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Falluja Archive Oct 2004

Falluja Table - April 09

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IBC Extracted Falluja News - April 09

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Globe and Mail
-
1:07 PM EDT
-
U.S. AIRCRAFT ATTACK FALLUJAH
Specific incidents / deaths

 

Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter

 

Cumulative deaths [and injuries] The fighting has killed more than 460 Iraqis - including more than 280 in Fallujah, a hospital official said.
Date range? 4th-9th? 
Total 280
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

A U.S. AC-130 gunship raked Iraqi insurgents Friday night after hundreds of women and children fled the besieged city Fallujah during a U.S.-declared pause in the marine offensive.

...

In Fallujah, marines halted their assault on insurgents to allow U.S.-picked Iraqi leaders - angry at the United States over the bloodshed from five days of heavy fighting - to hold talks with city leaders about how to reduce the violence.

Throughout the afternoon, fighting was reduced to sporadic gunfire. But when night fell, heavy explosions resumed as an AC-130 gunship strafed targets and soldiers and insurgents engaged in a mortar battle.

...

Many families, emerging from their homes for the first time in days, buried slain relatives in the city football stadium.

A stream of hundreds of cars carrying women, children and elderly headed out of the city after Marines announced they would be allowed to leave. Families pleaded to be allowed to take out men, and when Marines refused, some entire families turned back.

...

The Governing Council early Saturday issued a statement demanding an end to military action and "collective punishment" - a reference to the Fallujah siege.

Abdul-Karim Mahoud al-Mohammedawi, a Shiite on the Governing Council, announced he was suspending his council seat until "the bleeding stops in all Iraq." He also met Friday with al-Sadr, whom U.S. commanders have threatened to capture.

A Sunni council member, Ghazi al-Yawer, said he would quit if the Fallujah talks fell through.

One of the strongest pro-U.S. voices on the council, also a Sunni, Adnan Pachachi, denounced the U.S. siege.

"It was not right to punish all the people of Fallujah and we consider these operations by the Americans unacceptable and illegal," Mr. Pachachi told Al-Arabiya TV.

US/military viewpoint

Military hesitation over the halt in fighting was clear. After initially being ordered to cease all offensive operations, marines quickly demanded and received permission to launch assaults to prevent attacks if needed.

"We said to them (the commanders): 'We are going to lose people if we don't go back on offensive ops.' So we got the word," marine Maj. Pete Farnun said.

News Source
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Author
-
Title
Associated Press
-
7:01 PM (UK)
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ANGER GROWS ON IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

Anger grew Friday among U.S.-picked Iraqi leaders over the Marines' bloody siege of Fallujah, with one member of the Governing Council suspending his membership and another threatening to quit.

Friday's halt in the assault had been requested by the council to allow for talks on reducing the violence, a U.S. spokesman said.

Several of the council's 25 members spoke out against what they called the "mass punishment" of Fallujah's people in the siege, launched early Monday by U.S. forces to uproot Sunni insurgents in the city.

...

One of the strongest pro-U.S. voices on the council, Adnan Pachachi, denounced the U.S. siege, launched after Sunni insurgents killed four U.S. contract workers and a mob dragged their burned and mutilated bodies through the streets and hung two of them from a bridge.

"These (U.S.) operations were a mass punishment for the people of Fallujah," Pachachi told Al-Arabiya TV. "It was not right to punish all the people of Fallujah and we consider these operations by the Americans unacceptable and illegal."

Added al-Yawer: "We all agree that those who did that (killed the four Americans) were criminals who deserve to be arrested. But the result was the mass punishment of a city. ... And that we refuse."

US/military viewpoint "We have been asked by members of the Iraqi Governing Council to have the opportunity to enter into Fallujah to speak with leaders of Fallujah to address ways in which bloodshed could be minimized," U.S. coalition spokesman Dan Senor said.

...

Asked about the council members' criticism, Senor said U.S.. forces have "a responsibility to address a situation that is hostile."

He said the coalition cannot "just turn our heads and look the other way" when Americans are killed in Fallujah.

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Agence France-Presse
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US RESUMES FALLUJAH ASSAULT AFTER BRIEF STOP
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

More than 300 Iraqis have been killed and 500 wounded in the Fallujah fighting over the past few days, the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel television said, quoting hospital sources.

