Home > Few foreigners are among insurgents captured in Fallujah
Few foreigners are among insurgents captured in Fallujah
by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 16 November 2004Wars and conflicts International Attack-Terrorism
By Robert Burns
WASHINGTON (AP) Only a tiny percentage of the more than 1,000 insurgents detained by U.S. forces in the Iraqi city of Fallujah over the past week are foreigners, a Marine officer said Monday.
Col. Michael Regner, operations chief for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said in a conference call with reporters at the Pentagon that 1,052 people had been detained at last count.
Of that total, he said at least 1,030 were Iraqis, meaning only about 20 were foreigners.
He gave no breakdown of nationalities. On Friday, Iraqi government officials said there were 15 foreigners in detention in Fallujah. Ten were Iranians and there was one each from Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt and Jordan and one who might be from France.
Regner did not detail the detention process, but his boss, Lt. Gen. John Sattler, told reporters Friday that people captured in Fallujah were being vetted; if they are found to be dislocated civilians, they are allowed to leave the U.S.-run detention compound.
Speaking from his post in Fallujah on what he said was the ninth day of the military operation, Regner said 37 U.S. Marines and soldiers had been killed in action there, plus one non-battle death. Of the 320 U.S. troops wounded in action, 134 had returned to duty, Regner said.
He declined to estimate the number of insurgents killed, although he said published estimates of 1,000 might be close. Nor did he estimate how many had escaped the city, but he said it was clear some had made it to Ramadi, the provincial capital west of Fallujah.
Although the heaviest fighting in Fallujah is over, Regner said, and 100 percent of the city has been ’’secured’’ meaning U.S. forces can move about at will he said he would not describe it as under full U.S. control because some insurgents were still holding out.
The Marines learned quickly that Fallujah was no ordinary battle, he said.
’’If you weren’t street-wise and you got street-wise about an hour into this operation you would find yourself as a casualty,’’ he said.
He recounted a story of four Marines who were discussing, as bullets sprayed around them, what Hollywood actor would play the lead in a movie they envisioned, ’’The Battle for Fallujah.’’ Just then a ’’bunker-buster’’ bomb struck an enemy hideout beside the Marines and they rushed inside to gun down the survivors.
’’This is no-kidding street fighting,’’ Regner said, and the opposing forces are tough.
’’Very few are giving up,’’ he said of the insurgents who remain in the city. ’’They’re in there fighting to the death, and they’re making it difficult on Marines and soldiers.’’