Iraqi insurgents resist U.S. attack

FALLUJAH, Iraq – The mosque had been taken, but the fire kept coming.

“We’ve got chunks of territory, but these (insurgents) are all over the place,” Marine Lt. Brandon Turner said Thursday as he stood amid shattered glass and concrete under the green dome of Al Kalfa mosque, his fellow Marines resting on a plush red carpet.

“They just keep coming at us.”

There is no real pattern to fighting in Fallujah – a fierce, chaotic battle that continued to rage Thursday, house to house, street to street. But if there is any accepted truth so far it is this: The insurgents are not going away easily.

“The enemy is right where we want him. He’s coming to us,” said Lt. Col. Gareth Brandl, commander of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, which has experienced perhaps the toughest fight of all the units penetrating the city. “And we’re killing him.”

Marines on the streets are constant targets. Troops accustomed to getting around on foot are being transported about in tracked amphibious vehicles whenever possible. But street patrols inevitably must be done on foot, with no lapse of concentration.

Guerrilla snipers crouch in buildings and amid the rubble. Small squads of insurgents rush Marine positions. Dozens of rocket-propelled grenades have struck tanks and other military vehicles. A pickup truck with six guerrillas carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers was spotted near one mosque.

“The enemy just pops out of anywhere and fire off rounds and RPGs,” said Cpl. Adam Golden, 21. “We’re just looking to get him when he pops out.”

Marines have advanced through more than half of Fallujah. But no one here believed Thursday that the city was close to being under control.

Army psychological operations teams have been broadcasting Arabic-language tapes excoriating fighters in the most explicit terms.

“Liars and cowards, you are nothing but dogs!” goes the text of one tape, the dog reference especially insulting in the Arab world. “You have no honor! You hide behind women and children!”

The idea is not to offend ordinary Iraqis, said Army Spc. Jose Rincon, 24, who is heading one of the psychological operations teams. “We just want to get the terrorists angry enough to fight.”

On occasion, guerrillas put up fights for buildings, as was the case when Marines attacked a former Iraqi national guard headquarters. The troops called in tanks and flattened the place.

“Getting in here wasn’t so hard,” Gunnery Sgt. James Cully said of a municipal compound seized largely without a fight Wednesday. “But since we got here the firing hasn’t stopped.”

Few civilians appear to remain in Fallujah. Once noncombatant residents begin trickling back in, the tableau of destroyed buildings, burned-out cars, battered mosques and piles of rubble will likely make their city all but unrecognizable.

U.S. military deaths

Latest identifications reported by the military of U.S. personnel killed in Iraq:

Killed Tuesday in Anbar province; assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.: Marine Lance Cpl. Nathan Wood, 19, Kirkland; Marine Lance Cpl. Juan Segura, 26, Homestead, Fla.; Marine Cpl. William James, 24, Huntington Beach, Calif.; Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Larson, 19, Wheaton, Ill.

Marine Staff Sgt. Russell Slay, 28, Humble, Texas; killed Tuesday in Anbar province; assigned to the 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Marine Sgt. Lonny Wells, 29, Vandergrift, Pa.; killed Tuesday in Anbar province; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune.

Army Staff Sgt. Todd Cornell, 38, West Bend, Wis.; killed Tuesday in a small arms attack in Fallujah; assigned to the Army Reserves, 1st Battalion, 339th Infantry Regiment, Fraser, Mich.

Army Spc. Travis Babbitt, 24, Uvalde, Texas; killed Tuesday when his patrol was attacked in Baghdad; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Army Sgt. John Trotter, 25, Marble Falls, Texas; killed Tuesday in a small arms attack in Ramadi; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Howze, South Korea.