12 November 2004
Rumsfeld Says Fallujah Military Operation Is Moving Toward Success
Defense Department Report, November 11: Iraq; Rumsfeld in El Salvador
MOST OF FALLUJAH FREED FROM INSURGENTS
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said U.S. and Iraqi military forces fighting together in Fallujah are "well along" in their task of freeing the Iraqi city from insurgent forces "and they will finish it successfully."
Speaking to reporters in El Salvador November 12, the secretary said the Iraqi and American forces "will take as long as they take," until Fallujah is no longer "a safehaven for terrorists or extremists." Asked if the campaign is going well, Rumsfeld replied, "It is."
Rumsfeld spoke on the third day of the U.S.-Iraqi offensive in Fallujah that has experienced relatively few casualties given the fierce fighting in an urban setting. Lieutenant General Thomas Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said 22 Americans have been killed and 170 wounded. The Iraqis have lost five soldiers and 40 have been wounded. Sattler said the joint military operation "is going extremely well and will continue until Fallujah is returned to the Fallujahan people."
Sattler and Iraqi Major General Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan provided an update via teleconference from Iraq. Mohan said a number of foreign detainees have been rounded up from different countries: 10 from Iran and one each from Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt and Jordan.
Sattler said about 80 percent of Fallujah is now under the control of U.S. and Iraqi forces, but house-to-house searches are still under way to clear caches of weapons and ammunition that the insurgency had been using.
Sattler said the offensive has been waged against elements of the Abu Musab Zarqawi network, but he also said the fight is not against a single individual: "This is about breaking the back of the thugs, the terrorists and the intimidators, so we can return this town to its rightful owners."
Mohan and Sattler said the reconstruction efforts will begin in Fallujah as soon as security is re-established and "the rule of law is in place." Some 14 trucks already have delivered medicine and humanitarian supplies and more will follow. The interim Iraqi government has allocated $100 million for repairs in Fallujah.
Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said November 11 that the goal is to complete the Fallujah operation in the next few days and return the city to civilian control. The objective is to return to the citizens a city "that is free of intimidation." In interviews with the major broadcast networks, Myers said the insurgents have paid a high price for their efforts in Fallujah. Hundreds, he said, have been killed or captured.
"This is about the new Iraq," he said, and about "Iraqis making it secure for their own citizens." Myers said some 3,000 Iraqi soldiers are fighting and dying alongside U.S. Marines, adding, those Iraqis "fighting with us have done a terrific job."
RUMSFELD TOURS LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES
Rumsfeld landed in El Salvador November 12 to meet with officials of a country that he described as "a strong ally in the fight against terror."
Rumsfeld was scheduled to meet with his military counterpart, the country's president and Salvadoran soldiers who have served in Iraq.
"The people of Iraq are learning today what both El Salvador and the United States learned during their own struggles for independence and freedom," he said: that "it's not easy ... and it requires patience and has costs."
El Salvador has sent 380 special-forces soldiers in Iraq. Rumsfeld presented military medals on November 12 to soldiers who experienced hand-to-hand combat while in Iraq. After that ceremony, Rumsfeld continued on to Nicaragua for an overnight visit. On November 13 he travels to Panama.
After that stop, Rumsfeld travels to Ecuador to attend the Defense Ministerial of the Americas conference in Quito November 16-20. The focus for the defense ministers will be regional security cooperation, military law enforcement, regional peacekeeping, and cooperation in scientific and technology projects. Combating terrorism and drug traffickers are common concerns for the ministers.
While in Quito, Rumsfeld will also conduct bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Bolivia.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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