operation phantom fury operational overview

“He told me they went into hostage slaughterhouses and saw women and children who were disemboweled, with their feet cut off only four or five hours before. 14, 2004 as his squad traveled from house to house on rooftops searching for enemy combatants, his father, Michael Anderson Sr., told the Los Angeles Times that month after speaking with his son’s squadmates. troops, six Iraqi soldiers and an estimated 1,200 insurgents had been killed, the Marine Corps said.Īmong Gold Star families of the fallen who attended Friday’s event were relatives of Marine Cpl. military officials announced that Fallujah had been secured, although fighting continued that winter against pockets of insurgents. “You can’t bring back a life, but you can always rebuild a building.”īy Nov. “We faced an enemy that wanted nothing more than to kill Americans,” Natonski, who retired as a three-star general, said after the Friday ceremony. Buildings packed with enemy fighters were evaporated by “danger close” airstrikes of precision munitions called in across the street from coalition forces. Much of Fallujah ended up being leveled as the coalition fired more than 6,000 rounds of artillery and more than 19,000 mortars into the town, Natonski said. Richard Natonski expressed confidence that the joint force of Marines, soldiers and sailors would “know how and when to switch off the killing instinct while limiting collateral damage” to the town’s infrastructure and residents.ĭuring house-to-house fighting that month, the 1st Marine Division and supporting forces encountered suicide bombers, mosques piled with weapons and extremists high on amphetamines who continued fighting after getting shot multiple times or losing a limb. In a letter on the eve of the battle, then-Maj. About 3,000 insurgents were dug into this town in Anbar province, protected by booby traps and tunnels leading to ammunition stockpiles.Ībout 70 percent of Fallujah’s population of roughly 300,000 fled in anticipation of the fighting. invasion of Iraq, Fallujah had become a charnel house where jihadist terrorists who were aligned with al-Qaeda tortured and beheaded their enemies. We took on what would become one of the iconic battles of our Corps,” he said.Ī year after the U.S.

“Ten years ago today, we faced a very daunting challenge. Lawrence Nicholson, current commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, reflected on the Fallujah milestone Friday. Marine veterans who fought together in the Second Battle of Fallujah Coy Reyes, left, and Earl Catagnus greet each other after the ceremony.

Operation phantom fury operational overview