Second Battle of Fallujah

For other uses, see Battle of Fallujah (disambiguation).
"Phantom Fury" redirects here. For the video game, see Phantom Fury (video game).

Second Battle of Fallujah
Part of the Iraq War and the war on terror

U.S. Marines from Mike Battery, 4th Battalion, 14th Marines, firing an M198 howitzer from Camp Fallujah (November 2004)
Date7 November – 23 December 2004[2][3][4]
(1 month, 2 weeks and 2 days)
Location
Fallujah, Anbar Governorate, Iraq
33°21′N 43°47′E / 33.350°N 43.783°E / 33.350; 43.783
Result Coalition victory
Belligerents
 United States
Iraq
 United Kingdom		 Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Islamic Army in Iraq
Ansar al-Sunnah
1920 Revolution Brigades
Ba'ath Party[1]
Commanders and leaders
Keith J. Stalder
Richard F. Natonski[5]
James Cowan
Iraq Fadhil al-Barwari
(ISOF commander)		 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Omar Husayn Hadid al-Muhammadi † (November 2004)
Abdullah Shaddad †
Abdullah al-Janabi
Abu Ayyub al-Masri
Strength
10,500[6]
2,000[6]
850[7]		 ≈3,700–4,000[8][9]
Casualties and losses
95 killed, 560 wounded[10] (54 killed, 425 wounded from 7–16 November)[11]
8 killed, 43 wounded[11][12]
4 killed, 10 wounded[13][14]		 1,200–2,000 killed[15][12]
1,500 captured[15]
(coalition claim)
Civilian casualties:
581–670 killed (Iraq Body Count)[16]
800 killed (Red Cross)[17]

The Second Battle of Fallujah, initially codenamed Operation Phantom Fury, Operation al-Fajr (Arabic: الفجر, lit. 'The Dawn') was an American-led offensive of the Iraq War that began on 7 November 2004 and lasted about six weeks.

A joint military effort of the United States, the Iraqi Interim Government, and the United Kingdom, the battle was the war's first major engagement fought solely against the Iraqi insurgency, not the military forces of the Ba'athist Iraq government.

Operation Phantom Fury took place seven months after the First Battle of Fallujah, an attempt to capture or kill insurgent elements involved in the 2004 Fallujah ambush that killed four employees of the private military contractor Blackwater. After that battle, control of the city was transferred to an Iraqi-run local security force, which began stockpiling weapons and building complex defenses.[18]

Led by the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army, the Second Battle of Fallujah was later described as "some of the heaviest urban combat Marines have been involved in since Huế City in Vietnam in 1968"[19] and as the toughest battle the U.S. military has been in since the end of the Vietnam War.[20] It was the single bloodiest and fiercest battle of the entire conflict, including for American troops.[21][22][23][24]

  1. ^ Martin, Guss, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Second Edition, 2011, SAGE Publications ISBN 141298016X ISBN 978-1412980166
  2. ^ Operation Phantom Fury: The Assault and Capture of Fallujah, Iraq. Zenith Press. 4 December 2009. Retrieved 4 December 2009 – via Amazon.
  3. ^ Tucker (2014), pp. 303
  4. ^ "November, 2004 - Into the hot zone at the Second Battle of Fallujah". Army.mil. 7 June 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  5. ^ Rayburn, Joel D.; Sobchak, Frank K.; Godfroy, Jeanne F.; Morton, Matthew D.; Powell, James S.; Zais, Matthew M. (January 2019). The U.S. Army in the Iraq War – Volume 1, Invasion, Insurgency, Civil War, 2003–2006 (PDF). UNITED STATES ARMY WAR COLLEGE PRESS. p. 346. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  6. ^ a b Ricks, Thomas E. (2007). Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. United States: Penguin Books. p. 399. ISBN 978-0-14-303891-7.
  7. ^ "Black Watch ordered to join US cordon for assault on Fallujah". The Independent. London. 22 October 2004. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
  8. ^ John Pike. "Operation al-Fajr (Dawn) / Phantom Fury Fallujah, Iraq". Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  9. ^ Karon, Tony (8 November 2004). "The Grim Calculations of Retaking Fallujah". Time. Archived from the original on 11 November 2004. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  10. ^ [1]
  11. ^ a b Ricks, Thomas E. (2007). Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. United States: Penguin Books. p. 400. ISBN 978-0-14-303891-7.
  12. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Mikaberidze 2011 304 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ "Dead Black Watch soldiers named". BBC News. 5 November 2004. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  14. ^ "Black Watch pays price for backing Fallujah offensive". The Independent. London. 9 November 2004. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  15. ^ a b "From Fallujah to Qaim". Asia Times. 13 May 2005. Archived from the original on 16 January 2006. Retrieved 8 July 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  16. ^ "Besieged: Living and Dying in Fallujah :: Iraq Body Count". Iraqbodycount.org. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  17. ^ Singal, Jesse; Jesse Singal, Christine Lim and M.J. Stephey (19 March 2010). "November 2004: Fight in Fallujah – Seven Years in Iraq: An Iraq War Timeline". Time. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  18. ^ Ricks, (2007) pp. 343–346.
  19. ^ Garamone, Jim (5 March 2006). "DefenseLINK News: ScanEagle Proves Worth in Fallujah Fight". Archived from the original on 5 March 2006. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  20. ^ Ricks, Thomas E. (2007). Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003–2005. Penguin. p. 399. ISBN 0-14-303891-5.
  21. ^ Lamothe, Dan (4 November 2014). "Remembering the Iraq War's bloodiest battle, 10 years later". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  22. ^ Murphy, Susan (7 November 2014). "10 Years After Battle For Fallujah, Marines Reflect On 'Iconic Fight'". NPR. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  23. ^ "Fallujah, again". The Economist. 28 May 2016. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  24. ^ Jenkins, Brian Michael (14 November 2016). "What the battles of Mosul and Aleppo tell us about their countries' futures". The Hill. Retrieved 1 April 2024.