Articles 11.16.2004

The Washington, PA, Observer-Reporter, has an article on Julie Brooke, the wife of a soldier from the 2nd ID in Ramadi, Pfc. Robert Brooke (specific unit wasn't given). Mrs. Brooke has led a philanthropy program at the preschool where she teaches to send school supplies to children in Iraq.
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According to the NY Times (via the Lakeland Ledger, FL), some insurgents from Fallujah likely have relocated in Ramadi.

"Even as fighting in Falluja was dying down, violence was increasing in nearby Ramadi", said Col. Michael Regner, the operations officer for the First Marine Expeditionary Force [under which the 2nd BCT operates]. He said that "for about a week now, it's been tougher in Ramadi" than it was before the Falluja offensive began. He said a second Marine battalion had been sent to Ramadi to bolster the battalion that had been in place there, and that American forces were killing or capturing an undetermined number of insurgents, some of whom had fled Falluja, and seizing weapons throughout the city."

According to the Bloomberg News, Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers said Iraqi insurgents have no safe haven after Fallujah Falls. "Everyone asks the question about Ramadi," Myers said, according to the report. "We're in Ramadi. There are a lot of bad guys there, but we're there."

In a separate AFP article, Col. Regner is quoted as saying: "They have escaped the city of Fallujah and ... moved into Ramadi or some of the other cities in the area," he said. Insurgents in Ramadi, the capital of al-Anbar province, had challenged marines over the past week, prompting the deployment of two US marine battalions in the city, Regner said. "Do we control Ramadi? Yes we control it. But again it is not at this time a clear city," he said.The deployment of a fresh battalion in Ramadi caught insurgents off guard and the number of weapons caches and insurgents killed or captured there were at "a higher level than it has been in the past," he said."

It is unclear on whether there are now 2 marine battalions and 1 Army battalion (1-503rd) in Ramadi, or if the "2nd marine battalion" is actually referring to the 1-503rd.
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In Fallujah, sporadic resistence exists, but a transition to recovery/rebuilding is starting to begin. Some articles:

- LA Times (reg req'd): few foreign fighters among insurgents
- LA Times (reg req'd): early battle strategy in Fallujah
- Boston Globe: picture of Fallujah fighters emerges
- Washington Post (reg req'd): Fallujah mostly quiet
- Christian Science Monitor: Upcoming political battles
- Christian Science Monitor: Aiding residents of Fallujah
- Christian Science Monitor: Difficulties of urban fighting
- USA Today: Few foreign fighters captured