FALLOUJA, Iraq — Ten thousand U.S. troops and more than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers in tanks and on foot attacked this insurgent stronghold Monday night in a long-planned offensive aimed at ending guerrilla control of the city.
House-to-house fighting raged in several Fallouja neighborhoods this morning as Marines pushed into the city under fire from insurgents holed up inside houses.
The northeastern Askari neighborhood shook with explosions as troops blew up cars rigged as bombs.
The attack, expected to be the largest battle since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, began just past nightfall after a daylong barrage of air and artillery strikes.
The main line of assault was to the north of Fallouja, where two Marine-Army combat teams of more than 3,000 troops each pressed the offensive in a steady, chilling downpour. Other American forces and British troops sealed off paths of retreat.
Marines pushed about a quarter-mile into the Askari neighborhood and encountered heavy resistance as insurgents responded with rockets, mortar fire and rocket-propelled grenades. U.S. forces fought street-to-street under sniper fire.
At a mosque, a cleric called on militants to fight back.
"God is greatest, O martyrs!" he called out through loudspeakers. "Rise up, mujahedin!"
U.S. sniper teams and other advance parties in Fallouja called in air and artillery strikes. Great plumes of smoke rose above the city as it was battered throughout Monday morning and afternoon.
A Reuters reporter in the Jolan district said today that a helicopter was downed by a rocket.
"It turned into a ball of fire and fell," reporter Fadel Badrani said.
The U.S. military denied the report.
Waiting Monday for orders to advance farther, Marine Staff Sgt. Dennis Nash said: "The most important thing is that we gained a foothold in Fallouja and we didn't experience casualties. From here on out, it's a house-to-house fight."
There were no comprehensive accounts of either U.S. or insurgent casualties. But the military said two Marines were killed Monday when their bulldozer flipped over and into the Euphrates River near Fallouja.
Army Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said there would probably be a "major confrontation" as an estimated 3,000 insurgents fall back into the center of the city in the face of the American push.
