Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 23 December 2004
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member editorial board The Free Arab Voice.




Thursday, 23 December 2004.




Al-Fallujah.



Late night fighting in al-Fallujah Thursday.

In a report posted at 125am Friday morning Mecca time, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that Iraqi Resistance forces mounted several attacks on US troops in al-Fallujah on Thursday night. Casualties were inflicted on the American invaders and 24 Resistance fighters, including 19 fraternal Arab volunteers, were martyred.

The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent reported that intermittent fighting took place for half an hour in the Nuwwab ad-Dubbat neighborhood and in particular on 40 Street. A number of fraternal Arab volunteers were killed in that battle. Minutes later a US column showed up to protect an American commander who was accompanied by press photographers. One of the wounded Resistance fighters had been hit in his leg and was lying on his side, apparently dead. As the American commander approached, the Resistance fighter drew what looked like a bayonet and planted it in the chest of the American commander. Immediately the US troops opened fire and killed the Resistance fighter, but only after he had felled the US officer who lay dead in a pool of his blood nearby. An officer in the puppet “national guard” said that he didn’t know who the American officer had been, but said that he had three stars on his shoulders.

In a communiqué issued by the Consultative Council of Mujahideen of al-Fallujah, spokesman Abu As‘ad ad-Dulaymi discussed the fighting in the al-Jawlan neighborhood.

He said that the Resistance had fought battles in al-Jawlan Thursday that lasted more than three hours. In the course of the fighting, the Resistance shot down three US helicopters – one Cobra, one Black Hawk, and one of an undetermined type. The first crashed near the industrial middle school in al-Jawlan, the second over the sheep market, and the third fell into a house in the al-Jawlan neighborhood. Four Resistance fighters were killed in the course of downing the US helicopters, when another American aircraft fired a missile at them after they fired a Strela missile at the helicopter from a rooftop.

The Resistance also set seven US tanks ablaze, killing their crews. The Resistance set two Humvees ablaze, destroying them and killing all those aboard. Resistance fighters seized 53 light and medium machineguns belonging to US forces. They also discovered munitions, hand grenades, bayonets, and bullet proof vests, as well as authentic US military documents that the Resistance can make use of. Twenty-four Resistance fighters, members of the AsadAllah al-Ghalib Brigade and the ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib Brigade, as well as members of the at-Tawhid wa-al-Jihad organization, and the Salafi Squadrons of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq fell as martyrs. Nineteen of the martyrs were fraternal Arab fighters and five were Iraqis. The 19 fraternal Arab fighters hailed from the Arabian Peninsula – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain – and Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.

Abu As‘ad ad-Dulaymi said that the volunteers did not know one another; they only got acquainted on that battlefield today where they died. As to the Iraqis, the youngest of the five was 19 years old and of Mongoloid appearance – a form of disability. Yet he insisted on joining the Resistance operation. Resistance fighters who got back to the south of the city, controlled by the Resistance, after the day’s fighting testified that he had fought more bravely than anyone, but that his brothers in arms were unable to bring his body back with them because it had been blown apart and scattered by the US gunfire.

At the time the correspondent filed his report, the area between the two bridges was quiet. The Resistance fighters had withdrawn for tactical reasons from the al-‘Askari neighborhood, according to a military affairs expert. Their concern was that they were exposed to possible US ambush.

Abu As‘ad ad-Dulaymi told Mafkarat al-Islam that in the last two days the Resistance had done twice what any other army would do to its enemy. In answer to a question about rumors that the Resistance might pull out of al-Fallujah in order to let the refugee families back in, Abu As‘ad replied that the Resistance had begun the battle in the blessed month of Ramadan and that there is no report that the Prophet Muhammad ever lost a battle in Ramadan, adding, “we want to end it when God wishes it to end. This is all we will say on the matter.”

