LAT: Insurgents May Be Infiltrating Fallouja Again

[DeepModem Mom]

Insurgents May Be Infiltrating Fallouja Again
By John Hendren, Times Staff Writer


FALLOUJA, Iraq -- Eight months after U.S. and Iraqi troops killed an estimated 1,000 insurgents here in a battle that also cost more than 70 American lives, intelligence suggests that insurgents are filtering back into the former capital of the Iraqi resistance.

American commanders in Baghdad and Fallouja insist they control the city so tightly that the guerrillas cannot succeed in regaining a foothold. But they acknowledge that Fallouja remains a powerful icon to an insurgency that is keen to stop Sunni Arabs in Iraq's western Al Anbar province from participating in an October referendum on Iraq's proposed constitution....

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The prospect of insurgents infiltrating the city presents a daunting problem for U.S. military officials. For the embryonic Iraqi government as well as the U.S.-led coalition, commanders say, what happens in Fallouja will symbolize the success or failure of the war.

If insurgents succeed in returning, they would be rolling back the U.S.-led coalition's largest and most successful military victory since the fall of Baghdad in April 2003.

The fact that the Marines are allowing former Fallouja residents to return only adds to the concern. So far, 140,000 of the city's 250,000 residents have come back to a city littered with rubble, its skyline broken by tilting minarets....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-resurgence8aug08,0,5603143.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[bluestateguy]

1. FALLUJAH WARS!!!: Episode III

If only I knew how to photoshop. I just got one great idea.

[gratuitous]

2. No way!

Condi says the insurgents are losing steam, and if the Secretary of Stinkeye says it, well, it just must be so, mustn't it?

[RamboLiberal]

3. Whack A Mole

That's what the grunts complain about. Nearly impossible to beat an insurgency, especially when you don't have enough troops to cover the country.

Too bad it's the grunts who have to pay the price for the ignorance of * and his evil neocon cabal.