Marines continued their advance into the northern areas of Fallujah (search) on Wednesday amid reports that U.S. forces fired rockets that may have hit a mosque compound and that American journalists may have been kidnapped.
An Associated Press reporter in Fallujah saw cars ferrying bodies from the mosque. Witnesses said 40 people had been killed when three missiles destroyed part of a wall surrounding a mosque compound filled with worshippers. But U.S. military officials told Fox News they did not believe the AP's reported death toll.
Elsewhere, senior defense officials told Fox News of at least two incidents in which Western reporters have been kidnapped in two separate cities in Iraq. No further information was available.
The fighting in Fallujah and neighboring Ramadi, where commanders confirmed 12 Marines were killed and at least 20 wounded late Tuesday, was part of an intensified and spreading uprising involving both Sunni and Shiites stretching from Kirkuk in the north to near Basra in the south. At least 60 Iraqis were killed and more than 120 wounded in overnight fighting in Fallujah.
Operation Vigilant Resolve: Speak out!
A sample of your responses:
What would the US, UK, France and Soviet Union have done in Germany had they faced this kind of resistance after they occupied Germany in 1945? They would have "pacified" the populace. This doesn't mean coddling them. This means the occupation forces would have stopped any resistance immediately by ANY MEANS! ANY MEANS! They would not have stood still for any resistance from Day One. We should do it here. We don't need to move thousands more troops into Iraq, just a couple hundred trained Army, Marine, etc. sharpshooters, to be posted in strategic spots to take out the leaders who incite the mobs. Let them know we mean business.
Al
NC
How are we doing in Iraq? Lame. I cannot imagine a situation more missmanaged. Earlier in this effort we were shooting good guy Iraqis by accident. Now we have allowed a violent militia to to be formed right under our noses! What are we, idiots?!! How did that happen? When you have an incident like the mutilation of the four Americans, you need to go right in and address it immeadiatly. Why? Becaus eall of the players are right there in the street. No question. All of this"we'll strike later" stuff is incompetent. Sculking about in the middle of the night and rousting ordinary Iraqi citizens or serves to aggravate them and gives us a black eye, and in the end we come no where near to catching all of the actors.
I am no expert in such things, but given the resources, I could manage Iraq better... IN MY SLEEP.
C. D. Mullen
VA
My son is in Fallujah right now, assigned to the 1st Marine Division 2nd Battalion, Weapons Co. as a Navy "Doc" medic. Watching the new 'video' coming in this morning from Fallujah just hoping to get a glimpse of him. This is my son's second tour of duty in Iraq and he believes whole heartedly that we need to be there. We support our troops and our president.
Chris
Eagle River, WI
In life, sometimes we will have to take not so popular decisions, but still the right ones. At this point, in the war of Iraq, I think we are being too considerate to public opinion in the Muslim community and others parts of the world (places that wishes the worst to US), to the point that we are not taking strong decisive enough response to the opposition, putting on risk the lives of our soldiers, as it is being happening day after day… at the expense of our soldiers lives, we are being too careful of Iraqi casualties… for how long are we going to keep this not so convincing failing strategy? Lets take a more aggressive and tough approach to the war on Iraq!
Elvis O.
Orlando, FL
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