At the time of writing, the correspondent reported that US aircraft were still prowling the skies over the city and two rockets were heard being fired from one of the US warplanes. Abu As‘ad said, however, that those rockets caused no damage. He said, however, that the Americans had destroyed a weapons storage site in the south of al-Fallujah, but, he said, it was a small site and its loss is not expected to affect Resistance operations.


Thursday’s bombing and fighting in al-Fallujah.

Fierce fighting broke out in various neighborhoods of al-Fallujah late on Thursday, leaving numerous Americans dead and vehicles destroyed.

US forces began their attacks with intensive and protracted aerial bombing, in which they used rockets, container bombs, and more conventional bombs. The bombing began at 5pm Thursday evening and lasted until 70pm. Meanwhile a detachment of Resistance fighters who had come from outside the city opened fire from an-Nu‘aymiyah, al-Azraqiyah, al-Karmah, and as-Saqlawiyah on US troops. Those fighters fired rockets and mortars on US positions. Thick smoke rose over the American camp in the agricultural area northeast of al-Fallujah as sirens wailed inside the facility. Resistance forces inside al-Fallujah made no response to the US bombing, feeling that the aim of the American aerial attack was to draw the Resistance forces out, exposing their positions and facilitating more effective US slaughter.

Fifty Resistance fighters from Iraq and fraternal Arab lands infiltrated into the al-Andalus neighborhood at 5pm Thursday. Resistance fighters also were able to shoot down a US Apache helicopter over the area west of the region between the two bridges at 5:15pm. After that, battles erupted between US invaders and a group of more than 80 Iraqi and fraternal Arab Resistance fighters. These battles raged in the area of the al-Jawlan neighborhood. Fighting persisted near the al-Khalij al-‘Arabi School in the center of al-Jawlan. Witnesses reported that another US Apache helicopter was shot down near the industrial middle school at the western end of the al-Jawlan neighborhood at 7:05pm.

US forces after that started to use loudspeakers to address the Resistance fighters, saying that there are families inside the neighborhood, and they were advising the Resistance fighters to pull out if they were concerned for those families’ welfare. The Resistance refused to pull out in the belief that this was nothing but a ruse.

Clouds of thick, black smoke could be seen covering the sky over the al-Jawlan neighborhood as a result of the burning US military vehicles in the area. Light, white smoke could also be seen, a result, it is believed, from the US bombing of local houses.

After Resistance fighters seized control of a mosque in the al-Jawlan neighborhood, they used the mosque’s loudspeaker system to broadcast the call “Allahu akbar!” “God is greatest!” and recitation from the Qur’an and prayers for the victory of the God’s forces. There was no information on the extent of casualties, but the bombardment was intensive and protracted.

Iraqi Resistance fighters fired RPG7, SPG9 and C5K rockets, light and medium weight weapons, Bullets and rockets flew at the US forces. In the heat of battle, Resistance fighters were able to recover eight Resistance martyrs’ bodies from the battlefield.

The intensity of US fire in the area is an indication that US forces have pulled out of al-Jawlan and that the neighborhood has now fallen into the hands of the Resistance once again. The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent in al-Azrawiyah outside the city saw two huge Chinook helicopters carrying away US dead and wounded. The first was observed at 60pm, the second at 7:05. US forces fired more than 50 incendiary shells in order to light up the sky of the area.

Fierce fighting also took place between the two bridges in the city. Nearly 50 Resistance fighters took part, totally wiping out a US column. The Americans were camped in the al-Furat neighborhood but after intensive Resistance shelling, they pulled out of al-Fallujah. There, however, they met Resistance fighters who had cut off their escape route and then opened up with heavy barrages of fire. More than 120 US troops in the column were killed and more than 20 vehicles destroyed. Seven homes were totally destroyed in the fighting. The column was surrounded in the Hasan Beg Garden, which has an area of four dunums. It was burned out as a result of the elimination of the American forces in it.

Fierce battles also raged in the al-‘Askari neighborhood, ending at 8:15pm Thursday night. Fighting moved to al-Karinat Street in the industrial zone.