Operation Phantom Fury
Artillery bombardment of the city of Fallujah by the 4th Battalion, 14th Marines
| date | November 8, 2004 to November 16, 2004 |
|---|---|
| place | Fallujah , Al-Anbar , Iraq |
| output | American and Iraqi tactical victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| about 5,000 irregulars | approx.15,000 soldiers |
| losses | |
|
approx. 1,200 dead |
64 to 70 dead, |
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The Second Battle of Fallujah ( English for ghostly rage ), also known under the name Operation Al-Fajr (Operation Al Fajr) ( Arabic for dawn ), was an offensive by US and Iraqi troops against the city of Fallujah . As a result of the Iraq war , the city had established itself as a rebel stronghold during the time of the American occupation. The operation was approved by the Iraqi interim government and began on November 8, 2004. After the battle, the US military announced that it had been the heaviest house-to-house fighting since the 1968 Battle of Huế in Vietnam .
Operation Phantom Fury was the second offensive carried out against the insurgents in Fallujah. The US military had already carried out Operation Vigilant Resolve in April 2004 . This operation ended when local leaders promised to ease the situation in Fallujah. The Operation Plymouth Rock sparked Phantom Fury on November 23.
The fighting during the operation is increasingly referred to as the Second Battle of Fallujah .
Fallujah before the operation
On April 29, 2003, an armed conflict broke out in front of a school building on the outskirts of Fallujah. There, according to reports from residents, unarmed young people and parents demonstrated against the occupation of the school by US troops who had set up a base there. The demonstration developed into a firefight between US forces and the demonstrators, in which 16 Iraqis died and 65 were injured. According to the US government , the soldiers were shot at from the crowd beforehand and reacted to the attack. A direct consequence of this incident was a massive guerrilla struggle between the Sunni population in the Sunni triangle against the occupying power , which also killed two French civilians. Because of this fight, the 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army had to withdraw from the city in December 2003. On March 20, 2004, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force assumed military responsibility for the city.
The units of the 82nd Airborne Division stationed at Fallujah in the Mercury base were referred to by the residents of Fallujah as the "murderous maniacs" because they allegedly mistreated prisoners.
With the withdrawal of American troops, the city became a stronghold for rebels and insurgents and offered a haven for terrorists such as the Jordanian Abu Musab az-Zarqawi . Az-Zarqawi founded the terrorist group at-Tawhīd wa-l-Jihād , which is responsible for numerous kidnappings and murders, including the beheading of the American reconstruction worker Nick Berg .
On March 31, 2004, there was an attack in Fallujah, in which insurgents shot at a car carrying four Americans (US reports initially spoke of civilian reconstruction workers) and killed the occupants. An angry crowd dragged the bodies from the car and desecrated the corpses. The bodies of the Americans were cremated and the charred remains were hung on the Euphrates bridge. The action was captured by television cameras and the images went around the world. In America in particular, they caused a shock, as they were reminiscent of the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia , during which two dead US soldiers, SFC Randy Shughart and MSG Gary Ivan Gordon , were dragged through the streets of the Somali capital. It later emerged that the Americans killed were employees of the US company Blackwater Security Consulting .
Operation Vigilant Resolve was a consequence of the attack. This operation called for the lockdown of Fallujah and the subsequent retake by US Marines . The US soldiers were to be supported in this operation by the Iraqi National Guard they had trained . However, by the time the attack began on April 5, 2004, many Iraqi soldiers had deserted and some were fighting on the side of the rebels.
Despite massive action, the US armed forces did not succeed in retaking Fallujah. On April 9, US troops offered negotiations for a ceasefire for the first time, but they did not materialize. After a four-week siege and the casualties of more than 50 US soldiers, the operation was suspended on April 29th. As a result of the events during the fighting, in which, among other things, the only operational hospital in the city came under fire by US troops, as well as the abuse of mosques and ambulances by Iraqi fighters (which in turn led to the shelling of these targets by US soldiers ), the situation was further exacerbated. A military governor was installed to calm the situation in the city. The Americans appointed General Jazim Mohammed Saleh as plenipotentiary and placed a brigade of the new Iraqi army, the Fallujah Brigade, under his command. The blocking ring was dissolved.
