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Falluja Battle Sparks Insurgent Attacks Elsewhere; Senior Palestinian Officials Have Hopes for Arafat's Recovery; Military Briefing
Aired November 09, 2004 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The fight for Falluja. U.S. and Iraqi forces battling insurgents. In just a few moments, we expect a live military briefing from Baghdad on the latest.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yasser Arafat, very ill, but still alive. Palestinian leaders speak out about their president. We're live from the Paris hospital where he is being treated.
HARRIS: Gun battle caught on tape, but did police catch the suspects?
NGUYEN: And guilty or not guilty? The jury in the Peterson case still trying to decide. We're live from the courthouse.
From the CNN Center here in Atlanta, I'm Betty Nguyen.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. Kyra Phillips and Miles O'Brien are off today. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Full steam ahead for U.S. forces in Falluja, but also, apparently, for anti-government insurgents across Iraq. A day after thousands of U.S. and Iraqi ground troops poured into the nerve center of the insurgency, an operation titled New Dawn, resistance is said to be fierce, but haphazard, literally hit and miss.
Casualties among G.I.'s are said to be minimal, that's a quote, with the Pentagon reporting six troops killed, 10 wounded. Losses on the other side are believed to be much higher.
Elsewhere, insurgent attacks are taking tolls from Baghdad to Kirkuk. In the capital, at least 15 people have died in attack on hospitals and a Catholic church and a military convoy since this time yesterday.
Today, Iraq's prime minister declared a mandatory, across the board curfew, 10:30 p.m. to 4 a.m., Baghdad's first in more than a year.
NGUYEN: CNN's Jane Arraf is in Falluja with the 1st U.S. Army Infantry Division and she phones in whenever she can. Now she can. We want to go to her live.
Jane, what do you know so far?
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, after more than 30 hours of pretty fierce battles, there seems to be a lull in the fighting. This city has been pounded by artillery, by air strikes, by bombardment.
Now it appears to be relatively quiet. That doesn't mean there isn't fighting going on in some of those streets. In some of those sectors there is.
We were in the industrial sector in the evening. That's where foreign fighters were thought to have a stronghold. When we went, we saw scenes of devastation from the bombardment over the past day and a half.
Streets were deserted. There weren't a lot of civilians to begin with. But what we were shown was very interesting: entire streets that had been rigged to explode if American forces or anyone else came over.
And as we went through those streets, with this unit, 22 -- the Task Force 22 of the 1st Infantry Division, there was what appeared to be a relatively coordinated attack, fire coming from three sides. And that does seem to be happening in a lot of the city. Sporadic attacks, not wide scale, not big numbers. But that fighting is still going on -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Jane, let's talk about that. You said streets were rigged to explode. Are you finding any of those tunnels that some experts were saying that these insurgents were trying to get out of the city through those tunnels, seeing any of that?
ARRAF: We haven't seen any of that. We had heard that there had been tunnels linking places like mosques to schools as escape routes. And U.S. forces here say that mosques have been used and are being used to attack not just American forces, but Iraqis and Iraqi civilians and security forces.
Just today, the U.S. forces here, the Army sent mortar strikes against one building immediately adjacent to a mosque, where they say they were targeting 20 to 30 fighters, suspected insurgents.
But it is still out there. This is still really -- this battle is ongoing. And it will take some time -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Jane, you mentioned there's a bit of a lull right now in the fighting. What are the troops around you telling you about morale and the situation right now that they're facing?
ARRAF: The Army troops that I've talked to and the Marine troops, as well, were very hyped up about this battle. They get hyped up about any battle. This is what soldiers do. And they have to be, to go into battle, to be shot at, to risk their lives.
But they definitely have a sense of purpose. They've been told by their commanders that this is a fight for their colleagues, their comrades, for other soldiers who might have to follow if this isn't fixed, if the insurgency isn't put down. It's also a fight to restore the city of Falluja back to Iraq so Iraq can be peaceful and stable again. Not all of them believe that it will be, but they believe in what they're doing. And they would much rather be fighting, most of them, than sitting around watching things decline.
NGUYEN: Now we talked about U.S. troops. Jane, what about Iraqi troops? Are you seeing them in action from where you are?
ARRAF: We are. And they're absolutely fascinating, Betty. We saw them in Samarra, which is sort of test case, working with the Army on a large scale for essentially the first time.
And here there are several thousand Iraqi troops, as well. The American Army unit that we're with has commandos attached to them, Iraqi commandos. And they are absolutely fearless.
These are the people who are going into mosque, into sensitive sites, into places that American Special Forces normally would, but can't because of the circumstances.
And they're driving around in -- they don't have the greatest of equipment. It is coming slowly. But they don't have armored vehicles. They drive in big buses, essentially, with Iraqi flags waving. It is an amazing sight to see them -- Betty.
NGUYEN: CNN's Jane Arraf in Falluja, with the 1st U.S. Army Infantry Division. Thanks for that report, Jane -- Tony.
HARRIS: Now back to Paris and the increasingly bleak condition of Yasser Arafat. As we reported, the Palestinian leader is said to be suffering from a brain hemorrhage, though his aides and colleagues insist they still have hope.
CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney has the latest -- Fionnuala.
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, those colleagues still insisting they have hope. But however, it has to be said that Yasser Arafat lies critically ill in the hospital behind me.
Saeb Erakat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, saying in Ramallah a couple of hours ago that the 79-year-old Palestinian authority president had suffered a brain hemorrhage.
We also know he slipped deeper into a coma overnight, that his condition remains critical and that doctors, in their words, reserve their prognosis. And I think we can read in between the lines on that.
