Accessibility links

Breaking News

U.S. Forces Set Up Checkpoints Near Al-Fallujah


(file photo) 15 October 2004 -- U.S. ground troops deployed around the outskirts of Al-Fallujah following sustained air strikes against insurgent positions there overnight.

Some 1,000 U.S. ground troops, along with tanks and Iraqi special forces, moved into camps and set up vehicle checkpoints. A U.S. military spokesperson in Baghdad told Reuters the deployment "is part of ongoing operations in Fallujah. It is not the beginning of a major offensive."

The deployment comes two days after Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi warned city leaders in Al-Fallujah to hand over foreign fighters there or face a military operation to root them out.

Al-Fallujah is a base for insurgents including Jordanian-born Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi. Al-Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for yesterday's suicide bombings that killed at least five people inside Baghdad's Green Zone.

There are mixed reports today about the arrest of senior members of a Fallujah delegation that had been mediating a truce with the government.

In Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed 10 civilians today near a police station in the southwest of the city.

(Reuters/AFP/AP/dpa)

RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.

If you are in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine and hold a Russian passport or are a stateless person residing permanently in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine, please note that you could face fines or imprisonment for sharing, liking, commenting on, or saving our content, or for contacting us.

To find out more, click here.

XS
SM
MD
LG