Second Battle of Fallujah

Second Battle of Fallujah
Part of the Iraq War
U.S. Marines from Mike Battery, 4th Battalion, 14th Marines, firing an M198 howitzer from Camp Fallujah (November 2004)
Date 7 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 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]
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 lasted roughly six weeks, starting 7 November 2004. Marking the highest point of the conflict against the Iraqi insurgency, it was a joint military effort carried out by the United States, the Iraqi Interim Government, and the United Kingdom. Within the city of Fallujah, the coalition was led by the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army, the battle was later described as "some of the heaviest urban combat Marines have been involved in since Huế City in Vietnam in 1968"^[18] and as the toughest battle the U.S. military has been in since the end of the Vietnam War.^[19] It was the single bloodiest and fiercest battle of the entire conflict, including for American troops.^{[20][21][22][23]}

Operation Phantom Fury was the second major coalition effort in Fallujah. Earlier, in April 2004, coalition forces fought the First Battle of Fallujah in an attempt to capture or kill insurgent elements who were considered responsible for the 2004 Fallujah ambush, which resulted in the deaths of four private military contractors of Blackwater. When the coalition fought their way into the centre of the city, the Iraqi Interim Government requested that the city's control be transferred over to an Iraqi-run local security force, which then began stockpiling weapons and building complex defences across the city through mid-2004.^[24] The battle is notable for being the first major engagement of the Iraq War that was fought solely against insurgents as opposed to the government military forces of the former Ba'athist Iraq.