Meanwhile, here in Paris, a senior Palestinian delegation comprising of the prime minister, the former prime minister, the No. 2 in the PLO, and the foreign minister, have been here. They spent less than two and a half hours at the hospital, talking to doctors about his condition.
And also, one of those delegation, Ahmed Qorei, the prime minister, being permit to go to Arafat's bedside.
Within the last hour, that delegation gave a high-level news conference in a Paris hotel. Nabil Sha'ath, the foreign minister, going to pains to point out that the doctors still had no definitive diagnosis, but they had ruled out certain illnesses such as poisoning, cancers, and really attributed to his illness of the last few days and weeks to the fact that he's a 75-year-old man.
His condition over the last three years, holed up in a rather grim, bleak place, the headquarters in Ramallah, and the fact that this had contributed to some nutritional problems which, in turn, led to a blood disorder and, in turn, has precipitated this coma, in which he now lies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NABIL SHA'ATH, PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Unfortunately, this task has proven very difficult and his situation has deteriorated, especially last...
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NGUYEN: All right, we have to make an interruption. We want to take you now live to Baghdad where a military briefing is underway. Let's listen in.
(BEGIN LIVE NEWS EVENT -- JOINED IN PROGRESS)
LT. GEN. THOMAS F. METZ, COMMANDER, MULTINATIONAL CORPS-IRAQ: ... small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and indirect fire. Anti- Iraqi forces' outer defenses have been destroyed, and they are fighting in small groups as our forces press the attack.
Anti-Iraqi forces continue to use misinformation in an attempt to sway the public opinion. And additionally, they are intentionally damaging infrastructure with the intent of blaming the damage on the coalition forces.
The fight in Falluja is far from over. We are proceeding with speed, not haste, to maintain the initiative, and we are using caution and precision in order to minimize civilian casualties and damage to the city.
Coalition troops are highly disciplined, well trained and seasoned. I am particularly proud of the Iraqi soldiers, who have already acquitted themselves very well in this fight.
We will return Falluja to the legitimate control of the Iraqi government. As Prime Minister Allawi has stated, the terrorists in Falluja have rejected a peaceful settlement and their removal is necessary for the safety of the Iraqi people.
Let me take your questions, please.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I just want to clear up some confusion over casualties in the Falluja operation. Can you fill us in on U.S. and Iraqi casualties and perhaps civilian casualties in the operation so far, differentiating Falluja from what's happened in Baghdad and southwest of Falluja the last couple of days?
METZ: Let me start with the civilian casualties.
We felt going in that at least half, if not 75 percent, of the citizens had left Falluja. We have seen very, very few civilians on the streets in Falluja. I think they are adhering to the curfew. And I think many -- our predictions of the numbers that have departed the city were pretty close. And we have seen very few civilian casualties.
Friendly casualties are light. I am pleased with that. But I also am humbled by the sacrifices that those young soldiers and Marines offer our great country in this operation.
Enemy casualties, I think, are significantly higher than I expected. And let me just keep it there, as we do not have a -- we have not, so far in Operation Iraqi Freedom, nor will we start body counting. But we have imposed significant casualties against the enemy.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: General, just a brief follow-up: Can you give us any numbers of U.S. casualties over the last two days, even minimum casualties, in terms of dead and wounded?
And would you say that the dissident casualties -- would they number in the dozens, the hundreds?
How would you describe it?
METZ: You can count our casualties in certainly a dozen. I would not want to characterize it beyond that. It is light.
Again, I regret any of the casualties we have and I think our wounded in action as a proportion of the total casualties is about what we've experienced throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Well, General, excuse me, just to press this, I don't understand how you can not tell the American people how many troops have been killed in this. I mean, I don't see you can just say a round figure dozen, sir. You can't give us any specific figures at all, minimum figures?
METZ: I would like not to give you a particular number. That number changes. I take updates periodically through the day and they flow up from the chain of command.
There are different periods of day we reconcile those numbers to ensure that we have accurate counts and that the casualty notification process is going according to the regulations that we abide by.
And so I'd like to keep it at a figure that is low and I don't want to state a particular number, because that number would not have been the number six hours ago and it may not be the number six hours from now. And so things may go up and fluctuate over time, but I would not like to be pinned down to a particular number at this time.
BRYAN WHITMAN, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECY. OF DEFENSE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS: I'll just add, General, we do have a process for notifying about casualties and we will put out releases. The MNFI, as well as the Department of Defense, will put out releases on casualties, as we always have. Again, with respect to preserving the next-of-kin notification process with respect to names.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you give us a clearer picture, more description on the level of resistance American and Iraqi forces are facing in Falluja? Is it uniform across town? Are there specific pockets?
And as you get deeper into the city, are you reassessing the number of adversaries that remained in the city? And any sense of whether the leadership stayed behind as well or fled to fight another day?
METZ: So far, we feel that our predictions were pretty close. We felt like the enemy would form an outer crust in the defense of Falluja. We broke through that pretty quickly and easily. We also then anticipated him breaking up into small, three- to six-person detachments or squads, which we've seen throughout the day today especially.
The numbers are about what we expected. I think General Casey and I were working with a number of 2,000 to maybe 3,000 insurgents in the city. As we've progressed, we feel like we've encountered the portion of those that we anticipated to this stage.
As I mentioned in my opening remarks, we're a little bit ahead of the war game that we had done in our planning process.
The leadership, I think, is at that very small level. We are working hard to impact his command and control capabilities and mainly electronic warfare jamming and those things that causes him to have a harder time to communicate.
