NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq — American forces are gearing up for a major operation in Fallujah, where up to 5,000 Islamic terrorists, Saddam Hussein loyalists and common criminals are hunkered down, U.S. officers said yesterday.
American planners believe many of Fallujah’s 300,000 residents have already fled the city, which has become the symbol of Iraqi resistance and where militants last spring ambushed and killed four American contractors, mutilated their bodies and hung them from a bridge.
American officials stress that the final order to launch a big operation would come from Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who has warned Fallujah to hand over followers of terror mastermind Abu Musab Zarqawi or face attack.
Mr. Allawi has issued no such order, but preparations are clearly under way, including the movement of British soldiers into areas close to Baghdad so that American forces can be redeployed for the showdown in Fallujah.
“We’re gearing up to do an operation and when we’re told to go we’ll go,” Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, deputy commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said at a camp near Fallujah. “When we do go, we’ll whack them.”
Gen. Hejlik spoke as soldiers from the 850-strong battle group from the British Black Watch Regiment continued to arrive, the ministry said without specifying how many were in each wave.
The base is located 20 miles west of Mahmoudiya, a town that has seen frequent attacks south of Baghdad.
A first convoy of troops and heavy equipment arrived at the base, known as Camp Dogwood, by land Thursday, slowed by roadside bombs along the way.
A blast went off 10 miles south of the base as the convoy passed, forcing several trucks off the road but inflicting no casualties, according to a pool report by a Daily Express newspaper correspondent embedded with the convoy. More bombs were discovered and defused.
A report in Monday’s Washington Times by a correspondent in nearby Latifiyah quoted militants saying they were preparing a welcome for the British by planting mines and roadside bombs.
The Americans asked for the deployment in order to free up U.S. forces for a new assault on Sunni insurgents who have taken control of Fallujah and a number of towns north and west of Baghdad.
Clashes were reported yesterday on the northeast edge of Fallujah and in Ramadi — an almost daily occurrence as the showdown looms.
In other developments, a body believed to be that of Japanese adventurer Shosei Koda was found in Iraq after the expiration of a deadline set by his captors for Japan to withdraw its troops from the country, the Japanese government said today.
The body found in Balad, north of Baghdad, bears signs of torture and beatings, a diplomatic source told Kyodo news agency.
Meanwhile, two car bombs in the northern city of Mosul targeted two U.S. patrols, killing an Iraqi civilian and lightly wounding five U.S. soldiers, according to the U.S. military and hospital officials.
A Turkish truck carrying bottled water also was attacked in the city, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. Attackers killed the driver and left the vehicle engulfed in flames, according to witnesses and Mosul police.
In Baqouba, Aqil Hamid al-Adili, an assistant to the governor of Diyala province, was killed by gunmen as he sat in a friend’s office, according to police Lt. Hussein Ali.
Days earlier, Mr. al-Adili had warned of infiltration in the Iraqi security forces after a deadly ambush in which 50 U.S.-trained Iraqi soldiers were killed near the Iran border last weekend.
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