FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The U.S. military says Fallujah has been "liberated," CNN reported Sunday.
U.S. Marines spread through the deserted city Sunday, kicking down doors in a risky house-to-house search for insurgents that, a Marine general said, are willing to "fight to the death."
While some resistance remains, the targets of the U.S.-Iraqi military operation have been overpowered in the weeklong assault, Marine Lt. Gen. John Sattler said.
"As of late last night, we have been in all parts of the city," Sattler told reporters. "We have liberated the city of Falluja. The enemy is broken." American soldiers took sporadic gunfire from insurgents, he said.
Sattler was with the U.S. Central Command chief, Army Gen. John Abizaid, who spoke to Marines and soldiers fighting the battle and told reporters they had "been very effective" in their efforts.
The American troop death toll in the assault on Fallujah rose to 31 Sunday, with nearly 300 coalition fighters wounded, Sattler said.
Six Iraqi troops died in the assault and an estimated 2,000 insurgents also have been killed, he said.
U.S. Air Force planes dropped four 2,000-pound bombs overnight and called in C-130 air strikes early Sunday, firing more than 100 rounds at an underground compound that stocked medical and other supplies for the insurgents.
