Iraq: Urban Warfare: How to Squeeze A City

THE FALLUJAH SIEGE IS A TEXTBOOK CASE OF WHAT THE MARINES ARE TRAINED TO DO

The place that corporal Mike Baccellieri and 20 other U.S. Marines were calling home in Fallujah bears witness to the brutality of the fight they are waging. Empty brass casings, cigarette cartons and ammunition boxes lay strewn about the floor of the commandeered house. The Marines were essentially pinned down inside the building for several days last week while insurgents peppered it with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). Whenever U.S. attack helicopters swooped in to fire rockets into the city, they were greeted with gunfire. Marines on the ground spotted the muzzle flashes and called in bombs directed at the...

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