Date range? 5th-9th?
Total 300+ [500 wounded]
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

Faced with mounting popular anger over heavy civilian casualties in Fallujah west of Baghdad, US civil administrator Paul Bremer announced Friday a unilateral suspension of the six-day-old offensive against Sunni Muslim rebels to allow for the delivery of food and medical supplies to residents.

...

Fallujah residents had earlier started to flee the besieged city, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

Men, women and children were fleeing on foot through backstreets and paths that cut through fields, and were being allowed to pass by US marines.

Fallujah mayor Saad Abdullah al-Rawi called on the world to "pressure the Americans to stop the massacres in the city and allow residents to bury their dead and treat the many wounded."

...

And in Baghdad, Bremer named Governing Council member Samir Sumaydah as the new interim interior minister, replacing Nuri Badran who resigned Thursday after the US overseer expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of his ministry, particularly the police.

US/military viewpoint

Bremer said the suspension was meant to "allow for a meeting between members of the (coalition-installed interim) Governing Council, local Muslim leadership and the leadership of anti-coalition forces."

But the initiative was short-lived.

"The suspension of offensive operations lasted for 90 minutes but it is over," said Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne, a battalion commander, adding that planned mediation talks with local tribal sheikhs had never happened.

Moments earlier, the coalition's deputy director of military operations, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, had denied that there was any formal ceasefire agreement with the rebels.

Yet the Iraqi Islamic Party said in a statement obtained by AFP that an agreement had been reached with the coalition for a 24-hour ceasefire in Fallujah from midday.

News Source
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Author
-
Title
GlobalResearch
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VOICES OF CONSCIENCE: END THE MASSACRE IN FALLUJA!
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

  470 killed. 1200 injured, of which 243 are women and 200 are children. This is the first, underestimated body count from Falluja.

...

Since fighting escalated at the beginning of the week, Iraqi people, especially in the city of Falluja, are facing a humanitarian disaster. Occupation Forces have laid siege to the city. More than 470 people have been killed, 1200 injured. Dead bodies are lying in the streets.

Date range? 5th-9th
Total 470
Civilian / Fighter (37% of injured are women and children)
Selected info, comment, analysis

  Falluja is being mortared and bombed by F-16 fighter planes, helicopters dropping cluster bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.

  Ambulances are being shot at by snipers. Medical aid and supplies have been stopped by US Occupation Forces. Aid workers delivering supplies have had to take secondary roads into the city; once they arrived, they found themselves under fire from US snipers. No humanitarian corridor has been put in place.

  A cease-fire was announced and people began trying flee, but US troops resumed their attacks. Many people remain trapped inside the city, and refugees trying to escape from Falluja to Baghdad are being prevented from reaching their destination by US military. They form a column that extends over 10 kilometers of highway.

  The thousands of families who remain trapped in Falluja are running out of basic necessities like food and potable water. Hospitals and medical staff are overwhelmed, and are asking desperately for blood, oxygen and antiseptics.

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
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Author
-
Title
Aljazeera
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15:12 Makka Time, 12:12 GMT
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US ATTACK BELIES BREMER'S FALLUJA 'TRUCE'
Specific incidents / deaths

This was preceded by bombardment by US forces since late on Thursday. Helicopters were seen hovering after the bombings.

Violent clashes also erupted between US forces and resistance fighters.

US tanks too reached central Falluja and bombed the Golan area as well as Nazzal, Zubat and Askari.

The bombardment destroyed 10 houses while three went up in flames. Our correspondent witnessed a large family arriving at the hospital with two of its members dead.

Other members were still under debris, he said, adding that one shrapnel hit a pregnant woman while another pierced the eye of a child.

Ambulances were bringing in casualties all night while people have started fleeing the city fearing more attacks.

Date killed? 8th (PM)
Total 2
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

Fierce fighting in Falluja has left over 300 dead

...

The fierce confrontations have left more than 300 people dead and over 500 wounded, our correspondent reported, citing hospital sources.

Date range? 5th-9th
Total 300+
[500+ wounded]
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

Minutes after Bremer's announcement, US forces carried out a fresh offensive on Falluja bombing the town from the air. Scores of residents were injured in the attack, reported our correspondent.