Saleh, a former general of the Republican Guards under Saddam Hussein , was replaced by Mohammed Latif after four days of the staff leadership. Using Jazim Mohammed Saleh as leader of the Fallujah Brigade was described as a mistake by the military leadership.
Prepare for the offensive
Political situation in advance
Even through the deployment of the Fallujah Brigade, the region could not be pacified and the city finally fell back into the hands of the insurgents. During the summer of 2004 there were repeated kidnappings, bomb attacks and attacks on US troops and civilian reconstruction workers. The US military responded with air strikes on the suspected whereabouts of terrorists. Furthermore, there were always smaller and larger fighting between the rebels and US troops.
In October 2004 - after several failed armistice negotiations - the signs of a major offensive against the rebels in Fallujah intensified. The Prime Minister of the interim government, Ijad Allawi , called for the extradition of the terrorist Abu Musab az-Zarqawi, who is believed to have been the mastermind behind numerous assassinations and kidnappings. For their part, the Fallujah spiritual leaders declared that az-Zarqawi was not in the city.
Allawi announced towards the end of October that the window for negotiations was closing and, the day before the offensive, imposed a state of emergency for all of Iraq for a total of 60 days. The operation was the first major military action since the re-election of George W. Bush on November 2, 2004.
Military preparation
British soldiers were relocated north from southern Iraq in October. The British were supposed to replace American units so that they could be relocated to Fallujah. The British military helped American forces re-seal the city. However, no British troops were involved in the capture of the city. A blockade ring was built around the city. He was supposed to prevent the rebels from escaping. The civilian population was asked to leave the city. According to the US military, an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 residents responded to this request.
The reconnaissance was carried out by unmanned drones of the type Dragon Eye . These reconnaissance flights provided the general staff with the targets for the bombing and the subsequent conquest. The air strikes on the city were accelerated in the run-up to the offensive.
The insurgents in Fallujah anticipated the onset of the offensive months in advance and prepared accordingly for the impending invasion. They dumped ammunition, mined streets and built car bombs. The insurgents' troops were made up of several groups:
- Former members of the Hussein regime;
- Foreign Al Qaeda fighters;
- Residents of Fallujah who revolted against the occupying forces or wanted to avenge a killed family member.
The insurgents did not wear a uniform, only their civilian clothes. This fact made it difficult for the US military to distinguish between enemy and civilian. The US military estimated the number of insurgent fighters at 5,000 to 6,000.
Rules of Engagement
The Rules of Engagement are a set of rules for combat operations by the US armed forces. These rules were adapted by the military command for Operation Phantom Fury.
- If the ground troops were attacked from within a building, the building was attacked with bombs from fighter planes or artillery fire. A clarification as to whether civilians were in the building did not take place.
- The city was released for unrestricted shelling by the military (Free Fire Zone) . Anyone who behaved suspiciously or dangerous to the US troops was allowed to be fought or killed.
Involved troops
According to the US government, between 10,000 and 15,000 British and American soldiers were involved in the operation. The British soldiers were supposed to support the American units in sealing off Fallujah, but the British troops were not planning to take part in the offensive. Operation Al-Fajr, as the Iraqi offensive was called, involved around 2,000 Iraqi soldiers from the transitional government. The Iraqi units played only a minor role in the operation.