So we are seeing about the fight that we expected, although we are a little ahead of schedule, based on the war game that we did in our planning process.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you talk to us about the other areas? In Baquba you've had some Iraqi police officers killed. Do you think this was part of the plan of the insurgents, to move to different areas and stage these attacks against coalition forces and Iraqi forces?
And just give us a general idea what else is going on around the country that you might think is related.
METZ: Just as we saw in April, last spring, we anticipated that the enemy, upon our attack in Falluja, would attack us, especially in the Sunni triangle, but around the country. That is coupled with the period of time of Ramadan, which we also predicted would be a period of time of higher attacks by the enemy.
So in preparation for that, we began a series of more offensive actions, prior to Ramadan, to stay ahead of the enemy. It was not a surprise, as larger formations came out in Baghdad and Baquba, as you mentioned, and Mosul. And so we were prepared for that and we've engaged the enemy in those contacts.
And I can report to you that, again back to the casualty discussion, these attacks during Ramadan have been less lethal, and I think that is because of the aggressive nature at which units around the corps have been very offensively oriented and taking it to the enemy.
So nothing has surprised us to date. Things in the south and the far north are very calm, and it's this former regime part of country, formerly known as the Sunni triangle, Ramadi to Baghdad and up to Samarra and Tikrit, is where we're seeing most of the activity. And I think it is associated with our operation in Falluja.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When you say you were prepared for that, the attack on the Iraqi police, I believe, killed about 45 Iraqi police officers. In what way were you prepared for that? How did you respond? How did it happen, if you were so prepared?
METZ: Well, obviously, we regret that particular success by the enemy.
But we were prepared from a point of view that we knew that the enemy was coming out. Of course, we didn't know where he would come, particular attacks.
We have established quick reaction forces that have met the enemy in many of those encounters successfully. Regretfully, we didn't get to the particular point of the conflict in Baquba fast enough. But we have in many other cases gotten there fast enough or encountered the enemy, predicting his attack.
So that particular one, you're right, that would seem that we were not prepared for that.
I do think the enemy is concentrating on Iraqi security forces, knowing that as they grow their capacity, that is the thing that they will have to fight in the future. And they are working hard to intimidate the Iraqi security forces, and I think we see that in his campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How many insurgents have been captured from the Falluja fighting to date?
And have you been able to learn anything from them about the nature or the character of the insurgency based there?
METZ: I do not have a number of those captured, but it is a very small number. And I do not have results yet in this time frame of any significant information that we have gotten from them.
Generally, it will be tactical information that will assist the company- and battalion-level leaders, as that tactical information is turned around. So none of that has made it to the corps level. That's a significant piece of intel information from those captured.
But I do report that the number captured is pretty light.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Following on the question about the terrorist leadership, do you believe that the leaders of these terrorist cells are staying in the city to fight in the city center? Do you have any information about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi? And can you talk a little bit more about the seal around the city and how effective you think it really is in preventing terrorists from leaving?
METZ: Well, first of all, let me start with the seal around the city.
We patrolled aggressively around the city for months. As Ramadan approached, we enhanced those patrols. We don't want to keep the traffic control points in place for too long, because they become a target for the enemy. We've learned to make them much more dynamic.
But it wasn't until the night before last that we really began to seal off the city completely. And before that time, I think, some leaders went in and out periodically. I personally believe that some of the senior leaders probably have fled. I would hope not, but I've got to assume that those kind of leaders understand the combat power we can bring and the fact that we will free Falluja of the anti-Iraqi forces.
There are leaders in Falluja that are orchestrating the battle to the best of their ability, which appears not to be very good. They seem to be, again, fighting in very small groups, without much coherence to the defense after that initial attack we made last night.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Just the Zarqawi specifics: Do you believe he is one of the ones that may have already fled?
METZ: I think it would be -- it's fair to assume that he's left, because we would then continue our intel effort across the country looking for him. And so I, from a tactical point of view, am making an assumption that Zarqawi has left. I still have the intel capability to hunt him in the city as we fight. But because we think he moves around Iraq, we are keeping the intel capability looking for him outside of Falluja also.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You said only a very small number of enemy fighters have been captured. Is that because they're fighting to the death or because they're fleeing from you?
And also, you said that they appear to be damaging, intentionally, some of the infrastructure. Can you elaborate on that?
METZ: I think the enemy is fighting hard, but not to the death. And I think that they are continuing to fall back. In many cases, it's hard to tell whether or not the enemy was killed in a particular engagement because of the complexity of urban terrain.
If you know a sniper or a machine gun is fired at you out of the second story window and you put a main gun tank round in it or some other large, kinetic weapons system, it's hard to tell whether or not he escaped just before that or was killed by that particular round.
But there is not a sense that he is staying in particular places. He is continuing to fall back or he dies in those positions.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: General, I have two questions.
On the strategic side, what is your most realistic best-case scenario for where Falluja ends up after this? What is it that you envision for the city? And what kind of presence do you think the insurgent forces will continue to have? Do you expect to see, IEDs, car bombs, et cetera, even after the Iraqi government is on power there?
And my second question is, I understand you have some information about the number of IEDs and booby traps. Could you describe for us what kind of threat they're posing and how you're mitigating that?
METZ: I did not hear the first part of your question very well, but I think it was, quite honestly, I did not get it.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I can shorten it for you if you want. Just, what is your hope for -- where do you think realistically Falluja will be after this battle, strategically? What will be the insurgent presence there? What kind of ongoing threat to you think they'll pose?
METZ: First of all, as we prosecute this battle, we will rid Falluja of the anti-Iraqi forces. There will be some that may be able to melt into the few civilians that are left. But we, in our planning process, will leave enough of the Iraqi security forces to ensure that the intimidators do not come back to Falluja. And so that is in the plan.