"There is no brokered agreement for a ceasefire in Falluja," Kimmitt told AFP. "There is no agreement between the rebels and the coalition forces."

IGC statement

Earlier, the Iraqi Governing Council member Mohsin Abd al-Hameed in a statement on behalf of his Iraqi Islamic party to Aljazeera said military action in Falluja would end for a period of 24 hours.

Upon commitment to a ceasefire by the occupation forces and Iraqi resistance fighters the ceasefire would continue, the statement said.

The Islamic party political bureau would send a delegation to hold talks with prominent figures in the town, the statement said.

Aljazeera, meanwhile, has learnt that during negotiations to end the military offensive, US forces imposed many conditions including getting the Aljazeera crew out of the town.

Evacuation

At dawn on Friday, US forces asked the residents to evacuate the town, reported our correspondent.

...

Men, women and children were fleeing on foot through backstreets and paths that cut through fields, carrying small bags, food and medicines.

Most were seen heading toward the nearby village of Naimiyah, south of Fallujah, which has been under effective US siege since Monday.

Bodies were left to rot in the streets as people cowered indoors.

US/military viewpoint

US occupation forces have bombed the Iraqi town of Falluja, belying administrator Paul Bremer's announcement that his forces were suspending military operations there.

"As of noon today coalition forces have initiated a unilateral suspension of offensive operations in Falluja," Paul Bremer told reporters on Friday.

But, the US-led occupation's deputy director of operations, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, denied the reports of a ceasefire.

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Aljazeera (TV)
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QATAR: AL-JAZIRAH SATELLITE CHANNEL TELEVISION IN ARABIC
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries] He continues his report by saying: "They are now carrying the martyrs from the hospital to take them to the graveyard. The city has been transformed into a large graveyard filled with bodies. They have buried more than 100 martyrs so far."
Date range? 5th-9th?
Total 100+
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis In his first 5-minute report, carried at 0805 GMT, Mansur begins by describing the situation in Al-Fallujah as "horrific and tragic." He says Al-Jazirah crew left for the center of the city this morning "under great threats from US snipers." He adds that "bodies and remains are arriving at the hospital on a regular basis, and everyone is raising white flags on their cars trying to leave the city."

...

"There is an unusual humanitarian situation as civilians are surrounded and being bombarded by planes." He adds: "In some neighborhoods, US snipers have taken up positions at the roofs of houses. We passed in between houses with difficulty and helped the people escape from under the gunfire of snipers."

...

"F-16s are bombarding and cars are transporting the wounded. In the hospitals, there are bodies and remains everywhere. There is a state of intense anger." He adds that "the situation is very tragic in the besieged city of Al-Fallujah. Bodies of women are ripped apart from the shelling of planes, there is intense anger everywhere, the planes are shelling, smoke is rising from everywhere, and the planes are flying despite the cease-fire announcement. The situation is extremely difficult."

In another 10-minute report, carried at 1033 GMT, Mansur describes scores of cars that left the city since the morning, and says "there has been a sort of migration. Families have packed their belongings with the aim of leaving the city. Now, they are returning again." He says that "the US forces have closed off the roads and are not allowing people who wanted to leave the city from leaving." While reporting, the sound of bombardment is heard and Mansur says "a helicopter is bombarding a residential neighborhood in Al-Jawlan."

Concluding, Mansur interviews the director of a hospital in Al-Fallujah who says that "the US forces have returned ambulances carrying food and supplies as they were trying to cross the bridge to reach the hospital."

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Aljazeera
-
20:48 Makka Time, 17:48 GMT
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DOCTOR REVEALS FALLUJA'S HORROR TOLL
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

At least 450 Iraqis have been killed and more than 1000 others wounded in fighting in the city of Falluja this week, says a doctor who runs the city's main hospital.

Dr Rafi Hayad, the director of the main hospital supplied the figures to the Reuters news agency. The agency has given no explanation of how Hayad reached his figures.

In Baghdad an aide to a member of the interim Governing Council said on Friday more than 400 Iraqis had been killed and 1000 wounded in a six-day US offensive against insurgents in Falluja.

"To this day, more than 400 Iraqis have been killed and more than 1,000 others wounded in Falluja," said Hatim al-Husayni, an aide to council member Muhsin Abd Al-Hamid from the Iraqi Islamic Party.

