10 Most Important Battles In US History

Considered the highest point of the Iraq War by coalition forces, led by the United States, The Second Battle of Fallujah was an attempt by American, British, and Iraqi forces to stop an armed opposition against the occupation of Iraq from regaining the city. The conflict took place from November 7 to 23 December 2004. The City of Fallujah was where the remainder of Saddam Hussein’s party remnants remained. It also was a brewing place for Islamic opposition to coalition forces within the country.

Some 300,000 civilians escaped the city before any fighting truly started. The battle began on 7 November, with coalition forces bombarding the city with airstrikes and shelling. The next day, the ground troops moved in, sweeping the city, trying to remove any armed threat. They were faced with predictable resistance, causing massive amounts of casualties on both sides.

Resistance fighters had positions on top of houses with sniper beacons, attacking ground coalition forces. Largely American, the troops pushed into the city, taking out insurgents. The threats were for the most part removed, but since it was not an organized army the coalition was fighting, there was no surrender by enemy combatants, therefore fighting persisted in small pockets throughout Fallujah.

Civilians were also affected as many did not escape the city and were killed, purposefully or not, by coalition and resistance fighters. Many civilians, angered at US involvement in their country, would later take up arms and join Islamic jihadist groups, leading to the prolonged insurgency in Iraq that continues to this day. The United States had already been in a position of worldwide military dominance for some time, but the repercussions of it was now seen in one of the largest Middle Eastern battle-zones of American involvement.