Fallujah Fighting Commences

USA Today: Fighting breaks out in Northern Fallujah

Fighting broke out Monday in a northern district of Fallujah, with the sound of mortar fire and heavy machine guns, a day after U.S. officials announced a fragile cease-fire in the besieged city was being extended.

Thick black smoke rose from Fallujah’s Jolan district, a poor neighborhood thought to have a heavy concentration of Sunni insurgent fighters.

There were no immediate reports on how the fighting began or casualties. However, CNN reports 10 Marines have been wounded in the fighting.

U.S. officials announced Sunday that the two-week-old cease-fire in the city — which has repeatedly.

Strangely, both WaPo and NYT are reporting that the cease fire is still in effect.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. rkb says:

    Technically, it is. Remember that this is a unilateral ceasefire on our part, in which we agreed with local leaders to halt *offensive* actions for a while.

    The Marines in this engagement were attacked & responded defensively. The end is getting close, though, I think.

  2. legion says:

    What he said. The problem is that the people we’re ‘negotiating’ with don’t have control over all the militants any more than the IRA has control over all the terrorists in Northern Ireland…