Battle of Fallujah Timeline

The use of white phosphorus during the battle was first reported on November 10, 2004, by Washington Post reporters embedded with Task Force 2-2, Regimental Combat Team 7, who witnessed artillery guns firing white phosphorus projectiles which 'create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water.'

On 16 November 2004, NBC News aired footage that showed a U.S. Marine shooting an apparently wounded and unarmed Iraqi insurgent inside a mosque, sparking international controversy during the battle's final days.

Mike Marqusee, in a November 2005 article for The Guardian, wrote that 'The US claims that 2,000 died, most of them fighters,' casting doubt on official casualty figures from the battle and highlighting uncertainty over civilian deaths.

On November 8, 2005, the national public broadcasting company of Italy, Radiotelevisione Italiana S.p.A., aired a documentary alleging that the United States used white phosphorus and incendiary MK-77 bombs in violation of Protocol III of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, a convention to which the United States was not a party until 2009.

On November 15, 2005, the US ambassador to the United Kingdom, Robert Tuttle, wrote to The Independent denying that the United States used white phosphorus as a weapon in Fallujah.

On November 16, 2005, BBC News reported that an article published in the March–April 2005 issue of Field Artillery, a U.S. Army magazine, confirmed that white phosphorus had been used in Fallujah as an offensive weapon against insurgents.

A July 2009 paper by Buzby et al. examined potential environmental contamination linked to weapons used in the battle, contributing to ongoing scientific debate about health effects on Fallujah's population.

A 2011 study of elemental contaminants in the hair of parents of children with abnormalities, by Alaani et al., concluded: 'these findings suggest the enriched Uranium exposure is either a primary cause or related to the cause of the congenital anomaly and cancer increases.'

A 2012 journal article by Al-Hadithi et al. stated that existing studies and research evidence do not show a 'clear increase in birth defects' or a 'clear indication of a possible environmental exposure including depleted uranium,' complicating earlier claims about the battle's health legacy.

By late January 2005, news reports indicated U.S. forces were allowing displaced residents to begin returning to Fallujah. Only 10% of the pre-offensive inhabitants had returned as of mid-January, reflecting extensive damage to the city.

Repopulation of Fallujah proceeded very slowly after the battle: only 30% of the pre-offensive inhabitants had returned as of the end of March 2005.

Following the military operation of November 2004, the number of insurgent attacks gradually increased in and around the city. Although news reports were few and far between, several reports of IED attacks on Iraqi troops appeared in the press.

Most notable of the post-battle attacks was a suicide car bomb attack on 23 June 2005 on a convoy near Fallujah that killed 6 Marines, underscoring the persistence of insurgent activity despite the November 2004 offensive.

U.S. military operations against insurgent positions proved ineffective at drawing out insurgents into another open battle, and by September 2006 the situation had deteriorated so much that Al-Anbar province, containing Fallujah, was reported to be in total insurgent control by the U.S. military.

Image source: Anbar campaign (2003–2011)

A third push was mounted from September 2006 and lasted until mid-January 2007. Tactics developed in what has been called the 'Third Battle of Fallujah,' when applied on a larger scale in Ramadi and the surrounding area, led to what became known as 'the Great Sunni Awakening.'

Image source: Battle of Ramadi (2006)

After four years of bitter fighting, Fallujah was turned over to the Iraqi Forces and the Iraqi Provincial Authority during the autumn of 2007, transferring responsibility for the city's security to Iraqi institutions.

Al Qaeda-linked Sunni insurgents from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant subsequently took over Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in early 2014, once again plunging the city into extremist control.

Image source: Siege of Fallujah (2016)

Fallujah was reclaimed by the Iraqi Army and Special Operations Units in June 2016, ending more than two years of control by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

Occupation: Dreamland is a 2005 documentary film that follows soldiers of the 1/505 of the 82nd Airborne Division in Fallujah, Iraq, in the beginning of 2004, offering a ground-level view of life under occupation before the major battles.

Shootout! – Episode 1: D-Day: Fallujah is a 2006 A&E History Channel Special detailing various gun battles that occurred during the Second Battle of Fallujah, bringing the intense urban combat to television audiences.

Fear Not the Path of Truth is a 2013 documentary film from Ross Caputi, a veteran of the second siege of Fallujah, who investigates atrocities that occurred and the legacy of U.S. foreign policy in Fallujah.

Once Upon a Time in Iraq, a 2020 BBC documentary series, featured the Battle of Fallujah in its third episode, revisiting the conflict through firsthand accounts two decades later.

Image source: Once Upon a Time in Iraq

Squad, a 2020 tactical first-person shooter, contains Fallujah as one of its playable maps, inspired by the Second Battle of Fallujah and recreating its urban battlefield environment.

Image source: Squad (video game)

Six Days in Fallujah, a video game about the battle originally dropped by Konami amid controversy, remained in limbo until it was announced again in 2021 with publishing by Victura and development by Highwire Games.

Image source: Six Days in Fallujah

Six Days in Fallujah entered early access release in June 2023, following 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines (3/1) as they fight the Iraqi insurgency in the city of Fallujah, bringing the battle to interactive media.