of Fallujah, authorized by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Interim Government. The U.S. military called it "some of the heaviest urban combat U.S. Marines have been involved in since the Battle of Hue City in Vietnam."[7]

This operation was the second major operation in Fallujah. Earlier, in April 2004, Coalition Forces fought the First Battle of Fallujah in order to capture or kill insurgent elements considered responsible for the deaths of a Blackwater Security team. When Coalition Forces (a majority being U.S. Marines) fought into the center of the city, the Iraqi government requested that control of the city be turned over to an Iraqi-run local security force, which then began stockpiling weapons and building complex defenses across the city during Summer 2004.

Background

Fallujah was one of the most peaceful areas of the country just after the fall of Saddam. There was very little looting, and the new mayor of the city, Taha Bidaywi Hamed, selected by local tribal leaders, was staunchly pro-American. Pre-operation timeline leading is as follows:

  • April 28 2003. A crowd of 200 people defy the curfew and gather outside a local school to protest the presence of foreign forces in the city. This escalates as gunmen allegedly fire upon U.S. troops from the protesting crowd and U.S. Army soldiers, from the 3rd Battalion of the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division return fire killing 17 people and wounding more than 70 of the protesters. There are no Army or Coalition casualties in the incident. U.S. forces say that the shooting took place over 30-60 seconds, while Human Rights Watch concludes that it is more likely to have lasted approximately ten minutes.[1]
  • April 28, 2004: Operation Vigilant Resolve ends with an agreement that the local population would keep the insurgents out of the city. The Fallujah Brigade under the command of a former Baathist general and composed of local Iraqis is set up by the U.S. forces to take over the city.
  • September 24, 2004: A senior U.S. official tells ABC News that catching Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi is of the highest priority. The military discloses his location as "Fallujah, a town about 40 miles west of Baghdad," and estimates his troops at 5,000 men, mostly non-Iraqis.[8]

Timeline

U.S. preparation for the battle

  • November 7, 2004: U.S. Marines stage just north of Fallujah. The city, having now been under complete insurgent control with no American presence since April, there are a large numbers of booby traps and IEDs constructed and set in place. Additionally, elevated sniper positions were created along with heavily fortified defensive positions throughout the city, in preparation for a major offensive. American UAVs observe insurgents conducting live-fire exercises in the city in preparation for the coming attack.
  • December 23, 2004: Last pockets of resistance are neutralized, three Marines are killed in the last skirmish, along with 24 insurgents. Operation Phantom Fury ends having been the bloodiest battle in the Iraq War to date.
  • January, 2005: U.S. Marines begin leaving the city.
Marines from Mike Battery, 4th Battalion, 14th Marines an activated reserve unit, operate the 155 mm M198 howitzer in November 2004. The battery was based at Camp Fallujah, Iraq and was supporting Operation Phantom Fury.

Before beginning their attack, U.S. and Iraqi forces had established checkpoints around the city to prevent anyone from entering the city and intercept insurgents attempting to flee.

In addition, overhead imagery was used to prepare maps of the city for use by the attackers. American units were augmented with Iraqi translators to assist them in the planned fight. After weeks of withstanding air strikes and artillery bombardment, the militants holed up in the city appeared somewhat vulnerable to a direct attack, and the U.S. Military was ready to finish the job they had been forced to abort the prior spring.

Insurgent forces

In April Fallujah was defended by about 500 "hardcore" and 2000+ "part time" insurgents. By November it was estimated that the numbers had doubled. The city grew from a small town in 1947 to a pre-war population of about 435,774 inhabitants in 2003, according to UN data; however, according to the former regime, there are about 600,000 inhabitants. By 2004 there were 300,000 estimated to have lived there in April of 2004. There were significant numbers of "part time" insurgents out of that 300,000 that stayed behind to fight the Army and Marine Forces. They had 6 months to prepare their city and enplace VBIED's, IED's, booby traps, trenches, RPG teams, sniper positions, ETC. [citation needed]

Diversion

Ground operations began on the night of November 7, 2004. Attacking from the west and south, The Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion with their U.S. Army Special Forces advisers and the 3rd U.S. Marine Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, reinforced by Bravo Company from the Marine Corp Reserve's 1st Battalion, 23rd Regiment, captured Fallujah General Hospital and villages opposite the Euphrates River along Fallujah's western edge. The capture and closure of the hospital caused much controversy, concerning whether or not it was a contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The same unit, operating under the command of the U.S. Army III Corps, then moved on the western approaches to the city securing the Jurf Kas Sukr Bridge. These initial attacks, however, were little more than a diversion, intended to distract and confuse the rebels defending the city.