1st Marine Regiment (Regimental Combat Team 1, RCT-1)
- 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment
- 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, US Army (TF 2-7)
7th Marine Regiment (Regimental Combat Team 7, RCT-7)
- 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment
- 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, US Army (TF 2-2)
- 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, US Army
Iraqi Armed Forces
- 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, Iraqi Reaction Force
- 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, Iraqi Reaction Force
- 4th Battalion, 1st Brigade, Iraqi Reaction Force
- 5th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, Iraqi National Guard
- 6th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, Iraqi National Guard
- 36th Command Battalion, Iraqi National Guard
- Iraqi Police Medical Unit
Time course of the offensive
Monday November 8th
Operation Phantom Fury began with artillery fire on the night of November 7th and 8th. The US Army fired 155 mm artillery pieces and the 120 mm cannons of the M1 Abrams main battle tanks at the rebel positions in the city. At the same time, F-18 Hornet and AC-130 Specter targets were attacked from the air . After the artillery bombardment, marines and units of the US Army moved into the city. The 4,000-man RCT-1 (Regimental Combat Team 1) unit, consisting of one battalion each from the 1st and 5th Marine Infantry Regiments and Task Force 2-7 (TF 2-7) pushed from the railway line in the north into the Dscholan district before, and another 4,000 soldiers of the RCT-7 (Regimental Combat Team 7), consisting of one battalion each from the 3rd and 8th Marine Infantry Regiments and Task Force 2-7 (TF 2-7) advanced from the northeast into the Al- Askari a. The aim was to control the city up to Highway 10 in the first phase. The 2nd Combat Brigade of the 1st US Cavalry Division isolated the city from the south. The entrenched insurgents put up resistance by placing unconventional explosive devices and incendiary devices and RPG attacks, but were unable to stop the advancing US units. After breaking through the rebel defenses, the marines managed to advance a kilometer into the urban area. In the west, on the first day of the ground offensive, the central hospital and the two bridges over the Euphrates were taken by the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion and the 36th Iraqi Command Battalion. On the first day of the operation, American soldiers reported shelling from numerous mosques, including women and children.
The supply of the civilian population remaining in the city largely collapsed. There was no electricity, no water and no food. In addition, medical care was practically non-existent as hospitals and ambulances were shot at and medical staff had fled.
As a means of psychological warfare , the insurgents were exposed to songs by the rock group AC / DC .
Tuesday November 9th
On the second day of the offensive, the Americans advanced to the city center at the Hatra Muhammadia Mosque . For several hours there was bitter fighting over the mosque. Eight American soldiers died in the capture of the mosque. Storming the Hatra Muhammadia Mosque was described by General George W. Casey Jr. as the toughest challenge of the entire offensive. Units advancing from the west captured the strategically important bridges over the Euphrates. According to the United States Department of Defense, a third of Fallujah was said to have been under American control by then. General Abdel Qader Mohammed Jassim was appointed administrator of the city by the interim government of Iraq.
In response to the fighting in Fallujah, three members of Prime Minister Ijad Allawi of the interim government were kidnapped by rebels in Baghdad . The group of kidnappers asked for the fighting to end within two days.
Wednesday November 10th
The fighting between the rebels and the US military continued on the third day. In the course of the day, the American units were able to take additional parts of the city and move the front line further south. According to government officials, 70% of the city was under control. The American troops had occupied the city north of the highway.
Reporters from the city report terrible conditions in the disputed areas. The bodies of the killed rebels and civilians lay everywhere on the street. It was reported that neglected dogs ate corpses in the streets.
Thursday November 11th
On the fourth day after the offensive began, US troops advanced into the city's industrial district. To the surprise of the American soldiers, the rebel resistance increased again. A comparatively small group of insurgents delayed the advance of the US marines west of the industrial district by hours.
At the end of the day, the industrial district was in American hands, but the armed forces to the west of the district had not made any major gains in space. According to US forces, 18 American and five Iraqi soldiers had been killed by the evening of November 11. Up to this point 164 soldiers had been wounded. The estimated number of rebels killed and wounded was given as 600.
During the searches of the houses in the conquered urban area, Iraqi soldiers found depots of weapons and ammunition and rooms that were referred to as "slaughterhouses". The terrorists filmed their kidnapped victims and their beheadings in these rooms.
