THE HANDSTAND

A massive US ground offensive on Fallujah yesterday has ended in humiliating defeat for the Americans. While dust storms disabled US airpower, matters were further complicated when Allawi troops fled the battleground after 15 minutes of fighting and Mujahideen launched devastating attacks under the cover of poor visibility.

In a new development on the Fallujah battlefield, US forces attempted to wage a massive ground offensive on the city yesterday to destroy the center of the Resistance in the south of the city, but were repulsed by the Mujahideen. In news received from Mafkarat al-Islam, the details on the situation were revealed in a report filed at 7:20pm last night Mecca time.

Shaykh As'ad ad-Dulaymi, official spokesman for the city's Mujahideen, said that more than 400 US tanks and 200 armored vehicles took part in the attack along with about 4,000 US troops, in addition to support from Allawi "national guards," in what was the biggest massing of US forces in the battle for the city so far. No other attack of this scale had been mounted either in this offensive or in the first siege of Fallujah in April 2004. Ad-Dulaymi said that the Americans apparently wanted to make today the last day of the resistance in Fallujah.

US forces began to amassing troops at 8am, local time yesterday that required Mujahideen, to move out of the al-'Askari and al-Wahdah neighborhoods and into the southern part of the city where they could help defend the main center of the resistance in the an-Nazal neighborhood.

Shaykh ad-Dulaymi said that the American attack began at 10:30am. Just fifteen minutes into the battle, the Allawi "national guard" fled from the battle field, and ultimately from the whole battle zone, leaving the US forces to fight the Mujahideen alone. With the Allawi troops out of the way, US forces had to take up front line positions.

The first sign that the Americans were beginning to falter came at about 12 noon when US occupation troops also began to flee from the battlefield, abandoning their weapons. The gradual collapse of the US lines continued until victory was granted to the Mujahideen at 3:15pm when the US troops began their withdrawal from the battle field towards the east and to the Nuwwab ad-Dubbat, al-Mu'allimin, and the Jami' al-Aqsa areas at the northern extremities of Fallujah adjacent to the railroad tracks.

US forces used loudspeakers to call for a one-hour truce in order to remove their wounded from the battle theatre. The Americans addressed the Mujahideen by saying "If you are real fighters, then display chivalry." The Mujahideen responded with hand-held microphones from a mosque, reading out a statement written by Shaykh Abu As'ad ad-Dulaymi in which he said that Allah had commanded them "not to have faith in the Christians, Jews, and infidels among you." He said, "You speak of chivalry now after you have suffered the pain and humiliation of punishment. So taste what you have been promised." The Mujahideen read Shaykh ad-Dulaymi's statement four times while the Americans made their same appeal dozens of times over.

US warplanes initially took part in the attacks on the city, but at 1:30 pm, US bombers dropped "friendly fire" on a unit of US troops by mistake, due to poor visibility. The air campaign was subsequently halted.

Shaykh ad-Dulaymi said that it was impossible at that time to give an accurate count of US losses, but that 90 clouds of thick black smoke mixed with flame were rising into the sky - signs of destroyed US vehicles, most of them Abrams tanks and Bradley armored vehicles. He said that the Mujahideen pursued the retreating Americans who fled along various routes and that there were indications that some Americans had been taken prisoner.

Shaykh Abu As'ad ad-Dulaymi praised the mercy of Allah for the fact that as the Americans gathered for battle at 8am the skies were clear, but then winds began to pick up and intensify until by 9am there was a yellow dust storm blowing that reduced visibility to less than 10 meters. This allowed the Mujahideen to take cover from the aircraft and tanks and to move about with ease being accustom to these conditions while the dust storm paralyzed US forces.

The American defeat Wednesday is the biggest American defeat ever in the city of Fallujah since the start of the US aggression against it. It is evident that the Mujahideen have learned their lessons very well from earlier attacks. It should be remembered that yesterday's storm was a factor that worked to the great advantage of the Mujahideen while preventing the Americans from using their airpower. In addition, the storm distracted US troops on the ground while facilitating surprise guerrilla attacks by the Mujahideen that sowed great confusion in the ranks of the Americans however the situation is fluid and remains volatile.