FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov 9 (AFP) - Artillery, war planes and tanks pounded the Iraqi rebel bastion of Fallujah early Tuesday as thousands of US troops poured in at the start of an operation to retake the city.
Following a day of heavy shelling Monday, marines and soldiers stormed the northern entrance to the city west of Baghdad, while doctors there voiced dismay over a lack of vital supplies after Iraqi troops seized the main hospital.
A unit of marines penetrated the insurgent heart of the city barely an hour after the offensive officially started at 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) amid a blistering volley of gunfire and slim resistance, an embedded AFP journalist reported.
In a two-front attack, heavy fire ripped through the notorious Jolan district in the northwest as a separate unit took control of Fallujah`s train station in the northeast, a marine officer told AFP.
As the marines edged closer to Jolan, at least four 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs were dropped in the northwest of the city, an AFP journalist reported.
The marines poured into a complex of several buildings, including two apartment blocks, a school, a mosque and a government building, in the sector.
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi authorised the operation, dubbed `Phantom Fury,` some seven months after an initial attempt by the US military to reclaim the rebel nerve centre ended in a stalemate that forced the US troops to withdraw.
Ending weeks of anticipation, crack Iraqi troops and US marines seized control of Fallujah`s main hospital during a pre-dawn offensive on Monday, triggering a day of clashes that erupted into an all-out assault as night fell.
Missiles rained down indiscriminately on the city, with the action most intense in the Askari district in the northeast and Jolan in the northwest.
"They are in the process of incinerating the sector," a Jolan local resident said.
Iraq`s Defense Minister Sheikh Hazem Shaalan warned that worse was to follow as the US-backed government battles to retake the city, the symbol of a potent insurgency that is bent on undermining its plans to hold elections by January.
"Tomorrow is the large-scale operation to retake the city," he said.
"We`ve called it Operation Dawn. God willing, it`s going to be a new, happy dawn for the people of Fallujah."
Shaalan said some insurgents had already fled the city, but vowed they would be captured.
Just before the official battle started, Allawi paid a surprise visit to the thousands of Iraqi troops also camped out around Fallujah, poised for action.
"Your job is to arrest the killers but if you kill them then let it be," he said.
"You need to avenge the victims of the terrorists like the 37 children who were killed in Baghdad and the 49 of your colleagues who were slaughtered," he said, referring to two of the deadliest attacks unleashed by insurgents loyal to Iraq`s most wanted militant and Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Iraqi and US officials believe that Zarqawi and his followers have turned Fallujah into an operating base. They gave the residents an ultimatum to surrender the militants or face assault, but city leaders insist such people are not there.
Many of Fallujah`s 300,000 residents are thought to have fled to surrounding areas or Baghdad as living conditions deteriorated and fears of the assault, which has been in the pipeline for months, grew.
Doctors inside the besieged city painted a grim picture amid a chronic lack of medical equipment, trained staff, water and electricity.
"All of the surgeons in the city are blocked in the general hospital and are not permitted to return to Fallujah," said Dr Hashem Issawi, who works in one of just two functioning medical clinics.
"Ambulances have also been confiscated. We lack material and equipment."
Local medics said 12 people had been killed and 30 wounded in the day-long bombardment, while Allawi said 38 militants died in clashes around the western fringe of the city as US and Iraqi troops tried to secure the hospital and two bridges they seized in the pre-dawn mission.
Determined to bring the unruly city in line, Allawi also announced a raft of draconian emergency measures including an indefinite curfew that started at 6:00 pm, saying it would be lifted on an area-by-area basis when order was restored.
Thousands of US and Iraqi troops have been massing around Fallujah since mid-October. The offensive finally erupted a day after the government declared a state of emergency across most of Iraq.
US commanders estimate that 2,000 to 2,500 fighters, some loyal Zarqawi, are inside the city and its surrounding areas, ready to fight. The military believes that another 10,000 men could join in the battle.
In Washington, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said US-Iraqi forces would fight to the end to retake Fallujah, while his top general signaled that more assaults on insurgent strongholds in Iraq were likely.
"I think it`s a tough business, and it`s going to take time," Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon. "I could not imagine that (the offensive) would stop without being completed."
General George Casey, commander of US forces in Iraq, said about 15,000 US troops and more than five Iraqi battalions were involved in the offensive. Other defense officials put the force size at about 10,000 US troops and 2,000 Iraqis.
The British Black Watch battalion was pushing up the western side of the Euphrates to disrupt the movement of insurgents from Fallujah to Baghdad, Casey said.
Casey said insurgents have erected defenses on the "outer crust" of the city, but US intelligence believe they would fall back toward the center for the major confrontation.
"Our intelligence is telling us they have lined the streets, some of the streets with improvised explosive devices," he said. "And they have also placed car bombs around the city and we expect them to come at us with car bombs."
11/09/2004 01:39 GMT - AFP