some American marines said they "found Jesus Christ" ahead of what was the biggest urban battle since the Vietnam war, BosNewsLife monitored.
While planes pounded the Sunni rebel bastion, troops closed in to the heart of Fallujah on foot, apparently faster than expected, reporters traveling with the troops said. Throughout the night, American troops fired 120mm artillery rounds at booby-trapped barricades set up by the insurgents,igniting huge explosions,eyewitnesses said.
The barrage of artillery fire cleared a path for American and Iraqi troops to enter the city, the Voice of America (VOA) network reported.
INSURGENTS HAVEN
Iraq’s interim government sees the city as a haven for insurgents which must be retaken so that the general election planned for January can go ahead. Around one third of the up to 20,000 troops taking part in the offensive are believed to be U.S.-trained Iraqi soldiers.
An estimated one fifth of Fallujah’s 300,000 inhabitants are thought to have ignored calls to evacuate the city. But that prospect has been played down by U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who said his forces "are well-trained and disciplined."
Fearing that followers of al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, who recently claimed the massacre of dozens of Iraqi troops, was waiting for them down Fallujah’s alleyways or on rooftops, American marines turned to God ahead of the fighting.
RIFLES AND LYRICS
Dozens of men with buzzcuts and clad in their camouflage waved their hands in the air, M-16 assault rifles laying beside them, and chanted heavy metal-flavored lyrics in praise of Christ in a yellow-brick chapel, the French News Agency (AFP) reported.
The London based religious Internet service, Ekklesia, said the scene "evoked images of a modern-day crusade" with U.S. Marines drawing parallels between their own situation and that of the biblical King David. Many on the coalition forces perceive themselves "as warriors fighting barbaric men opposed to all that is good in the world" AFP commented.
SMALL STAGE
Between the service’s electric guitar religious tunes, marines stepped up on the chapel’s small stage and recited a verse of scripture, meant to fortify them for war. One spoke of their Old Testament hero, a shepherd who would become Israel’s king, battling the Philistines some 3,000 years ago. "Thus David prevailed over the Philistines," the unidentified marine reportedly said, reading from scripture, with other marines shouting back "Hoorah, King David," using their signature grunt of approval.
Many soldiers coming from the conservative American south and Midwest, have deep Christian roots and as fighting looms they draw on their evangelical or born-again heritage to help them face the battle. "It’s always comforting. Church attendance is always up before the big push," First Sergeant Miles Thatford was quoted as saying. "Sometimes, all you’ve got is God."
"GOD’S PEOPLE"
The marines were seen lining up and their chaplain dabbed oil on the marines’ foreheads, as in his words "God’s people would be anointed with oil," to protect them. The crowd then followed him outside their small auditorium for a baptism of about a half-dozen marines who had just found Christ.
They lined up and at least three of them stripped down to their shorts, AFP said The three laid down in a rubber dinghy filled with water and the chaplain’s assistant, Navy corpsman Richard Vaughn, plunged their heads beneath the surface.
Smiling, Vaughn baptized them "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." Dripping wet, Corporal Keith Arguelles beamed after his baptism. "I just wanted to make sure I did this before I headed into the fight," he said on the military base not far from the city of Fallujah, AFP reported.
OFFENSIVE CONTINUES
He and other American soldiers later participated in the offensive, which senior officials with Iraq’s Interior Ministry said "had gone according to plan", VOA reported.
Fallujah’s main hospital and train station have been captured by American and Iraqi forces. Two main bridges have also been secured. A senior interim government official says capturing the hospital was considered important, in an effort to control what he called, "wild estimates" of civilian casualties, VOA said.
Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had been warning residents of Fallujah to either hand over insurgents in the city — including wanted militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — or face certain military action. While speaking with Iraqi forces Monday, Allawi told the troops that the insurgents would, as he put it, "go to hell," VOA said.
In Washington meanwhile, United States President President George W. Bush was to pay a bedside visit to U.S. soldiers who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he awarded Purple Hearts to several soldiers.
Total American casualties in Iraq since the 2003 invasion stand at more than 1,130 killed and more than 8,000 wounded, VOA and other news sources said.