Now, will individual terrorists come back? Will there be a suicide vehicle-born, explosive device? Will there be attacks? Yes, there will be just as they are -- there have been in Samarra since we had that successful operation.
But in our war game, in our plan for Falluja, not only are there plans to properly protect the people of Falluja, but we've also got the economic plans and the reconstruction plans and the governance plans ready to put in place, as soon as we finished the kinetic part of the fight to rid the city.
It will take a while to do that reconstruction, to do the cleanup, to get the economy back on its feet, to firmly establish the civilian leadership that runs the town, runs the city, without the intimidation of the anti-Iraqi forces. And that'll be numbered in week, maybe months, to get the city to a normal operating level. And all the while, we will be retraining and revetting and rebuilding the police force that some day will then assure the law and order in Falluja.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The second question is about the IED and booby trap threat, what you're doing to mitigate that.
METZ: The IEDs continue to be a chosen weapon by the enemy. We knew that the streets could be very thick with IEDs. As an example, as we finished the efforts in Sadr City, hundreds had to be removed. And we've been removing them for a couple of weeks.
We anticipated the same kind of density in Falluja. And I don't think we have seen that density thus far in the fight. We have seen some.
Because we put the curfew on and ensured that the word was out not to drive a vehicle, we haven't had the vehicle-born IEDs thus far, because, given that situation, our soldiers have the tactics, techniques and procedures to defeat the oncoming potential suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. So my report is, we haven't seen as many.
Now, I must tell you that in our preparation for this battle, we did conduct some strikes that did destroy many of the IEDs that we could observe and predict, and so that has helped us out.
But I do believe we are pleasantly enjoying less IEDs than we thought initially going through our war game and plans for this operation.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You said that the Iraqi forces have performed well so far. Could you give us an idea of how many have actually, you know, been involved in the fight in Falluja, what their role was? And have there been any instances of discipline problems?
METZ: First, let me answer the last piece. Discipline problems, no. There have been no discipline problems since we began this operation. They have performed very well, as I mentioned earlier.
They are essentially light infantry troops that have been trained at the squad and platoon level. They are operating in those configurations on the battlefield. The better battalions have been given sectors to fight as their piece of terrain.
Some of the more elite forces, like the 36 commandos who took the hospital night before last, or an equivalent special unit from the police that helped take the Hydra Mosque (ph) today, have done very, very well.
They have assisted in clearing buildings and homes, because it's a manpower-intensive battle in the urban terrain. And they have performed very well in all those clearing operations.
Falluja is called the city of mosques, and I think the number is 77. And so, for cultural reasons, we find it much better for Iraqis to search the mosque. In several mosques today, lots of munitions and weapons were found and they were found by those Iraqi soldiers. And they're just -- they're performing very well. And I'm very proud of them.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: General Metz, based on what you've said about the insurgents essentially either dying or falling back, can you tell us a little bit about what the overall strategy is for finishing off this campaign? And can you give us any estimate of how long you think it's going to take, based on what you've seen so far?
METZ: As I mentioned, we are a little ahead of schedule. I would see that the coming days will tell us whether or not the enemy is thickening as he moves back into the city, or we are killing the enemy or capturing enemy or pushing the enemy back.
I think we're looking at several more days of tough urban fighting. I am very pleased at the position that we have the force in right now and the situation that the enemy is facing. He doesn't have an escape route because we do have the cordon around the city very tight.
The weather was a little less than optimal in the past two nights. It's now very clear so that all the assets we can bring to bear, certainly in the intelligence, in the surveillance business, will assist us.
And I think we can measure the rest of the battle in a number of days. I do not want to pick a number of days.
But I think we are progressing. And we will see, as the tempo goes through tonight and tomorrow, we will have a much better feel for whether or not the enemy is thickening and letting us -- or he is being attrited in this urban fight such that it will be a consistent fight here on in.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: General, looking at Falluja and beyond Falluja, Falluja is one of 22 major towns and cities in the triangle I believe that have tendency toward insurgency, have been infested with insurgents.
Can you say at this point whether or not Falluja and those towns and cities will be ready, as a result of this operation and other operations that have been going on, to have the elections held in January, albeit under difficult circumstances?
METZ: Well, the toughest place will be Al Anbar province, which is where Falluja is and its capital is Ramadi. We will need, once we finish the operation, to pick up the pace with the registration, which is going well in all the other provinces.
I believe that we have every chance to conclude this operation and put the governance and the security in Falluja to help those people register and get them ready for the election.
I think because Falluja has been the cancer, that when the cancer is removed it will impact other places, especially Ramadi, especially Baghdad and other parts of the triangle that you mentioned.
So we are over 60 days away. We have time to really put forth an effort in these towns. And I remain confident that we will be able to have a successful elections here in the country in late January of this coming year.
WHITMAN: General, we know you're very busy and we're very appreciative of you taking the time to spend a few minutes with us today. And we hope that we'll be able to talk to you again soon and wish you the best.
METZ: If I could, thank you and ask upon closing how proud I am of the soldiers in their performance, especially the Iraqi soldiers. However, no hard-fought battle is without casualties and I just would like to send my heartfelt condolences out to those soldiers and Marines, coalition forces and Iraqis, that have lost their life and the condolence to their families for their sacrifice to help Iraq become free.
Thank you very much. Have a good night.
HARRIS: And you have been listening to a live briefing from Iraq on the battle for Falluja -- an update on the battle for Falluja from Lieutenant General Thomas Metz. There is much to talk about with regard to this press briefing, and we will get to that in just a couple of minutes with CNN military analyst and retired Army Brigadier General David Grange.
