- Tall'Afar is the latest target of US aggression with
a major offensive now underway, with fighting raging all day Monday into
the night. Amid reports of US chemical weapons use, the Resistance is said
to remain in control of parts of the city and civilian casualties minimized
by early Resistance-led evacuations of women, children.
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- In a dispatch posted at 5:30pm Mecca time Monday afternoon,
Mafkarat al-Islam reported that US occupation forces, backed up by fighter
planes and helicopters, had launched a sweeping attack on the city of Tall
Afar, west of Mosul in northern Iraq on Monday.
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- Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the US occupation command
issued a statement saying that more than 5,000 US troops together with
armored vehicles attacked what it called a "terrorist nest" in
Tall Afar.
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- Quds Press reported that over the past two days, intermittent
battles had broken out on the outskirts of Tall Afar between Resistance
forces and the US attackers. American forces warned residents to vacate
as they prepared for a major attack on the city which materialized Monday.
By Monday afternoon that there were reports from within Tall Afar, that
the city was blockaded by US forces and fierce battles were raging in some
parts of the city.
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- The Mafkarat al-Islam editorial office in Baghdad was
at first unable to communicate with its correspondent in Tall Afar because
US forces shut down all means of communication however, in following hours
they managed to establish a communication link with their correspondent
in the beleaguered city.
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- Black Hawk Downed, US Armored Vehicle Destroyed; 7 US
Soldiers Reported Killed
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- In a dispatch posted at 8:15pm Mecca time Monday evening,
Mafkarat al-Islam reported that Iraqi Resistance fighters had shot down
a US Black Hawk helicopter over Tall Afar on Monday afternoon.
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- Resistance fighters armed with medium ranged machine
guns opened fire on the helicopter and brought it crashing to the ground,
witnesses told Markarat al-Islam. The aircraft landed on the home of al-Hajj
Uthman, destroying the house and killing al-Hajj Uthman and his disabled
wife. The two-man crew of the helicopter was also killed.
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- Reports from the al-Qumash neighborhood of in the middle
of Tall Afar say that a US armored vehicle tried to break onto the main
street there with 10 American soldiers using it for cover as it slowly
advanced. Resistance fighters managed to destroy the vehicle by firing
four RPG7 rocket-propelled grenades into it. Seven of the US troops who
were following the vehicle were reported killed, according to Resistance
fighters who spoke to the Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent.
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- Fierce Combat Rages As 30 Iraqi Army Soldiers Flee The
Fighting
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- In a dispatch posted at 8:25pm the Mafkarat al-Islam
reported informed sources in the so-called Tall Afar police as saying that
more than 30 Iraqi army collaborators had fled from the fighting that was
ranging at the time in the city. The security sources said that the troops
belonged to the Fourth Brigade of the Iraqi puppet army and that members
of the Iraqi puppet army intelligence forces were at the moment hunting
the deserters in an apparent effort to bring them back into battle.
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- Eyewitnesses confirmed that a number of soldiers in the
so-called Iraqi army had deliberately broken their arms or legs or inflicted
serious injuries on their heads in the hopes of being listed as genuinely
wounded and not being hauled back into the battle. Mafkarat al-Islam reported
that violent fighting had been raging in the city since Monday morning.
He said that there were unconfirmed reports that a number of Iraqi puppet
army troops had surrendered with their officers to the Resistance.
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- Resistance Hold Whole Sections Of Tall Afar As Fighting
Rages
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- In a dispatch posted at 8:50pm Mecca time Monday night,
Mafkarat al-Islam reported that real street fighting was taking place at
that time in all districts of the city as Resistance fighters battled the
US troops who had managed to make a rapid attack on the city from all sides
at once. The correspondent reported that fighting had raged throughout
the city since noon Monday and was still going on in the form of street
warfare. Combat was raging from house to house and from street to street
as US fighter bombers overhead pound the city from above.
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- Dozens of American troops have been killed or wounded
in the fighting, and a "not insubstantial" number of Resistance
fighters have also fallen in the combat.
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- From the heart of Tall Afar the Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent
rejected claims made by some Arab satellite TV stations and some Iraqi
stations loyal to the US occupation that Tall Afar had fallen entirely
into the hands of the occupation forces. The correspondent noted at the
time of his filing that there were still whole neighborhoods entirely in
the hands of the Resistance.
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- Concerning destruction and death among the civilian population,
the correspondent reported that the Resistance had evacuated families of
women and children to save places far from the fighting. As a result of
their efforts there have been no civilian casualties despite the heavy
US attack. Material destruction was another matter, the correspondent said,
noting that at least 10 private homes, three schools, four mosques, one
water station and one electric power station had been demolished by US
attacks throughout the day Monday.
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- With electricity cut off, the mosques have been unable
to broadcast recitation from the Qur'an and exhortations from religious
leaders as has always been done during times of American attack in order
to bolster the spirits of the fighters. In view of the power outage, religious
leaders and scholars have been walking through streets and lanes of the
city in the line of fire chanting and encouraging the fighters with reminders
about the value of the holy struggle and the importance of martyrdom.
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- Resistance Pushed Back But Holding Some Hoods Amid US
Chemical Use
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- In a dispatch posted at 11:30pm Mecca time Monday night,
the correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam in Tall Afar reported that violent
fighting was still raging in the city at that hour. Having failed to crush
the Resistance with gunfire, bombs, and rockets, the Americans were now
resorting to incendiary chemical weapons, however, in the al-Muallimin
neighborhood and in the Old Market area. These weapons instantly killed
all the fighters as soon as they came in contact with them.
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- After meeting insurmountable resistance and taking heavy
losses in several parts of town, the Americans resorted to dropping incendiary
chemical bombs on the streets that they had been unable to break into.
The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent reported that a large number of fighters
died of suffocation caused by the chemical bombs. Nevertheless, the correspondent
reported, the Resistance had still not lost control over those districts
because the fighters have been able to put up intense, long-range covering
fire that make it hard for the Americans to drop the chemical bombs on
their positions.
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- This is not the first use of chemical weapons by the
US aggressors inside Iraq. In the second battle of Fallujah, the same approach
was used that killed a high number of civilians.
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