Friday November 12th
The second phase of Operation Phantom Fury began on Friday. In the American-controlled area, the soldiers went from house to house, searching every single one for hidden terrorists and rebels. The US military referred to this as "cleanup". At the same time, the city was being retaken. The US units advanced further south.
The news of the situation in Fallujah, and especially the suffering of the civilian population, had spread throughout Iraq. A wave of helpfulness swept across the country and food and water were donated to the citizens of Fallujah. The Red Crescent aid organization wanted to provide the city's population with relief supplies, but the US military refused their trucks access to the city.
Saturday 13 November to Tuesday 16 November
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The fighting continued in the south of the city on Saturday. The last nests of resistance of the rebels were shelled with artillery, tanks and fighter jets before the ground forces advanced. In the evening the last quarter came under the control of the American units. The two-star general Richard F. Natonski stated on Saturday evening that the main combat operations had ended and the troops were now busy with the clean-up work. This cleanup dragged on until Tuesday.
Even on these days, the aid organizations were not allowed to go into the city to take care of the civilian population. The US government said it did not believe civilians were still in the city.
On the ninth day of the ground offensive, the city of Fallujah was largely captured and under American control.
Fallujah after the operation
evaluation
The goal of either killing or capturing the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was not achieved. The wanted terrorist was able to escape from the sealed-off city, provided he was still there at the beginning of the operation. Many insurgents were able to flee the city before the siege and continue the fight against the Americans in other cities.
The second goal of ensuring stability in the January 30 elections could not be fully achieved. Although the elections could be held, there were more suicide attacks and calls for boycotts beforehand . In the Sunni triangle, the elections were conducted under strict security regulations. Many Sunni Iraqis followed the calls and boycotted the election. Many voters in the Sunni triangle did not vote out of fear, because the terrorist group Tawid wal-Jihad from az-Zarqawi called for the murder of the voters.
losses
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The US military estimated the number of insurgents killed at 1,200. The exact number of the wounded was not disclosed and cannot be determined. Approximately 1,500 insurgents were arrested or missing by the US military as part of Operation Phantom Fury. Many of the missing are believed to be in the rubble of collapsed homes. The prisoners were transferred to the military police and detained in Abu Ghuraib prison .
Compared to the Iraqi insurgents, the US military suffered only minor losses. These losses amounted to 64 fallen and 425 wounded soldiers. Three US soldiers were killed in an accident and 61 died in enemy fire. The Iraqi forces on the side of the American forces had six dead and an unknown number wounded.
The US military found that its daily losses in combat in urban areas (US designation MOUT = Military Operations in Urban Terrain) were 20 percent higher than during the main combat operations in March and April 2003.
Conclusion
Operation Phantom Fury destroyed almost the entire city of Fallujah. 65 percent of the houses were bombed and the remaining living space was badly damaged. Half of the city's 120 mosques were destroyed or damaged in the offensive. Of the 350,000 people who had lived in the city before the offensive, 25,000–30,000 had stayed in the city or returned shortly after the fighting. Returning citizens had to have their fingerprints taken and the iris scanned, which was used to create identity cards . The supply of electricity, gasoline and drinking water to the urban population was worse than before the invasion. The General Hospital as the only remaining hospital could not cover the medical care. The majority of the population lived in a refugee camp outside the city.
War crimes
On November 16, the US news broadcaster NBC reported an incident that occurred during Operation Phantom Fury and which journalist Kevin Sites had captured with a video camera. The American was one of those press people who moved with the fighting US units in Fallujah. His report describes the behavior of a US Marine during the Phantom Fury offensive. The video showed a group of US soldiers entering a mosque in Fallujah and how one of them shot a wounded and unarmed Iraqi in the head. Before the fatal shot, the soldier in question said to his comrades: Damn it, he's just pretending to be dead, he's just simulating his damned death. After the fact he was heard saying well , now he's dead . The Arab who was shot was one of five prisoners who were left in a captured mosque on the sixth day of the offensive. The release of this video had caused worldwide outrage. In the Middle East , protests against the US approach in Fallujah broke out over the NBC report.