"These numbers were given to us from Falluja, from all hospitals, and they are correct 100 percent," he told AFP.

Date range? 4th-9th?
Total 'at least' 450 [1000+ wounded -via REU] ; 400+ [1000+ wounded -via AFP]
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

The Iraqi Islamic Party was leading mediations to evacuate casualties, bring in supplies and end hostilities in the town west of Baghdad.

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Associated Press
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LOURDES NAVARRO and ABDUL-QADER SAADI
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REFUGEES EXIT FALLUJAH AFTER BURYING DEAD
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries] The fighting has killed more than 280 Iraqis and four Marines, and has seen heavy battles that have damaged mosques and destroyed buildings - angering even pro-U.S. politicians and turning the city of 200,000 into a symbol of resistance for some Iraqis.
Date range? 5th-9th
Total 280+
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

The people of Fallujah carried their dead to the city's soccer stadium and buried them under the field on Friday, unable to get to cemeteries because of a U.S. siege of the city.

As the struggle for Fallujah entered a fifth day, hundreds of women, children and the elderly streamed out of the city. Marines ordered Iraqi men of "military age" to stay behind, sometimes turning back entire families if they refused to be separated.

"A lot of the women were crying," said Lance Cpl. Robert Harriot, 22, of Eldred, N.Y. "There was one car with two women and a man. I told them that he couldn't leave. They tried to plead with me. But I told them no, so they turned around."

US/military viewpoint

"There are a lot of people who wish to do America harm," said Sgt. Maj. Ken Jones. "There are a lot of foreign insurgents here. They are well-organized and well-trained."

Maj. Larry Kaifesh, 36, of Chicago, said the rebels were disguising themselves as civilians and hiding their weapons in white rice sacks to move around the city before launching ambushes against the troops.

"It is hard to differentiate between people who are insurgents or civilians. It is hard to get an honest picture. You just have to go with your gut feeling," he said.

Soldiers also said they found weapons hidden inside an ambulance.

News Source
-
Author
-
Title

Aljazeera
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7:38 Makka Time, 4:38 GMT
-
US: FIERCE FALLUJA FIGHTING RECALLS VIETNAM

Specific incidents / deaths

Ten Iraqi resistance fighters were reported killed on Thursday as US marines - their own casualties rising - met ferocious resistance in the besieged western Iraqi town of Falluja several days into their offensive.

...

"Marines southwest of Falluja were attacked by an unknown number of enemy forces in buildings using machine guns, small arms, hand grenades and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)," said a military statement.

"The marines called in reinforcements and attacked the enemy positions, destroying a truck with a mounted machine gun and the building that the attackers were firing from. Ten enemy combatants were confirmed killed."

...

The ferocity of the fighting stopped some corpses from being cleared from the streets.

Flies buzzed over the body of a middle-aged man with a mustache, shot in the neck by marines after he fired a RPG at them across the industrial wasteland of garages, factories and metal shops.

Date killed? 8th
Total 10 +1=11
Civilian / Fighter 0/11
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

Hospital sources cited by Al-Jazeera said a total of 105 Iraqis had been killed in Falluja since Tuesday evening.

Date range? 6th (PM)-9th? (AM)
Total 105
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

Occupation forces are only advancing slowly in Falluja

...

After more than three days of ferocious fighting, the marines had managed to move just two kilometres (a little over a mile) through the industrial zone, which they had thought was largely abandoned.

US/military viewpoint

"MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain) is the most intense kind of fighting," said Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne, a battalion commander.

"And this is like Hue City in Vietnam," he said, referring to the former imperial capital where in 1968 US troops faced the most ferocious street fighting of the communists' decisive Tet offensive.

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
News24
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21:14 (SA)
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DEAD BURIED IN SOCCER STADIUM
Specific incidents / deaths

On Wednesday, a helicopter hit the mosque's minaret with a missile and a warplane dropped a 225kg bomb on the mosque's wall to allow marines to flood inside.

But Iraqis said the air strike killed civilians as they gathered for afternoon prayers, a claim denied by the marines.

Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries] The fighting has killed hundreds of Iraqis...
Date range? 5th-9th
Total 200?
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

Fallujah - Fallujah's residents buried their dead in a soccer stadium and hundreds of women, children and elderly left besieged Fallujah on Friday as US marines paused in their assault on Sunni insurgents who have made the city their stronghold.

US forces called a halt to offensive operations at noon to allow a delegation from the city to meet with US commanders, let humanitarian aid into the city and give city residents a chance to tend to their dead.

But after 90 minutes, marine commanders gave their troops permission to resume offensive operations after forces on the ground complained of being attacked, Major Pete Farnun said. And after nightfall, thunderous explosions again rocked the city.

...

Thousands of Iraqis - Sunnis and Shiites, in a sign of unity - travelled to the city from Baghdad on Thursday, bringing food and medicine and waving banners praising the "jihad," or holy war, by Fallujah's fighters.

Marines allowed the aid to enter the city.

...

Overnight, troops used loud speakers to tell people that old men, women and children would be allowed to leave, but not "military-age men."

A long line of cars snaked its way on Friday afternoon through parts of the city as residents queued to be checked by Marines before being allowed out.

Hundreds of vehicles lined up at one checkpoint, but many men trying to leave with their families were told they could not go, and whole families turned back.

Soldiers said that hundreds of vehicles, in lines that stretched for kilometres, did leave the city.

"A lot of the women were crying," said Lance Corporal Robert Harriot, 22, of Eldred, New York.

"There was one car with two women and a man. I told them that he couldn't leave. They tried to plead with me. But I told them no, so they turned around."

...

In a disturbing development for the troops, marines discovered homemade suicide belts and said they had killed two men wearing them. Suicide tactics had not been seen before in the Sunni city.

In fighting on Thursday, US forces called in one of their most devastating weapons - an AC-130 gunship that laid down heavy fire - the second time in the battle.

US/military viewpoint "There are a lot of people who wish to do America harm," said Sergeant Major Ken Jones. "There are a lot of foreign insurgents here. They well organised and well trained."

...

"It is hard to differentiate between people who are insurgents or civilians. It is hard to get an honest picture. You just have to go with your gut feeling," he said.


...

Gunner Sergeant Mark Kline, Kansas city, Missouri, said he expects the fight to get tougher.

"I think it will be harder when we move into the residential area. It will be hard to know where the enemy resides. They move in and out of local houses. They make the locals store ammunition in their homes so they can get to it when they need to," he said.

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Independent
-
Robert Fisk
-
THE WAR'S ONE SIMPLE TRUTH: IRAQIS DO NOT WANT US
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

Even this week, as the promises and lies and obfuscations fell apart, the American military spokesman was still only able to give military casualties--this when more than 200 Iraqis are reported to have been killed in the US attack on Fallujah.

Date range? 5th-8th
Total 200
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

So when President Bush made his notorious trip to the Abraham Lincoln to announce the end of all "major military operations"--beneath a banner claiming "Mission Accomplished"--and when attacks against US troops continued to rise, it was time to rewrite the chapter on post-war Iraq. "Foreign fighters" were now in the battle, according to the US Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld. The US media went along with this nonsense, even though not a single al-Qa'ida operative has been arrested in Iraq and of the 8,500 "security detainees" in American hands, only 150 appear to be from outside Iraq. Just 2 per cent.

...

If the occupation authorities had bothered to study the results of a conference on Iraq held by the Centre for Arab Unity Studies in Beirut recently, they might be forced to acknowledge what they cannot admit: that their opponents are Iraqis and that this is an Iraqi insurgency.

An Iraqi academic, Sulieman Jumeili, who lives in the city of Fallujah, told how he discovered that 80 per cent of all rebels killed were Iraqi Islamist activists. Only 13 per cent of the dead men were primarily nationalists and only 2 per cent had been Baathists.

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Agence France-Presse
-
5:15pm (AEST)
-
RESIDENTS START TO FLEE FALLUJAH, WITNESSES SAY
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

Residents started to flee the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah on Friday on the fifth day of ferocious street fighting between United States forces and Sunni Muslim insurgents in the western town, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

Men, women and children were fleeing on foot through backstreets and paths that cut through fields, carrying small bags, food and medicines.

Most were seen heading toward the nearby village of Naimiyah, south of Fallujah, which has been under effective US siege since Monday.

US/military viewpoint  

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