More LIVE FROM in just a minute.
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Aired November 9, 2004 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The fight for Falluja. U.S. and Iraqi forces battling insurgents. In just a few moments, we expect a live military briefing from Baghdad on the latest.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yasser Arafat, very ill, but still alive. Palestinian leaders speak out about their president. We're live from the Paris hospital where he is being treated.
HARRIS: Gun battle caught on tape, but did police catch the suspects?
NGUYEN: And guilty or not guilty? The jury in the Peterson case still trying to decide. We're live from the courthouse.
From the CNN Center here in Atlanta, I'm Betty Nguyen.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. Kyra Phillips and Miles O'Brien are off today. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Full steam ahead for U.S. forces in Falluja, but also, apparently, for anti-government insurgents across Iraq. A day after thousands of U.S. and Iraqi ground troops poured into the nerve center of the insurgency, an operation titled New Dawn, resistance is said to be fierce, but haphazard, literally hit and miss.
Casualties among G.I.'s are said to be minimal, that's a quote, with the Pentagon reporting six troops killed, 10 wounded. Losses on the other side are believed to be much higher.
Elsewhere, insurgent attacks are taking tolls from Baghdad to Kirkuk. In the capital, at least 15 people have died in attack on hospitals and a Catholic church and a military convoy since this time yesterday.
Today, Iraq's prime minister declared a mandatory, across the board curfew, 10:30 p.m. to 4 a.m., Baghdad's first in more than a year.
NGUYEN: CNN's Jane Arraf is in Falluja with the 1st U.S. Army Infantry Division and she phones in whenever she can. Now she can. We want to go to her live.
Jane, what do you know so far?
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, after more than 30 hours of pretty fierce battles, there seems to be a lull in the fighting. This city has been pounded by artillery, by air strikes, by bombardment.
Now it appears to be relatively quiet. That doesn't mean there isn't fighting going on in some of those streets. In some of those sectors there is.
We were in the industrial sector in the evening. That's where foreign fighters were thought to have a stronghold. When we went, we saw scenes of devastation from the bombardment over the past day and a half.
Streets were deserted. There weren't a lot of civilians to begin with. But what we were shown was very interesting: entire streets that had been rigged to explode if American forces or anyone else came over.
And as we went through those streets, with this unit, 22 -- the Task Force 22 of the 1st Infantry Division, there was what appeared to be a relatively coordinated attack, fire coming from three sides. And that does seem to be happening in a lot of the city. Sporadic attacks, not wide scale, not big numbers. But that fighting is still going on -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Jane, let's talk about that. You said streets were rigged to explode. Are you finding any of those tunnels that some experts were saying that these insurgents were trying to get out of the city through those tunnels, seeing any of that?
ARRAF: We haven't seen any of that. We had heard that there had been tunnels linking places like mosques to schools as escape routes. And U.S. forces here say that mosques have been used and are being used to attack not just American forces, but Iraqis and Iraqi civilians and security forces.
Just today, the U.S. forces here, the Army sent mortar strikes against one building immediately adjacent to a mosque, where they say they were targeting 20 to 30 fighters, suspected insurgents.
But it is still out there. This is still really -- this battle is ongoing. And it will take some time -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Jane, you mentioned there's a bit of a lull right now in the fighting. What are the troops around you telling you about morale and the situation right now that they're facing?
ARRAF: The Army troops that I've talked to and the Marine troops, as well, were very hyped up about this battle. They get hyped up about any battle. This is what soldiers do. And they have to be, to go into battle, to be shot at, to risk their lives.
But they definitely have a sense of purpose. They've been told by their commanders that this is a fight for their colleagues, their comrades, for other soldiers who might have to follow if this isn't fixed, if the insurgency isn't put down. It's also a fight to restore the city of Falluja back to Iraq so Iraq can be peaceful and stable again. Not all of them believe that it will be, but they believe in what they're doing. And they would much rather be fighting, most of them, than sitting around watching things decline.
NGUYEN: Now we talked about U.S. troops. Jane, what about Iraqi troops? Are you seeing them in action from where you are?
ARRAF: We are. And they're absolutely fascinating, Betty. We saw them in Samarra, which is sort of test case, working with the Army on a large scale for essentially the first time.
And here there are several thousand Iraqi troops, as well. The American Army unit that we're with has commandos attached to them, Iraqi commandos. And they are absolutely fearless.
These are the people who are going into mosque, into sensitive sites, into places that American Special Forces normally would, but can't because of the circumstances.
And they're driving around in -- they don't have the greatest of equipment. It is coming slowly. But they don't have armored vehicles. They drive in big buses, essentially, with Iraqi flags waving. It is an amazing sight to see them -- Betty.
NGUYEN: CNN's Jane Arraf in Falluja, with the 1st U.S. Army Infantry Division. Thanks for that report, Jane -- Tony.
HARRIS: Now back to Paris and the increasingly bleak condition of Yasser Arafat. As we reported, the Palestinian leader is said to be suffering from a brain hemorrhage, though his aides and colleagues insist they still have hope.
CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney has the latest -- Fionnuala.
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, those colleagues still insisting they have hope. But however, it has to be said that Yasser Arafat lies critically ill in the hospital behind me.
Saeb Erakat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, saying in Ramallah a couple of hours ago that the 79-year-old Palestinian authority president had suffered a brain hemorrhage.
We also know he slipped deeper into a coma overnight, that his condition remains critical and that doctors, in their words, reserve their prognosis. And I think we can read in between the lines on that.