The soldier in question was withdrawn from the front and suspended. The Pentagon opened a public investigation into the incident. If this incident was a war crime , the soldier in question would be brought to a court martial , it said from the Pentagon. After an investigation by the US Navy Criminal Investigation Service ( NCIS ), it was decided not to bring charges against the soldier.
Amnesty International criticized the actions of the US military in Fallujah, citing war crimes (killing civilians) committed by US soldiers. Amnesty International relied on eyewitness accounts from doctors, reporters and civilians. The US Department of Defense continues to claim that all civilians left the city before the offensive began. In fact, all male citizens between the ages of 17 and 60 were denied access to the city.
Work-up
In September 2006, Lt. Col. Barry Venable for the United States Department of Defense admitted in an interview with the BBC the use of phosphorus weapons beyond the normal scope as a blinding weapon.
Captain James T. LaCour reports on the use of white phosphorus for lethal missions during the bombardment of Fallujah.
Quotes
- Donald Rumsfeld claimed, "There will be no great civilian casualties, and certainly not from US forces."
- General George W. Casey Jr. described the people who remained in town as an amorphous group of terrorists and insurgents.
- Robert Burns, AP military journalist, wrote: "Every military operation is given an alias, and at Allawi's request the name was changed to Operation Al-Fajr."
literature
- Bettina Gaus : Front reports. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 2004, ISBN 3-593-37543-5 .
- Mohammed Hassan, David Pestieau: Iraq. The resistance. Face to face with the occupiers. Zambon-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-88975-110-5 .
- Reiner Luyken : The Fallujah Trap. In: The time . Hamburg July 28, 2005, p. 15ff, ISSN 0044-2070 .
- Sascha Lange: Fallujah and the transformation of the armed forces. Urban warfare as the dominant core skill of the future? Discussion paper of the Science and Politics Foundation. January 2005, 7 pages.
- Bing West, Francis J. West: No True Glory. A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah. Bantam Books, New York 2005 (English) ,. ISBN 0-553-80402-2 .
- Dick Camp: Operation Phantom Fury: The Assault and Capture of Fallujah, Iraq. Motorbooks Intl November 2009 (English)
- Les Fantômes furieux de Falloujah “Opération AL-FAJR / PHANTOM FURY” (July-November 2004). Center de doctrine d'emploi des forces, Ministère de la défense français, livre à téléchargerm (PDF, French; 5.64 MB) ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
Web links
- Fallujah Video at RAI News (Italian) ( Memento from July 23, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- Caught In The Crossfire: The Untold Story of Fallujah by Mark Manning, Pt.1 (Video)
- Caught In The Crossfire: The Untold Story of Fallujah by Mark Manning, Pt.2 (Video)
Individual evidence
- ↑ American Forces Press Service: Fallujah Secure, But Not Yet Safe, Marine Commander Says (Nov. 18, 2004, English) ( Memento from March 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Lit .: Francis J. "Bing" West in No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah. ISBN 0-553-80402-2 .
- ↑ More Iraqis Tortured, Officer Says The 82nd Airborne is accused of abuses in 2003 and early 2004. A criminal inquiry begins. By Richard A. Serrano, Times Staff Writer - Article Sept. 24, 2005
- ^ Yassin Musharbash : Biometrics: Big Brother in Baghdad. In: Spiegel Online , August 16, 2007.
- ↑ CNN May 5, 2005 (English)
- ↑ AFP , viewed at GMX on October 2, 2006 ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ The fight for Fallujah, After Action Review, Paragraph 9b ( Memento from January 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Washington Times: US ground forces hit Fallujah (English)
- ↑ US Commander in Iraq: Attack on Schedule ( Memento of November 11, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
