The First Battle of Fallujah, also known as Operation Vigilant Resolve, was an unsuccessful attempt by the U.S. military to capture the city of Fallujah in April 2004.
The chief catalyst for the operation was the highly-publicized killing and mutilation of four Blackwater USA private military contractors, and the killings of five American soldiers in Habbaniyah a few days earlier.
The battle polarized public opinion within Iraq, and the failure of the operation to fully realize its tactical objectives would lead to a far more decisive engagement later in the year, the Second Battle of Fallujah.
Read more about First Battle Of Fallujah: Background, Blackwater Deaths, The Campaign, Legacy, Participating Units, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the word battle:
“For WAR, consisteth not in Battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to content by Battle is sufficiently known.... So the nature of War, consisteth not in actual fighting; but in the known disposition thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is PEACE.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)