U.S. Forces Face Fierce Resistance in Largest Offensive Since Invasion

The battle for Fallujah has entered its second day. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been facing heavy resistance as they battled towards the center of Fallujah. The Iraqi resistance, using small arms and mortar fire, has been defending the city street by street under heavy ground and air bombardment.

The number of casualties in the attack codenamed Phantom Fury is unknown. The US military has claimed it killed 41 Iraqi fighters. At least two U.S. Marines have also been killed.

After airstrikes pummeled Fallujah for hours, U.S. tanks and Humvees began the ground assault through the northeastern part of the city. Guerillas fought back hard, forcing the advancing troops to fight every step of the way with some units reportedly taking hours to advance past a single line of houses. U.S. troops dodged sniper fire and destroyed booby traps as a cleric at a local mosque called on militants to fight back over the mosque's loudspeaker. One U.S. Captain told Reuters "These people are hardcore... They are putting up a strong fight."

Meanwhile, the U.S. continued its targeting of medical facilities in the city. A makeshift clinic that is serving as the main first-aid facility was bombed this morning after U.S. and Iraqi forces took over Fallujah General Hospital early Monday. Doctors inside the besieged city painted a grim picture amid a chronic lack of medical equipment, trained staff, water and electricity.

Hundreds of homes have already been destroyed. The US troops have cut electricity to the center and most houses are without running water. Food shortages are already emerging because stores have been closed for days.

Many of the 250,000 civilians who live in Fallujah have fled the city ahead of the offensive, which is expected to be the largest battle since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Hours before the ground offensive, the U.S.-backed interim prime minister Iyad Allawi flew to a US military base near Fallujah to rally Iraqi soldiers. He told them "Your job is to arrest the killers but if you kill them, then so be it."

The attack on Fallujah has been widely condemned inside Iraq. One of the country's major Sunni political parties, the Iraqi Islamic Party, announced today that it is pulling out of the interim Iraqi government in protest of the invasion of Fallujah. This comes after the Association of Muslim Scholars, which has threatened to boycott elections, put forth a peace plan that the U.S. all but rejected with no public discussion.

Back in the U.S., Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spoke to reporters at the Pentagon about the purpose of the assault.

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