[FH] Bradley Advance Encounters Sporadic Resistance

       L'Armee FSE reports up to 90 casualties among insurgents
		       Tuesday, November 9, 2179 

BRADLEY, Fleischer II (l'Univers) - L'Armee FSE forces have faced less
resistance than expected and suffered minimal casualties, a commander
said
Tuesday, as the troops continue their second day of assaults on
militarily-contested Bradley.

Soldiers pushing through the outskirts of Bradley dodged sniper fire and
destroyed booby traps, but not as many as anticipated. 

"There has been less organized resistance than expected so far," said
Lieutenant Jean-Luc Chesnot with 1e Compangie of the 2e Division
d'Infantrie.
Nevertheless, insurgent casualty numbers mount. Chesnot, sitting atop
his
véhicules de combat d'infanterie, said his combat peloton has killed or
wounded
85 to 90 insurgents.

"Thirty hours into the fighting, 1e Compangie has sustained minimal
casualties," Chesnot said.

Jacques Carle, l'Univers' field reporter embedded with FSE soldiers,
described
the fighting as street-to-street battles, with sporadic resistance and
no signs
of organization among the insurgents. "Most of the insurgents are in
small
groups," he said, "with the most being 25 in one place."

Bradley is considered an insurgent command-control center for the rest
of the
colony and a base for remnants of the 136th Gloucestershire Regiment,
which had
held out for 6 months, cut off from the NAC. Military officials have
said 500
to 700 insurgents may be inside the city, but they acknowledge many may
have
slipped away amid widespread reports that an offensive was coming.

Chesnot said that his troops continue to clear the city of suspected
weapons
caches and insurgents and that they have found several booby-trapped
areas. 

In one area alone, Chesnot's peloton uncovered a weapons cache with two
L5
support weapons and several L18P portable guided missile launchers. In
another
area, soldiers found mortar systems, and in one building they discovered
a
cache of L41 anti-personnel weapons, ammunition rounds, and a suit of
l'armure
de resevoir . In southern Bradley, soldiers found a notebook with photos
believed to be of non-NAC combatants.

While attention is focused on Bradley, insurgents continued attacks in
other
areas.

On Tuesday, insurgents attacked two patrol stations near New Gilling,
about 50
kilometers north of Bradley, killing four people.
 
By Monday, FSE troops had surrounded Bradley as they awaited the order
for a
full attack in the fifth attempt to subdue the city this year. 

Bradley's population was estimated to be 100,000 to 150,000 before the
war came
to the Fleischer II colony earlier this year. Now, it is thought that
35,000
civilians remain.

In Bradley, General Henri de Pascalle imposed a citywide curfew that
will run
from 8:00 p.m. until 7 a.m.

Meanwhile elsewhere on Fleischer II, at least three people died and
several
others were wounded in a suicide bomb attack targeting an FSE army base
north
of Bitchburn, officials said.

On Orotrigo, Lord Chancellor Rene Chalmers told reporters Monday that
the
battle for Bradley was critical for the success of the Third Solar War.
Chalmers also downplayed the threat to the city's civilian population,
saying
FSE forces are disciplined, well-trained and well-led.

"There aren't going to be large numbers of civilians killed and
certainly not
by FSE forces," he said.