I'll top-update. Remember, this is all so that ballot box stuffing in Falluja next January follows the same rules as ballot box stuffing in Baghdad next January.
7pm EST: The car bombings in Baghdad (6 KIA, 80 wounded) earlier has an echo, the ambulence entrance to the Yarmouk Hospital, Baghdad's biggest (and preferred by the Allawiites) is hit with numerous casualties. A unit tasked with interdicting defenders moving to Falluja (Black Watch) is engaged with an IED. One KIA and two wounded. One US soldier KIA in East Baghdad.
6pm EST: Powell is burning up the wires trying to explain the attack. So far on the called list is Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz (Poland), Ahmed Aboul Gheit (Egypt), Hani Moulki (Jordan), Abdullah Gul (Turkey) and Saoud al-Faiçal (Saudi Arabia), and during the day he met with Franco Frattini (Italy).
5pm EST: Le Monde reports that four battalions advanced about 1km (four blocks) along a front of 5km, taking the northern portion of the Jolan neighborhood, a warren of alleyways, and train station. CENTCOM now puts its force level at 12,000, down from yesterday's 20,000. CENTCOM has been running a parade-around-the-town psyop, which accounts for much of the semantic dust in the reportage air. That's about 3,000 combat troops, or most of what CENTCOM can throw at the problem and retain the combat-to-support ratio. CENTCOM now puts the defense at 2,500 with 10,000 reserves. SecDef Rumsford went on record on Day One that the battle will not be over any time soon. Earlier in the day the press officer rhetoric out of the seige possition was "over real soon".
3pm EST: Defenselink (the Pentagon's rumor mill) has managed to re-invent the predictable "human shields" theme. The civilians in Falluja are being held collective hostage and subjected to collective puhishments and prevented from leaving by ... "anti-Iraqi forces", not the US Military. That would explain the 230 men, women and children living next to Falluja hospital, where no defenders were present.
2pm EST: Defenders claim to have captured some attackers. Attackers say the defenders haven't captured any attackers. AMS (not the American Mathematical Society) tells the Iraqi troops to walk away from the battle.
1pm EST: Solana goes on record for the EU: "The situation from the point of view of security does not give much of a hope that that [elections] will be realised on the date [January]." A US convoy is engaged with a car bomb near the Baghdad airport, 3 KIA confirmed. Two additional attempts to engage US forces near Ramadi with car bombs. No US casualties confirmed.
noon EST: Le Monde reports that the aerial bombardments have been worse in the al Askari (north east) and Jughaitha (north) neightborhoods, and that bombs are falling everywhere in the city.
11am EST: Two US tanks engaged by rpgs, other vehicles reported engaged also. No casualties reported. Update of civilians remaining in Falluja to 150,00 (two-fifths of the original population).
10am EST: Heaviest aerial bombardment since April reported. F-16s, C-130s (gunship), armor and artillery conducting the attacks in several neighborhoods. Source: Abu Bakr al-Dulaimi, an Iraqi journalist, via al Jazeera.
9:30am EST: Aerial bombardments of Falluja begin at 6:30pm local (Baghdad) time.
9am EST: Update of civilians remaining in Falluja to 100,00 (one third of the original population). Iyad Allawi tells Iraqi troops to avenge attacks in Baghdad, Kirkush, and elsewhere by killing the defenders of Falluja. A quotable quote was "Yes. We will slaughter them like sheep".
8am EST: Counter-offensive to retake Euphrates bridges fails. Dozens of defenders KIA. Marines capture two appartment blocks. About 230 Iraqis were found still living in the complex, including women and children, some milling about in their underwear.
Posted by EBW at November 8, 2004 11:50 AM | TrackBack