BAGHDAD, 9 November 2004 — US and Iraqi forces yesterday launched the long-awaited attack on the Sunni town of Fallujah after Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi gave them the green light.

Thousands of US troops, backed by armor and a stunning air barrage, attacked the toughest strongholds of insurgents in the town. After nightfall, American troops advanced slowly on the northwestern Jolan neighborhood, a warren of alleyways where militant fighters have dug in. Artillery, tanks and warplanes pounded the district’s northern edge, softening the defenses and attempting to set off any bombs and booby traps before troops moved in.

At the same time, another force pushed into the northeastern Askari district, the first large-scale assault into the insurgent-held area of the city, the military said.

Orange explosions lit up the palm trees, minarets and dusty rooftops of Jolan, and a fire burned on the city’s edge.

Earlier yesterday, US and Iraqi forces seized two bridges over the Euphrates and a hospital on Fallujah’s western edge that they said was under insurgents’ control. A team of Marines entered northwestern Fallujah and seized an apartment building.

A military spokesman estimated that 42 insurgents were killed across Fallujah in bombardment and skirmishes during the day. Before the full-frontal attack against the city’s northern defenses, the US military reported its first casualties of the offensive: Two Marines killed when their bulldozer flipped over into the Euphrates River.

Roughly 10,000 to 15,000 US and Iraqi troops were involved in the assault on the town, where about 3,000 insurgents are holed up, the top US commander in Iraq said. Army Gen. George Casey said some of the insurgents had left the city before the assault began and it was not known which rebel leaders, including Al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, remained in Fallujah.

“We expect that we will have a fight in there over the next few days. As I said, I do believe some have relocated already to other places, but others have come in,” Casey said.

Casey predicted that the insurgents would fall back from perimeter positions that they had set up on the outskirts and mount a major battle in the center of the city.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the coalition forces would fight to the end to take the town. At a Pentagon news conference, Rumsfeld shied away from a question whether the operation in Fallujah would be a “final showdown” and said that insurgents holed up in the city were determined to resist.

“I think it’s a tough business, and it’s going to take time,” he said.

Asked whether the operation, dubbed by the Americans Phantom Fury, would be pressed to the end, he said, “Absolutely.”

Allawi said he gave the green light for international and Iraqi forces to launch the offensive aimed at re-establishing government control before elections set for January. He also announced a round-the-clock curfew in Fallujah and another nearby insurgent stronghold, Ramadi.

Allawi visited Iraqi troops at the main US base near Fallujah a few hours before the main offensive began and told them they had to free the people of the city who had been “taken hostage” by insurgents.

“Your job is to arrest the killers but if you kill them then let it be,” he said, according to a pool report.

“May they go to hell,” shouted the soldiers. “To hell they will go,” Allawi replied.

Arab states appealed for both sides to spare civilian lives in the bloody showdown.

“To expose Iraqi or foreign civilians to danger in any place on Arab territory stirs dread,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheith after talks in Cairo with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari.

“All measures must be adopted to prevent civilian deaths,” he said.

“A recourse to force that leads to civilian deaths is not acceptable for the international community or the United Nations, and it runs contrary to the rules of international law,” said Abul Gheith.

Jordan joined in the appeal. “We hope that all the parties will avoid making the Iraqi people, particularly civilians and families in Fallujah, pay a heavy price,” government spokeswoman Asma Khodr told reporters in Amman.

“The Iraqi people need to recover their sovereignty in order to build their institutions and achieve security and stability, and hold elections based on unity,” she said.

— Additional input from agencies