Word: fallujah
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...Meeks ’01-’02, an Army 2nd Lt., was severely injured in Fallujah last...
...Militarily, of course, the insurgents may be forced to adapt their operating methods in the wake of losing Fallujah, which had functioned as a sanctuary that could provide a center for logistics, training and command for operations throughout northern Iraq and the capital. And the fact that a large-scale offensive in Mosul has followed so hard on the heels of Fallujah suggests U.S. commanders are determined to keep the guerrillas on the back foot and prevent the emergence of any new sanctuaries in which they're allowed to operate unmolested. Battles are likely to rage throughout the mostly Sunni...
...primary strategic purpose of recapturing Fallujah, however, was to facilitate Sunni participation in the January election, and more generally in the post-Saddam order authored by the U.S. And while the military operation, if followed by a substantial troop presence in the city, may facilitate the opening of polling stations in Fallujah, that fact alone may not be enough to encourage Sunni voters to turn out. Indeed, the operation in Fallujah strengthened calls to boycott the election by the Association of Muslim Scholars, an organization influential among Sunni clerics, and prompted the main Sunni political party to withdraw from...
...even greater concern for the Allawi government, however, may be the impact of the battle for Fallujah on its credibility. As the battle began, Allawi announced that he'd ordered the offensive because those with whom his government had been negotiating in Fallujah had stubbornly refused to hand over Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian fugitive who has claimed responsibility for numerous terror strikes and hostage beheadings throughout Iraq. The delegates from Fallujah had insisted they could not hand over Zarqawi because he was not, in fact, present in the city. Whether or not this claim was true at the time...
...Rather than ending major combat operations against the insurgency, the victory at Fallujah will likely see their focus shift elsewhere - to Mosul, Ramadi and other new flashpoints. And while counterinsurgency operations will likely to continue for months ahead, both before and after January, the election date now makes the political battle for Sunni hearts and minds, rendered ever more challenging by the fact of ongoing combat, a race against the clock...