Marines in fierce Fallujah fighting
Five Marines killed since Monday
Tuesday, April 6, 2004 Posted: 8:49 AM EDT (1249 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Marines in Fallujah were engaged in intense fighting in an attempt to pacify the city of 300,000, which has been a steady and violent source of anti-U.S. sentiment.
Monday, Marines sealed off the main roads into Fallujah and enforced a 7 p.m. curfew in the first step of Operation Vigilant Resolve, the U.S. military's response to the brutal deaths of four U.S. civilian contractors at the hands of a Fallujah mob last week.
Four Marines with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were were killed Monday in Fallujah.
About 1,300 troops from the 1st MEF, along with Iraqi armed forces, cordoned the city Monday, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.
The Marines came under intense fire late Monday. Iraqi insurgents fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades from a mosque and from an open field.
One Marine was killed in a gun battle earlier Monday, the Coalition Press Information Center said, and reports from sources inside the city said at least seven Iraqis were killed Monday morning.
Angry Shiite Muslims, led by an influential cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, are presenting a new front for the U.S.-led coalition.
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