U.S. suspects many insurgents have fled

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The U.S. military thinks many insurgents fled Fallujah, blending in with the waves of Iraqi civilians who were given weeks to leave before the coalition invaded and disappointing war planners who were hoping to kill a huge number of enemy guerrillas there, military officials said yesterday.

Some fighters are thought to have settled in towns outside Baghdad and near Samarra. They will attempt to regroup and resume attacks, said officials who asked not to be named.

"We figured that a bunch of them sneaked out with the civilian population and left some stupid ones behind to get killed," a senior defense official said.

This official said there are reports that some Fallujah fighters moved to areas near Baghdad and towns north of the capital.

U.S. commanders, in a big disappointment, have revised downward the estimated number of fighters inside Fallujah when coalition forces launched a multiprong assault on the city on Sunday. Commanders had hoped to wipe out a huge number of enemy fighters.

In fighting yesterday, Marines captured more neighborhoods in Fallujah, meeting little resistance in the insurgent-heavy section of Jolan. But capturing the city came with a cost. The command reported that 18 Americans and five Iraqi soldiers have died in the assault on Fallujah.

Although the resistance was not as heavy as expected in Fallujah, terrorists counterattacked in other areas of Iraq. A car bomb in Baghdad killed 17 persons. In the north, in Mosul and Baiji, Iraqis went on a rampage, stealing weapons and setting police stations afire.

Before springing Marines, Army soldiers and Iraqi forces on enemy-held Fallujah, the command in Baghdad thought there were at least 2,000 insurgents, and perhaps as many as 5,000.

But the coalition forces have failed to find large clusters and now think that there might have been less than 1,000, military sources said yesterday.

The senior defense official said some generals now think there might have been 600 or fewer.