Vietnam

US-Led Forces Risk Being Sucked Into Guerrilla War
Thu Apr 8, 2004 11:44 AM ET

By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces in Iraq risk being drawn into an urban guerrilla conflict they are ill-prepared to fight and which will probably cost many more lives, military experts say.

More than 1,400 U.S. Marines have been sent in to quell insurgency in Ramadi and Falluja, two large Sunni Muslim towns west of Baghdad that have been the focal point of the anti-occupation guerrilla war for the past year.

At the same time, British, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Ukrainian and other forces within the U.S.-led coalition are battling to put down a Shi'ite Muslim uprising that is spreading through towns and cities throughout southern Iraq.

The fighting in Falluja and Ramadi has been particularly intense, with witnesses reporting U.S. troops, supported by helicopter gunships and warplanes, moving in groups on foot to engage masked guerrillas in street-to-street combat.