Meanwhile, here in Paris, a senior Palestinian delegation comprising of the prime minister, the former prime minister, the No. 2 in the PLO, and the foreign minister, have been here. They spent less than two and a half hours at the hospital, talking to doctors about his condition.
And also, one of those delegation, Ahmed Qorei, the prime minister, being permit to go to Arafat's bedside.
Within the last hour, that delegation gave a high-level news conference in a Paris hotel. Nabil Sha'ath, the foreign minister, going to pains to point out that the doctors still had no definitive diagnosis, but they had ruled out certain illnesses such as poisoning, cancers, and really attributed to his illness of the last few days and weeks to the fact that he's a 75-year-old man.
His condition over the last three years, holed up in a rather grim, bleak place, the headquarters in Ramallah, and the fact that this had contributed to some nutritional problems which, in turn, led to a blood disorder and, in turn, has precipitated this coma, in which he now lies.
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NABIL SHA'ATH, PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Unfortunately, this task has proven very difficult and his situation has deteriorated, especially last...
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NGUYEN: All right, we have to make an interruption. We want to take you now live to Baghdad where a military briefing is underway. Let's listen in.
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LT. GEN. THOMAS F. METZ, COMMANDER, MULTINATIONAL CORPS-IRAQ: ... small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and indirect fire. Anti- Iraqi forces' outer defenses have been destroyed, and they are fighting in small groups as our forces press the attack.
Anti-Iraqi forces continue to use misinformation in an attempt to sway the public opinion. And additionally, they are intentionally damaging infrastructure with the intent of blaming the damage on the coalition forces.
The fight in Falluja is far from over. We are proceeding with speed, not haste, to maintain the initiative, and we are using caution and precision in order to minimize civilian casualties and damage to the city.
Coalition troops are highly disciplined, well trained and seasoned. I am particularly proud of the Iraqi soldiers, who have already acquitted themselves very well in this fight.
We will return Falluja to the legitimate control of the Iraqi government. As Prime Minister Allawi has stated, the terrorists in Falluja have rejected a peaceful settlement and their removal is necessary for the safety of the Iraqi people.
Let me take your questions, please.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I just want to clear up some confusion over casualties in the Falluja operation. Can you fill us in on U.S. and Iraqi casualties and perhaps civilian casualties in the operation so far, differentiating Falluja from what's happened in Baghdad and southwest of Falluja the last couple of days?
METZ: Let me start with the civilian casualties.
We felt going in that at least half, if not 75 percent, of the citizens had left Falluja. We have seen very, very few civilians on the streets in Falluja. I think they are adhering to the curfew. And I think many -- our predictions of the numbers that have departed the city were pretty close. And we have seen very few civilian casualties.
Friendly casualties are light. I am pleased with that. But I also am humbled by the sacrifices that those young soldiers and Marines offer our great country in this operation.
Enemy casualties, I think, are significantly higher than I expected. And let me just keep it there, as we do not have a -- we have not, so far in Operation Iraqi Freedom, nor will we start body counting. But we have imposed significant casualties against the enemy.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: General, just a brief follow-up: Can you give us any numbers of U.S. casualties over the last two days, even minimum casualties, in terms of dead and wounded?
And would you say that the dissident casualties -- would they number in the dozens, the hundreds?
How would you describe it?
METZ: You can count our casualties in certainly a dozen. I would not want to characterize it beyond that. It is light.
Again, I regret any of the casualties we have and I think our wounded in action as a proportion of the total casualties is about what we've experienced throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Well, General, excuse me, just to press this, I don't understand how you can not tell the American people how many troops have been killed in this. I mean, I don't see you can just say a round figure dozen, sir. You can't give us any specific figures at all, minimum figures?
METZ: I would like not to give you a particular number. That number changes. I take updates periodically through the day and they flow up from the chain of command.
There are different periods of day we reconcile those numbers to ensure that we have accurate counts and that the casualty notification process is going according to the regulations that we abide by.
And so I'd like to keep it at a figure that is low and I don't want to state a particular number, because that number would not have been the number six hours ago and it may not be the number six hours from now. And so things may go up and fluctuate over time, but I would not like to be pinned down to a particular number at this time.
BRYAN WHITMAN, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECY. OF DEFENSE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS: I'll just add, General, we do have a process for notifying about casualties and we will put out releases. The MNFI, as well as the Department of Defense, will put out releases on casualties, as we always have. Again, with respect to preserving the next-of-kin notification process with respect to names.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you give us a clearer picture, more description on the level of resistance American and Iraqi forces are facing in Falluja? Is it uniform across town? Are there specific pockets?
And as you get deeper into the city, are you reassessing the number of adversaries that remained in the city? And any sense of whether the leadership stayed behind as well or fled to fight another day?
METZ: So far, we feel that our predictions were pretty close. We felt like the enemy would form an outer crust in the defense of Falluja. We broke through that pretty quickly and easily. We also then anticipated him breaking up into small, three- to six-person detachments or squads, which we've seen throughout the day today especially.
The numbers are about what we expected. I think General Casey and I were working with a number of 2,000 to maybe 3,000 insurgents in the city. As we've progressed, we feel like we've encountered the portion of those that we anticipated to this stage.
As I mentioned in my opening remarks, we're a little bit ahead of the war game that we had done in our planning process.
The leadership, I think, is at that very small level. We are working hard to impact his command and control capabilities and mainly electronic warfare jamming and those things that causes him to have a harder time to communicate.
So we are seeing about the fight that we expected, although we are a little ahead of schedule, based on the war game that we did in our planning process.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you talk to us about the other areas? In Baquba you've had some Iraqi police officers killed. Do you think this was part of the plan of the insurgents, to move to different areas and stage these attacks against coalition forces and Iraqi forces?
