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April 16, 2004

Marines 100, Enemy 0

The insurgents gave it all they had. The Marines won a decisive victory.

"Last night, they were all around us ? in front of us, in back of us, everywhere," said Lt. Lewis Langella, who commands a squad of snipers and infantry on Falluja's outskirts. "They were throwing a whole lot of lead at us, and we were throwing a whole lot back."

For the past week, marines have been fortifying positions across this dusty city of monochromatic tan brick. Even though urban warfare is compact and fluid, there are still front lines ? here, a row of rooftops occupied by marines looking down on garbage-strewn streets.

One of the most important tools for this battle comes from the garden shed: sledgehammers. On Wednesday, marines punched "mouseholes," just big enough for gun barrels, in the brick walls of the homes they occupied. They also smashed windows to scatter shards of glass across the front steps.

"It's an early warning system," Capt. Shannon Johnson explained, as he crunched noisily across the glass, "something the old guys taught us."

Nearby, a squad of young men with crewcuts swung heavy hammers under a punishing sun. They were knocking down the low walls along the rooftops so they could move on catwalks from roof to roof.

"This is classic urban warfare," said Maj. Gen. Jim Mattis, commander of the First Marine Division. "It's all the stuff World War II taught us, along with Korea, Vietnam and Somalia. People will be studying Falluja for years to come."

The weaponry ? mostly low-tech, like machine guns and mortars ? is also reminiscent of earlier wars. There have been a few guided-missile attacks from the air. But Falluja is so densely populated ? 300,000 people in only a few square miles ? that commanders have been reluctant to call in airstrikes.

Two Marines were wounded during the 14-hour battle, although their injuries were not life-threatening. More than 100 enemy combatants were killed.

"It's their Super Bowl," said Maj. T. V. Johnson, a Marine spokesman. "Falluja is the place to go if you want to kill Americans."

If this is their Superbowl, I know which side I'm betting on.

Posted by Deb at April 16, 2004 01:24 PM