Attack

U.S. soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, prepare to enter a civilian building during fighting in Fallujah.

Two Marine Regimental Combat Teams, Regimental Combat Team 1 (RCT-1) and Regimental Combat Team 7 (RCT-7) launched their attack along the northern edge of the city. There were also two U.S. Army heavy battalion-sized units, the 2nd Squadron, 7 Cavalry Regiment, and 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment(Mechanized). These two battalions were to be followed by four infantry battalions that would clear the buildings. The Army's 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, equipped with newly-fielded M1126 Stryker Vehicles, were tasked to surround the city. The British Black Watch Battalion patrolled the main highways to the east.

The six battalions of Army-Marine-Iraqi forces under the cover of darkness began the assault in the early hours of November 8 2004 with an intense bombing followed by an attack on the main train station that was used as a staging point for follow-on forces. By that afternoon, under the protection of intense air cover, Marines had entered the Hay Naib al-Dubat and al-Naziza districts. Shortly after nightfall on November 9 2004, Marines were reportedly along Highway 10 in the center of the city. While most of the fighting subsided by November 13 2004, Marines continued to face determined resistance from the enemy in and around the city.

By November 16 2004, after nine days of fighting, the Marine command described the action as mopping up pockets of resistance. Sporadic fighting continued until December 23 2004.

Despite its success, the battle was not without controversy. On November 16 2004, NBC News aired footage that showed a U.S. Marine, with 3rd Battalion 1st Marines, shooting dead a wounded Iraqi fighter. In this video, the Marine was heard claiming that the Iraqi was "playing possum". U.S. Navy investigators NCIS later determined that the Marine was acting in self-defense.[10] The AP reported that military-age males attempting to flee the city were turned back by the U.S. military.[11]

By late January 2005, news reports indicated U.S. combat units were leaving the area, and were assisting the local population in returning to the now heavily-destroyed city.

Additionally, Operation Phantom Fury yielded a nominees for the Medal of Honor, Sergeant Rafael Peralta who was a Marine with 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines. Sgt. Peralta was later awarded the Navy Cross, the second highest award a Marine can receive.

Aftermath

Fallujah suffered extensive damage to residences, mosques, city services, and businesses. The city, once referred to as the "City of Mosques", had 200+ pre-battle mosques of which 60 or so were destroyed in the fighting. Perhaps half the homes suffered at least some damage. Of the roughly 50,000 buildings in Fallujah, 7,000-10,000 were estimated to have been destroyed in the offensive and from half to two-thirds of the remaining buildings had notable damage.[12][13]

While pre-offensive inhabitant figures are unreliable, the nominal population was assumed to have been 200,000–350,000. One report claims that both offensives, Operation Vigilant Resolve and Operation Phantom Fury, created 200,000 internally displaced persons who are still living elsewhere in Iraq.[14] Reports claim that up to 6000 civilians died throughout the operation.[15] While damage to mosques was heavy, Coalition forces reported that 66 out of the city's 133 mosques had been found to be holding significant amounts of insurgent weapons.[citation needed]

In mid-December, residents were allowed to return after undergoing biometric identification, provided they wear their ID cards all the time. Reconstruction is progressing slowly and mainly consists of clearing rubble from heavily-damaged areas and reestablishing basic utilities. Only 10% of the pre-offensive inhabitants had returned as of mid-January, and only 30% as of the end of March 2005.[16]

The recapture of the city itself proved to be largely a success for U.S. forces, with a large number of local insurgent fighters being killed, and the momentum the Sunni rebellion had gained from controlling the city being dashed in the face of overwhelming U.S. firepower. Furthermore, al-Qaeda's foothold in Iraq had been seriously degraded, even though its leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi managed to escape. Insurgent elements almost immediately began to attempt to re-group their power base in the city, with limited results.

