excerpts.

Operation Phantom Fury / Operation al-Fajr (globalsecurity1, globalsecurity2)

Who:

Shirts:

10,000 US Marines, US Army, Iraqi; 4,000 participating in the first wave

• Marine Regimental Combat Team 1 (story from marinelink, globalsecurity.org)
• Army 1st Calvary Division (globalsecurity.org)
• Cobra helicopters
• Army 1st Infantry Division (globalsecurity.org)
• 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion
• MQ-1 Predator Plane (howstuffworks)
• General George W. Casey, Jr. (mnf-iraq.com, washingtonpost)
• Embeddeds: Jackie Skinner, NPR, 1st ID

Skins:

• 1,000 - 6,000 insurgents / foreign fighters

Where:

Fallujah, Iraq (USAToday - excellent flash, acepilots, globalsecurity, cnn)
Approximately 300,000 residents, more than half of whom have fled.

What:

2004 11 08 2215 GMT  Stratfor reports that no Iraqi army or national guard unit has fought in Fallujah, and that they're being very resistant to manning their positions and moving forward.

The Scotsman reports “Battle for Fallujah begins as troops enter the city“ ..

Overnight, troops seized two bridges on main roads to the west, including the one where the charred remains of US security contractors were displayed in March. Their murders triggered the first marine assault on the city the following month

Witnesses said the Americans were using amphibious vehicles to try to cross the river but came under fire from guerrillas entrenched in the city.

The Askari district drew some of the heaviest fire as the crushing air and artillery bombardment rose to a climax, with US jets dropping bombs around the clock and big guns pounding the city every few minutes with high-explosive shells.

The first punch came from just north of the city, where Marine Regimental Combat Team 1 had been massed on Sunday night. The troops, backed by the 1st Cavalry Division’s tanks and armour, swarmed into the once-teeming Jolan district, the warren-like historic heart of Fallujah.

US artillery had pounded the northern edge of the district ahead of the attack, hoping to set off any roadside bombs and booby traps planted by the insurgents to slow down the advance.

At the same time, aircraft and artillery attacked an insurgent mortar position in southern Fallujah. The US army said it believed that nine insurgents were killed.

Another force pushed into the north-eastern Askari district, the first large-scale assault into the insurgent-held area of the city. Orange explosions lit up the palm trees, minarets and dusty rooftops, and a fire burned on the city’s edge.

Two Marines were killed when their bulldozer flipped over into the Euphrates near Fallujah Hours after starting the offensive, U.S. tanks and Humvees from the 1st Infantry Division entered the northeastern Askari neighborhood, the first ground assault into an insurgent bastion. In the northwestern area of the city, U.S. troops advanced slowly after dusk on the Jolan neighborhood The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey… told reporters in Washington that 10,000 to 15,000 U.S. troops along with a smaller number of Iraqi forces were encircling the city. Casey said 50 to 70 percent of the city's 200,000 residents have fled. Some 5,000 U.S. Marines and soldiers were massed in the desert on Fallujah's northern edge. They were joined by 2,000 to 4,000 Iraqi troops. Capt. Jonathan Riley, spokesman for the U.S. Central Command Air Forces in Qatar, told the AP that an unmanned MQ-1 Predator plane fired a Hellfire missile at an insurgents' anti-aircraft artillery battery in Fallujah, scoring a direct hit.