And just give us a general idea what else is going on around the country that you might think is related.
METZ: Just as we saw in April, last spring, we anticipated that the enemy, upon our attack in Falluja, would attack us, especially in the Sunni triangle, but around the country. That is coupled with the period of time of Ramadan, which we also predicted would be a period of time of higher attacks by the enemy.
So in preparation for that, we began a series of more offensive actions, prior to Ramadan, to stay ahead of the enemy. It was not a surprise, as larger formations came out in Baghdad and Baquba, as you mentioned, and Mosul. And so we were prepared for that and we've engaged the enemy in those contacts.
And I can report to you that, again back to the casualty discussion, these attacks during Ramadan have been less lethal, and I think that is because of the aggressive nature at which units around the corps have been very offensively oriented and taking it to the enemy.
So nothing has surprised us to date. Things in the south and the far north are very calm, and it's this former regime part of country, formerly known as the Sunni triangle, Ramadi to Baghdad and up to Samarra and Tikrit, is where we're seeing most of the activity. And I think it is associated with our operation in Falluja.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When you say you were prepared for that, the attack on the Iraqi police, I believe, killed about 45 Iraqi police officers. In what way were you prepared for that? How did you respond? How did it happen, if you were so prepared?
METZ: Well, obviously, we regret that particular success by the enemy.
But we were prepared from a point of view that we knew that the enemy was coming out. Of course, we didn't know where he would come, particular attacks.
We have established quick reaction forces that have met the enemy in many of those encounters successfully. Regretfully, we didn't get to the particular point of the conflict in Baquba fast enough. But we have in many other cases gotten there fast enough or encountered the enemy, predicting his attack.
So that particular one, you're right, that would seem that we were not prepared for that.
I do think the enemy is concentrating on Iraqi security forces, knowing that as they grow their capacity, that is the thing that they will have to fight in the future. And they are working hard to intimidate the Iraqi security forces, and I think we see that in his campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How many insurgents have been captured from the Falluja fighting to date?
And have you been able to learn anything from them about the nature or the character of the insurgency based there?
METZ: I do not have a number of those captured, but it is a very small number. And I do not have results yet in this time frame of any significant information that we have gotten from them.
Generally, it will be tactical information that will assist the company- and battalion-level leaders, as that tactical information is turned around. So none of that has made it to the corps level. That's a significant piece of intel information from those captured.
But I do report that the number captured is pretty light.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Following on the question about the terrorist leadership, do you believe that the leaders of these terrorist cells are staying in the city to fight in the city center? Do you have any information about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi? And can you talk a little bit more about the seal around the city and how effective you think it really is in preventing terrorists from leaving?
METZ: Well, first of all, let me start with the seal around the city.
We patrolled aggressively around the city for months. As Ramadan approached, we enhanced those patrols. We don't want to keep the traffic control points in place for too long, because they become a target for the enemy. We've learned to make them much more dynamic.
But it wasn't until the night before last that we really began to seal off the city completely. And before that time, I think, some leaders went in and out periodically. I personally believe that some of the senior leaders probably have fled. I would hope not, but I've got to assume that those kind of leaders understand the combat power we can bring and the fact that we will free Falluja of the anti-Iraqi forces.
There are leaders in Falluja that are orchestrating the battle to the best of their ability, which appears not to be very good. They seem to be, again, fighting in very small groups, without much coherence to the defense after that initial attack we made last night.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Just the Zarqawi specifics: Do you believe he is one of the ones that may have already fled?
METZ: I think it would be -- it's fair to assume that he's left, because we would then continue our intel effort across the country looking for him. And so I, from a tactical point of view, am making an assumption that Zarqawi has left. I still have the intel capability to hunt him in the city as we fight. But because we think he moves around Iraq, we are keeping the intel capability looking for him outside of Falluja also.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You said only a very small number of enemy fighters have been captured. Is that because they're fighting to the death or because they're fleeing from you?
And also, you said that they appear to be damaging, intentionally, some of the infrastructure. Can you elaborate on that?
METZ: I think the enemy is fighting hard, but not to the death. And I think that they are continuing to fall back. In many cases, it's hard to tell whether or not the enemy was killed in a particular engagement because of the complexity of urban terrain.
If you know a sniper or a machine gun is fired at you out of the second story window and you put a main gun tank round in it or some other large, kinetic weapons system, it's hard to tell whether or not he escaped just before that or was killed by that particular round.
But there is not a sense that he is staying in particular places. He is continuing to fall back or he dies in those positions.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: General, I have two questions.
On the strategic side, what is your most realistic best-case scenario for where Falluja ends up after this? What is it that you envision for the city? And what kind of presence do you think the insurgent forces will continue to have? Do you expect to see, IEDs, car bombs, et cetera, even after the Iraqi government is on power there?
And my second question is, I understand you have some information about the number of IEDs and booby traps. Could you describe for us what kind of threat they're posing and how you're mitigating that?
METZ: I did not hear the first part of your question very well, but I think it was, quite honestly, I did not get it.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I can shorten it for you if you want. Just, what is your hope for -- where do you think realistically Falluja will be after this battle, strategically? What will be the insurgent presence there? What kind of ongoing threat to you think they'll pose?
METZ: First of all, as we prosecute this battle, we will rid Falluja of the anti-Iraqi forces. There will be some that may be able to melt into the few civilians that are left. But we, in our planning process, will leave enough of the Iraqi security forces to ensure that the intimidators do not come back to Falluja. And so that is in the plan.
