Fallujah subdued, but battles continue
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-17 21:46

When the first bullets snapped by overhead, Iraqi civilians collecting corpses in Fallujah on Wednesday stood confused, rooted to the ground — until U.S. Marines opened up on the insurgents with heavy machine guns. That sent the workers dashing for cover.

The U.S. military declared the one-time rebel stronghold completely occupied but not subdued on Saturday after a nearly weeklong battle. But pockets of insurgents remain, and U.S. and Iraqi forces are still fighting — underscored by the Wednesday rebel ambush in Fallujah's northern Jolan neighborhood.

"Even as we start Fallujah's reconstruction, the fighting is continuing, as you can hear," Capt. Alex Henegar, a civil affairs officer attached to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, told reporters Wednesday as heavy gunfire and grenade explosions sounded in the distance.

The fight soon moved closer, with insurgents attacking patrolling Marines in the same neighborhood where the two-dozen Iraqi workers cleared corpses from ruined buildings for an anonymous burial in a dirt lot outside Fallujah.

The Iraqi civilians dived in front of their flatbed truck loaded with bodies and against walls already spattered with bulletholes from an earlier firefight.

One Iraqi stepped out into the street for a better view, but Marines, fearing he might be mistaken for one of the fighters — who are often plainclothed — shouted at him to get down.

Other Iraqi men, dressed in long robes and sandals, stared frightened from a doorway as the heated fumes from the engine of a M1 Abrams tank rippled by.

Henegar, 30, of Lookout Mountain, Ga., said the insurgents were believed to have sneaked back into the city, crossing the narrow Euphrates River, where thick papyrus reeds line both banks.

Marine officers say that while all roads to Fallujah have been blocked, insurgents may still sneak in via old paths and across Euphrates River channels the American and Iraqi government forces don't know.

"Our western flank is of particular concern," said Henegar of the area delineated by the river, oxbows and marshes.

Marines say the heavy house-to-house combat that began Nov. 9 after a night of heavy airstrikes moved quickly east-west across the northern half of the city, but that the wilier rebels hid from the massive tank and troop assault only to emerge days later.

After sweeping through northern Fallujah, the Marines then turned their attack southward, leaving some pockets of resistance in their rear.

Marines patrolling in Jolan on Wednesday said they were still collecting detainees, including three men who were kneeling, facing a wall.

After about 15 minutes, Wednesday's firefight died down, with three rebels killed and one Marine slightly injured in the hand, officers said.

"OK, here's what's going on. The insurgents are in this neighborhood," Henegar told the Iraqis as they scrambled onto their trucks. "We're killing them now, but let's get out of here."

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