Rahul thinks the assault on Fallujah has already begun, which it has, at least the ongoing and escalating bombing campaign, but if any ground troops have actually moved in, I haven’t seen it reported. Hala Jaber, who claims to be “the only Western Newspaper reporter inside Iraq, ” reported last night on the preparations the resistance is making for the invasion.
While the US military is apparently sitting in a big circle around the town of Fallujah, mayhem rules in the rest of the area surrounding Baghdad and the city itself. Two US convoys were attacked near Baghdad, killing 4 Iraqis, one US soldier. A roadside bomb went off on the airport road. (Dahr Jamail says 3 Americans were killed in an airport road bombing) Allawi declared “martial law,” whatever that means. It isn’t like he has an army or anything, unless you really think he commands the US military in Iraq.
There are some “Iraqi police” but their ranks are getting steadily whittled down. For example, the resistance just executed twelve of them, in the neighboring towns of Haditha and Haqlaniyah.
Ramadi (Iraq): Insurgents on Sunday launched deadly attacks against police stations in western Anbar province for the second day in a row, killing at least 22 people, police and hospital officials said.
At dawn, armed militants clashed with police and then set off explosions at police stations in the neighboring towns of Haditha and Haqlaniyah, 220 kms northwest of Baghdad, said Capt. Nasser Abdullah of the K3 police station in Haqlaniyah. At least six policemen were killed at the Haqlaniyah police station, he said.
Also killed was the manager of security police for the western Anbar sector, Shahir al-Ghureifi. A third police station, the K3 station, also came under attack as rebels clashed with Iraqi forces, he said. Guards at the Haditha Dam were also attacked, he said. Dr. Bassem Zaayan at Haditha Hospital said a total of at least 22 people were killed in the attacks. Insurgents yesterday launched deadly coordinated attacks in Samarra, located 140 kms east of Haditha, leaving 29 people dead and another 40 wounded.
Insurgents stormed a police station, triggered at least two suicide car bombs and fired mortars at government installations. One of the car bombs, targeting the mayor’s office, used a stolen Iraqi police vehicle, the U.S. military said. Twenty-nine people, including 17 police and 12 Iraqi civilians, were killed throughout the city, the US military said. Arabic language television stations said more than 30 died as gangs of insurgents roamed the city, clashing with American and Iraqi forces.
Two Black Watch soldiers are seriously injured from a suicide car bomb attack. Iraq’s “finance minister” was car bombed at his house in Baghdad’s Karrada district. The minister, Adil Abdel-Mahdi, a leading member of SCIRI, was not killed, but one of his guards was. There were four car bombs in Samarra yesterday, mostly targeting police and government buildings and three police stations were attacked by the resistance, killing at least 4 policemen.
Twelve Iraqi National Guards, heading home to Najaf, were abducted and killed by resistance fighters dressed as Iraqi police near Latifiya. AP reports, “The assailants, who later identified themselves as members of a group calling itself the al-Furqan Brigade, tortured the driver, breaking his arm and sending him off with a ransom demand to their relatives for payment of $1,000 for each “headless body of their dear one,” Al-Najafi said.”
I’ll update this post as developments warrant through the day.
UPDATE: Dahr Jamail just posted this mayhem survey from Baghdad: Carnage and Martial Law
UPDATE: On Allawi declaring “martial law” or a “state of emergency”, Matthew Yglesias points out that Allawi already declared martial law several months ago in violation of the TAL. Also, we have this weird quote from Thair Hassan al-Naqeeb:
“It is going to be a curfew. It is going to be so many things, but tomorrow the prime minister will mention it,” he said.
Uh, OK…..
UPDATE: Maybe this is the “so many things”:
U.S. troops have “isolated Fallujah” and all traffic in and out of the city has been halted after the Iraqi government ordered emergency rule in most of the country, the U.S. military said.
A U.S. statement said that in accordance with the emergency decree, which the Iraqi government announced earlier Sunday, the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division 2nd Brigade Combat Team “isolated Fallujah and all traffic is being halted.”
UPDATE: The Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it shot dead Hussein Qasim Khalaf and Hassen Hadi Qassam ”for spying on the mujahideen (holy fighters)”. It posted pictures of identity papers showing the men had worked for Titan Systems Corporation and for the US Marines as translators.
UPDATE: Three provincial officials assassinated in Mahmoudiya.
A Turkish driver is killed in a roadside bomb attack on a US convoy near Mosul.
Three US vehicles are destoyed in an abush near Abu Ghraib.
UPDATE: Zarqawi’s group posts video of the suicide car bomb attack on the Black Watch on the internet.