Now, will individual terrorists come back? Will there be a suicide vehicle-born, explosive device? Will there be attacks? Yes, there will be just as they are -- there have been in Samarra since we had that successful operation.
But in our war game, in our plan for Falluja, not only are there plans to properly protect the people of Falluja, but we've also got the economic plans and the reconstruction plans and the governance plans ready to put in place, as soon as we finished the kinetic part of the fight to rid the city.
It will take a while to do that reconstruction, to do the cleanup, to get the economy back on its feet, to firmly establish the civilian leadership that runs the town, runs the city, without the intimidation of the anti-Iraqi forces. And that'll be numbered in week, maybe months, to get the city to a normal operating level. And all the while, we will be retraining and revetting and rebuilding the police force that some day will then assure the law and order in Falluja.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The second question is about the IED and booby trap threat, what you're doing to mitigate that.
METZ: The IEDs continue to be a chosen weapon by the enemy. We knew that the streets could be very thick with IEDs. As an example, as we finished the efforts in Sadr City, hundreds had to be removed. And we've been removing them for a couple of weeks.
We anticipated the same kind of density in Falluja. And I don't think we have seen that density thus far in the fight. We have seen some.
Because we put the curfew on and ensured that the word was out not to drive a vehicle, we haven't had the vehicle-born IEDs thus far, because, given that situation, our soldiers have the tactics, techniques and procedures to defeat the oncoming potential suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. So my report is, we haven't seen as many.
Now, I must tell you that in our preparation for this battle, we did conduct some strikes that did destroy many of the IEDs that we could observe and predict, and so that has helped us out.
But I do believe we are pleasantly enjoying less IEDs than we thought initially going through our war game and plans for this operation.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You said that the Iraqi forces have performed well so far. Could you give us an idea of how many have actually, you know, been involved in the fight in Falluja, what their role was? And have there been any instances of discipline problems?
METZ: First, let me answer the last piece. Discipline problems, no. There have been no discipline problems since we began this operation. They have performed very well, as I mentioned earlier.
They are essentially light infantry troops that have been trained at the squad and platoon level. They are operating in those configurations on the battlefield. The better battalions have been given sectors to fight as their piece of terrain.
Some of the more elite forces, like the 36 commandos who took the hospital night before last, or an equivalent special unit from the police that helped take the Hydra Mosque (ph) today, have done very, very well.
They have assisted in clearing buildings and homes, because it's a manpower-intensive battle in the urban terrain. And they have performed very well in all those clearing operations.
Falluja is called the city of mosques, and I think the number is 77. And so, for cultural reasons, we find it much better for Iraqis to search the mosque. In several mosques today, lots of munitions and weapons were found and they were found by those Iraqi soldiers. And they're just -- they're performing very well. And I'm very proud of them.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: General Metz, based on what you've said about the insurgents essentially either dying or falling back, can you tell us a little bit about what the overall strategy is for finishing off this campaign? And can you give us any estimate of how long you think it's going to take, based on what you've seen so far?
METZ: As I mentioned, we are a little ahead of schedule. I would see that the coming days will tell us whether or not the enemy is thickening as he moves back into the city, or we are killing the enemy or capturing enemy or pushing the enemy back.
I think we're looking at several more days of tough urban fighting. I am very pleased at the position that we have the force in right now and the situation that the enemy is facing. He doesn't have an escape route because we do have the cordon around the city very tight.
The weather was a little less than optimal in the past two nights. It's now very clear so that all the assets we can bring to bear, certainly in the intelligence, in the surveillance business, will assist us.
And I think we can measure the rest of the battle in a number of days. I do not want to pick a number of days.
But I think we are progressing. And we will see, as the tempo goes through tonight and tomorrow, we will have a much better feel for whether or not the enemy is thickening and letting us -- or he is being attrited in this urban fight such that it will be a consistent fight here on in.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: General, looking at Falluja and beyond Falluja, Falluja is one of 22 major towns and cities in the triangle I believe that have tendency toward insurgency, have been infested with insurgents.
Can you say at this point whether or not Falluja and those towns and cities will be ready, as a result of this operation and other operations that have been going on, to have the elections held in January, albeit under difficult circumstances?
METZ: Well, the toughest place will be Al Anbar province, which is where Falluja is and its capital is Ramadi. We will need, once we finish the operation, to pick up the pace with the registration, which is going well in all the other provinces.
I believe that we have every chance to conclude this operation and put the governance and the security in Falluja to help those people register and get them ready for the election.
I think because Falluja has been the cancer, that when the cancer is removed it will impact other places, especially Ramadi, especially Baghdad and other parts of the triangle that you mentioned.
So we are over 60 days away. We have time to really put forth an effort in these towns. And I remain confident that we will be able to have a successful elections here in the country in late January of this coming year.
WHITMAN: General, we know you're very busy and we're very appreciative of you taking the time to spend a few minutes with us today. And we hope that we'll be able to talk to you again soon and wish you the best.
METZ: If I could, thank you and ask upon closing how proud I am of the soldiers in their performance, especially the Iraqi soldiers. However, no hard-fought battle is without casualties and I just would like to send my heartfelt condolences out to those soldiers and Marines, coalition forces and Iraqis, that have lost their life and the condolence to their families for their sacrifice to help Iraq become free.
Thank you very much. Have a good night.
HARRIS: And you have been listening to a live briefing from Iraq on the battle for Falluja -- an update on the battle for Falluja from Lieutenant General Thomas Metz. There is much to talk about with regard to this press briefing, and we will get to that in just a couple of minutes with CNN military analyst and retired Army Brigadier General David Grange.
More LIVE FROM in just a minute.
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