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This reminds me of Eisenhower on D-day with 101 and 82 troops before the jump.

U.S. Troops Launch Fallujah Offensive
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Nov 8, 12:27 PM (ET)

By JIM KRANE

(AP) Insurgents, using small arms and mortars, launch an attack on U.S. forces in Fallujah, Iraq,...
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NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - Thousands of U.S. troops, backed by armor and a stunning air barrage, attacked the toughest strongholds of Sunni insurgents in Fallujah on Monday, launching a long-awaited offensive to put an end to guerrilla control of the Sunni Muslim city.

After nightfall, U.S. troops advanced slowly on the northwestern Jolan neighborhood, a warren of alleyways where Sunni militant fighters have dug in. Artillery, tanks and warplanes pounded the district's northern edge, softening the defenses and attempting to set off any bombs and boobytraps before troops moved in.

At the same time, another force of 4,000 troops pushed into the northeastern Askari district, the first large-scale assault into the insurgent-held area of the city, the military said.

Iraqi troops were expected to be involved in the attack, but there was no immediate word on their actions.

(AP) U.S. Army doctors try to stabilize a four-year-old child with schrapnel wounds to the head who was...
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Before the thrust into the heart of the city, the U.S. military reported its first casualties of the offensive - two Marines killed when their bulldozer flipped over into the Euphrates. A military spokesman estimated that 42 insurgents were killed across Fallujah in bombardments and skirmishes during the day.

AP reporter Edward Harris, embedded with Marines near the railroad station just outside the city's northern edge, said U.S. forces hammered the Jolan district with airstrikes and intense tank fire to soften up defenses. The Marines reported that at least initially they did not draw significant fire from insurgents, only a few rocker-propelled grenades that caused no casualties.

Earlier Monday, in preparation for the full assault, U.S. and Iraqi forces seized two bridges over the Euphrates River and a hospital on Fallujah's western edge that they said was under insurgents' control.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said he gave the green light for international and Iraqi forces to launch the long-awaited offensive against Fallujah, aimed at breaking the backbone of the guerrillas before elections set for January.

"We are determined to clean Fallujah of terrorists," he told a press conference in Baghdad.

(AP) U.S. Army Ssg. Samuel Viera cleans blood from the breast plate of a flack jacket after a U.S....
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Marine commanders have warned the new offensive could bring the heaviest urban fighting since the Vietnam war. Some 10,000 U.S. Marines, Army soldiers and Iraqi forces are around Fallujah, where commanders estimate around 3,000 insurgents are dug in. More than half the civilian population of some 300,000 people is believed to have fled already.

Allawi also announced he was using emergency powers he was granted the day before to impose a round-the-clock curfew on Fallujah and the nearby town of Ramadi, starting at sundown Monday. All roads and government institutions in the two cities will be closed and no one will be allowed to carry weapons. Also, he announced the borders with Syria and Jordan were sealed, and Baghdad International Airport was closed for 48 hours.

Before the main assault, Allawi visited the main U.S. base outside Fallujah to rally Iraqi troops.

"The people of Fallujah have been taken hostage ... and you need to free them from their grip," he told the soldiers at the camp, who swarmed around him when he arrived. "Your job is to arrest the killers but if you kill them, then so be it."

"May they go to hell!" the soldiers shouted, and Allawi replied: "To hell they will go."

The prelude to the assault was a crushing air and artillery bombardment of the city that built from the night before, though Monday morning and evening then rose to a crescendo by Monday night - with U.S. jets dropping bombs constantly and big guns pounding the city every few minutes with high-explosive shells.

As the main assault began in Fallujah, thunderous explosions could be heard across central Baghdad, some 40 miles to the east. Earlier, insurgents attacked a church in the capital, setting it ablaze and wounding 20 people, police said.