In March, 2004, four military contractors were killed in Fallujah, Iraq. When their bodies were burned and hung from a bridge, the Pentagon decided it was time to clean out the city. Operation Phantom Fury was planned as a massive effort by the Marines to go street by street, house to house wiping out the insurgents. It was urban warfare at its worst. The enemy knew we were coming and had prepared their defenses well. They also knew the Marine philosophy of “leave no man behind”. The offensive lasted 9 months and was successful. The most famous incident in the operation was a battle in one house which became known as the “Hell House”. This occurred on November 13, 2004. When the Marines took on the two-story house, no one expected anything out of the ordinary. Two Marines entered and killed an insurgent, but then got pinned down in a room. What followed were attempts by other Marines to rescue their buddies, but this actually resulted in more wounded Marines in need of rescue. The interior of the house became a kill zone as insurgents on a second story landing and on the roof with a sky light rained machine gun fire and grenades on the Marines below them. 10 Marines got wounded and one was killed. Once they were pulled out, the house was blown up by an explosive charge. In the rubble was an insurgent who tossed a grenade before he was finished off.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7xgbdy/inside-the-kill-zone-of-fallujahs-hell-house
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