The First Battle of Fallujah ends in a ceasefire

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Published on April 25, 2024 12:00:00 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cohyDQF5u2U

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A 2nd Battle of Fallujah, the bloodiest of the entire war/occupation, was initiated on November 7th, 2004. The city was entirely surrounded and a US led force of around 12 000 spent 6 weeks systematically clearing the city of around 4000 insurgents in the heaviest fighting the marines had engaged in since the Tet Offensive in Vietnam in 1968. The street by street battles wrecked much of the city and featured the use of heavy artillery, massive airstrikes and reportedly the offensive use of white phosphorus which is widely considered a war crime. The city was only briefly pacified and the bulk of the insurgents and their leadership escaped before the battle began.

While months of planning and a large troop build up went into this operation it also happened to be 5 days after President Bush had won reelection and about 5 months after an Iraqi led Interim government had been put in place. While it wasn’t popular it did have the effect of keeping many ordinary Iraqis in a neutral or ‘wait and see’ mode taking a number of possibly hostile groups temporarily off the board (at least until 2006 when the Civil War is said to have officially started).


[he first battle of Fallujah peters out after US forces decide not to fully engage the insurgents in the City]

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