April 4–May 1, 2004 · Al Anbar Province Theater
April 4–May 1, 2004
After four Blackwater contractors are killed and their bodies hung from a bridge in Fallujah, the Marine Corps launches an assault on the city. Three days in, with Marines fighting street by street, US political leadership halts the operation under Arab pressure — allied Iraqi Governing Council members threaten to resign. Marines, who had taken 27 killed in three days of fighting, are ordered to halt and hand the city to an Iraqi force that promptly defects to the insurgency.
Commanders