Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote: “In November 2004, we recognized that our troops had to return to Fallujah. It was a sanctuary for al-Qaida in Iraq and much of the insurgency. Fifteen thousand U.S. Marines and soldiers along with two thousand Iraqi troops encircled the city. In the early morning hours of November 8, they swept northward through the city, block by block, engaging in the toughest urban fighting of the Iraq war. It also proved to be the bloodiest, with ninety-five American troops killed in combat. Though hard won, it was a key victory over the insurgents. Fallujah was cleared of terrorists who had taken refuge there, and the city has never reverted to the enemy.”
– Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, Page 676