Nevertheless the battle proved to be less than the decisive engagement that the U.S. military had hoped for, some of the nonlocal insurgents were believed to have fled before the military assault along with Zarqawi, leaving mostly local militants behind. Subsequent U.S. military operations against insurgent positions were ineffective at drawing out insurgents into another open battle, and by September 2006 the situation had deteriorated to the point that the Al-Anbar province that contained Falluja was reported to be in total insurgent control by the U.S. Marine Corps, with the exception of only pacified Fallujah, but now with an insurgent-plagued Ramadi[17][18]

Since the U.S. military operation of November 2004, the number of insurgent attacks has gradually increased in and around the city, and although news reports are often few and far between, several reports of IED attacks on Iraqi troops have been reported in the press. Most notable of these attacks was a suicide car bomb attack on 23 June 2005 on a convoy that killed 6 Marines. Thirteen other Marines were injured in the attack. However, fourteen months later insurgents were again able to operate in large numbers. A third and ultimately successful push was mounted from September 2006 and lasting until mid-January 2007. Tactics developed in what has been called the "Third Battle of Fallujah," when applied on a larger scale in Ramadi and the surrounding area lead to what can be called "the Great Sunni Awakening." After four years of bitter fighting, Fallujah was turned over to the Iraqi Forces and Iraqi Provincial Authority during the Fall of 2007.

Criticism

White phosphorus usage

Wikinews has related news:
A US M-109A6 self-propelled howitzer fires at insurgent positions in Fallujah

On 26 November 2004, independent journalist Dahr Jamail was perhaps the first to report on the use of "unusual weapons" used in the November 2004 Battle of Fallujah.[2] U.S. media watchdog group Project Censored awarded Jamail's story as contributing to the #2 under-reported story of the year, "Media Coverage Fails on Iraq".[3] On 9 November, 2005 the Italian state-run broadcaster RAI ran a documentary titled "Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre" depicting what it alleges was the United States' use of white phosphorus (WP) in the attack causing insurgents and civilians to be killed or injured by chemical burns. The effects of WP are very characteristic. The resulting bodies were partially turned into what appears to be ash, but sometimes the hands of the bodies had skin or skin layers peeled off and hanging like gloves instead. The documentary further claims that the United States used incendiary MK-77 bombs (similar to napalm). While the use of incendiary weapons against civilians is illegal by Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (1980), this is not binding on the United States because it not a signatory. Moreover, the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (signed by the US) prohibit the use of the chemical properties of white phosphorus against personnel. The documentary stated:

"WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out. .. We used improved WP for screening missions when HC smoke would have been more effective and saved our WP for lethal missions."[4]

The US State Department initially denied using white phosphorus as a munition, a claim later contradicted by the Department of Defense when bloggers discovered a US Army magazine had run a story detailing its use in Fallujah. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, quoted by the RAI documentary, WP is allowed as an illumination device, not as an offensive weapon, for which its chemical properties are put to use. The OPCW has also stated that it is the toxic properties of white phosphorus that are prohibited and the use of its heat may not be prohibited.[19][20] The US government maintains its denial of WP use against civilians, but has admitted its use as an offensive weapon against enemy combatants.[21] But the Chemical Weapons Convention bans its use, regardless of whether it is only used on enemy combatants or not.[22] An article in Washington Post exactly a year before also pointed out the use of White Phosphorus in the battle, but attracted little attention.

The Guardian (George Monbiot) critically assessed the white phosphorous stories and added interesting additional information on weapons used by U.S. forces.[23]

White phosphorus, when used for screening or as a marker, is not banned by Protocol III of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. But if used as a weapon, it would be prohibited. The protocol specifically excludes weapons whose incendiary effect is secondary, such as smoke grenades. This has been often read as excluding white phosphorus munitions from this protocol, as well. The United States is among the nations that are parties to the convention but have not signed Protocol III.[citation needed]

Graphic visual footage of the weapons being fired from helicopters into urban areas is displayed, as well as detailed footage of the remains of those apparently killed by these weapons, including children and women. The filmmakers interview ex US military soldier Jeff Englehart of Colorado who discusses the American use of white phosphorus, nicknamed "Willie Pete" (codification of "WP" - White Phosphorus) by U.S. servicemembers, in built-up areas, and describes the Fallujah offensive as "just a massive killing of Arabs."

