Military Says Fallujah Now 'Secure'

By Bobby Eberle
Talon News
November 16, 2004

Pentagon officials briefed the media on Monday on operations in Fallujah, Iraq and said that most of the city has been wrested from insurgent control, but operations are not over.

According to Central Command, combined forces continue to clear buildings and mosques of weapons and explosives stockpiled by insurgents and are beginning "to restore stability and order for Fallujah's law-abiding citizens."

CENTCOM reported on Monday that over the last 24 hours, Multi-National Force aircraft flew several close air support missions, attacking anti-Iraqi forces in numerous buildings throughout the city.

"Multi-National forces only take action against targets after credible intelligence and with extreme care to minimize harm to innocent people," CENTCOM said.

One mission early Monday attacked a bunker complex in the southernmost unpopulated section of Fallujah after Multi-National forces discovered an underground bunker and steel-reinforced tunnels. The tunnels connected a ring of facilities filled with weapons, an anti-aircraft artillery gun, bunk beds, a truck, and a suspected weapons cache.

CENTCOM also reports that medical assistance is being coordinated, and assessment teams have arrived.

"Fallujah General Hospital is available for use and their staff is ready and eager to treat patients," CENTCOM stated on Monday. "In addition, a second hospital in eastern Fallujah is seeing patients, and Multi-National forces have re-supplied the hospital with water and fuel."

When asked at a Pentagon briefing if Iraqi and Multi-National forces are "in control of 100 percent" of Fallujah, Colonel Michael Regner, Operations Officer, I Marine Expeditionary Force, said that "control" is "not necessarily a term that really fits into what I want to explain to you."

"Let me say this: that the Marine and Army forces, as well as the Navy and the Air Force forces, that are in that city, as well as the Iraqi forces, can go anywhere at any time throughout that city," Col. Regner said. "That basically means that a hundred percent of the city is secure."

Regner explained that "secure," in a military definition, is "very similar to 'control,' but it does not mean clear."

"It's true there are some portions of the city that we would probably say are more clear than others," Regner said. "But to say what we would like to say, again, as a warfighter, is that the city is basically secure, is secure. We have and we can go anywhere we want in that city."

According to CENTCOM, the number of U.S. forces killed since operations commenced on November 7 is 38. Three fatalities were due to non-battle injuries. The number of U.S. members wounded is 275, of which more than 60 were returned to duty.