Fallujah Mujahideen Infiltrate Formerly US-Held Neighborhoods (moved from ATSNN)

story.news.yahoo .com
ALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi rebels are creeping back into areas cleared by US marines in Fallujah, where the military continues daily to secure homes and try to seize weapons caches before they can be used to again attack US and Iraqi troops, marines say.

"The last few days we found 20, 25
guys in houses that were already cleared," said one marine.

Patrols from the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines were searching blocks in north Fallujah Tuesday, combing through abandoned homes which repeatedly yielded weapons they say have been stashed by insurgents who continue to put up sometimes stiff resistance.

A massive US and Iraqi assault launched November 8 to wrestle the Sunni-Muslim enclave away from rebels has broken the back of Iraq's insurgency, according to top US military officials.

Fallujah has largely been quiet for days, with marines encountering only pockets of resistance -- small groups of rebels either caught hiding out in buildings or hitting patrols in hit-and-run ambushes.

But marines Tuesday were taking no chances as they blasted homes with heavy machine-gun fire and grenades before climbing from roof to roof and storming the empty buildings, according to an AFP correspondent embedded with the unit.


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