Participating units

U.S. forces

Regimental Combat Team 1 (RCT-1) built around the 1st Marine Regiment:

Regimental Combat Team 7 (RCT-7) built around the 7th Marine Regiment:

2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division

3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division

  • F Troop, [4th Cavalry] (Brigade Reconnaissance Troop)
  • 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry

1/124 CAV, 36th Infantry Division (Texas Army National Guard)

  • CROWS Team One

US Army Special Operations Command(embedded)

Iraqi Forces

  • 1st Specialized Special Forces Battalion (Iraqi National Guard), Companies D and B
  • Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion
  • Iraqi Counterterrorism Force
  • Emergency Response Unit (Iraqi-Ministry of Interior)
  • 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, Iraqi Intervention Force (ICDC)
  • 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, Iraqi Intervention Force (ICDC)
  • 4th Battalion, 1st Brigade, Iraqi Intervention Force (ICDC)
  • 5th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, Iraqi Intervention Force (ICDC)

British Forces

  • 1st Battalion The Blackwatch (Royal Regiment of Scotland
  • Royal Marines special boat squadron
  • Various Royal Air Force Tornado Squadrons

References

  1. ^ Operation al-Fajr (Dawn) / Phantom Fury [Fallujah]
  2. ^ COALITION CASUALTIES: Fatality Details
  3. ^ US and War Mental Health disorders effecting returning troops. George Galloway The WE News Archives
  4. ^ DefenseLink News Article: Fallujah Secure, But Not Yet Safe, Marine Commander Says
  5. ^ Deseret Morning News | Fighting erupts in Fallujah as refugees return; three Marines killed in action
  6. ^ Online NewsHour: Fallujah Citizens Return to Homes in Wake of Fighting - December 23, 2004
  7. ^ ScanEagle Proves Worth in Fallujah Fight, DefenseLINK News
  8. ^ Tracking Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi
  9. ^ CNN.com - Military investigates shooting of wounded insurgent - Nov 16, 2004
  10. ^ Marine cleared in videotaped shooting
  11. ^ U.S. Won't Let Men Flee Fallujah
  12. ^ Still locked down, Fallujah slow to rebuild
  13. ^ Increased Security In Fallujah Slows Efforts to Rebuild
  14. ^ The legacy of Fallujah
  15. ^ Anderson, Ronib (2006): A Century of Media. A Century of War Peter Lang New York (p.270). See also: http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/pwork/0412/041204.htm and http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/pwork/0412/041205.htm
  16. ^ Fallujah Four Months Later
  17. ^ .Situation Called Dire in West Iraq
  18. ^ US lost control of al-Anbar province
  19. ^ OPCW agrees with US Military that use of white phosphorus as incendiary agent is not prohibited
  20. ^ OPCW Spokesman Peter Kaiser elucidates the OPCW position on white phosphorus
  21. ^ U.S. official admits phosphorus used as weapon in Iraq
  22. ^ Behind the phosphorus clouds are war crimes within war crimes
  23. ^ George Monbiot: Behind the phosphorus clouds are war crimes within war crimes | World news | The Guardian

Books

  • House to House: An Epic Memoir of War, by SSG David Bellavia (2007) (ISBN 9781416574712)
  • No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah, by Bing West (2005) (ISBN 9780553804027)
  • We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah, by Patrick O'Donnell (2006) (ISBN 9780306814693)
  • Fighting For Fallujah: A New Dawn for Iraq, by John R. Ballard (2006) (ISBN 9780275990558)
  • Fallujah With Honor: First Battalion, Eighth Marine's Role in Operation Phantom Fury, by Gary Livingston (2006) (ISBN 192872406X)
  • Battle for Fallujah: Occupation, Resistance And Stalemate in the War in Iraq, by Vincent L. Foulk (2006) (ISBN 0786426772)
  • My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story, by Brad Kasal as told to Nathaniel R. Helms (2007) (ISBN 0696232367)
  • On Call In Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story, by Cdr. Richard Jadick (2007) (ISBN 0451220536)

Articles

Roman O. Reyhani, "The Legality of the Use of White Phosphorus by the United States Military during the 2004 Fallujah Assaults" (January 24, 2007). Berkeley Electronic Presss Preprint Series. Working Paper 1959.

Films

See also

Template:Link FA

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