Fallujah Update
Rumsfeld: Troops Capture Fallujah Suspects.
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that U.S. troops have captured a number of people in Fallujah as they begin an operation to pacify the Iraqi city where four American military contractors were killed and their bodies brutalized.
“The forces have cordoned off the city. They have photographs of a good many people who were involved in the attacks against the individuals and they have been conducting raids in the city against high-value targets,” Rumsfeld said at a brief news conference in Norfolk, Va.
“They have captured a number of people over the last 36 hours. The city is isolated. A number of people have resisted and have been killed. And it will be a methodical effort to find the individuals who were involved,” Rumsfeld said.
He also said that American military commanders in Iraq will get additional troops if they request more soldiers during a time of intensifying fighting in Iraq — both in Fallujah and across the country — amid a growing Shiite uprising.