Iraq Body Count urgently needs your support to keep track of casualties - help us with a donation now

 

Reference

Falluja Archive Oct 2004

Falluja Table - April 13

Tables with IBC-extracted news, by date:

Apr 03 - Apr 04 - Apr 05 - Apr 06 - Apr 07 - Apr 08 - Apr 09 - Apr 10 - Apr 11 - Apr 12 - Apr 13 - Apr 14 - Apr 15 - Apr 16 - Apr 17 - Apr 18 - Apr 19 - Apr 20 - Apr 21 - Apr 22 - Apr 23 - Apr 24 - Apr 25 - Apr 26 - Apr 27 - Apr 28 - Apr 29 - Apr 30 - May 01 - May 02 - May 03 - May 04 - May 05 - May 06 - May 07 - May 08 - May 09 - May 10 - May 11 - May 14 - May 21 - Jun 03 - Jun 25 - Jul 19 - Return to Index page

IBC Extracted Falluja News - April 13

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Agence France-Presse
-
300 WOMEN, CHILDREN AMONG FALLUJAH DEAD
Specific incidents / deaths

 

Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter

 

Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

Half the Iraqis killed in a US offensive in the town of Fallujah were women, children and elderly people, a mediator said on Tuesday, but US officials insisted they took all precautions to avoid non-combatants.

Fouad Rawi, senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party spearheading efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the city west of Baghdad, quoted hospital sources as saying more than 600 Iraqis had been killed and 1,250 wounded.

"Among those killed were 160 women, 141 children and many elderly," he said, providing the first precise figures on the number of civilian deaths from the nearly week-long offensive.

Date range? 5th-9th
Total 600+
[1250 wounded]
Civilian / Fighter

301 women and children, + 'many elderly'

Selected info, comment, analysis

 

US/military viewpoint

But US officials said it was impossible to determine how many civilians had died in the drive by US marines in the Sunni Muslim bastion before a ceasefire took hold over the weekend.

They also stressed their forces used precision weapons to minimize the risk of hitting civilians as they sought to root out insurgents following the brutal murders of four United States contractors in Fallujah on March 31.

The offensive, which sent thousands of residents fleeing to the desert, drew considerable criticism from even staunch United States supporters among the Iraqis who said it amounted to collective punishment of civilians. But Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the coalition's deputy director of military operations, said on Monday the blame lay with the insurgents.

"Collective punishment is imposed on the people of Fallujah by those terrorists and cowards that hunker down inside mosques, hospitals and schools and use women and children as shields to hide," he said.

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Independent
-
Patrick Cockburn
-
'DO WE LOOK LIKE FIGHTERS?' ASK FALLUJAH FAMILIES WITH THEIR DISABLED, THEIR OLD AND THEIR CHILDREN
Specific incidents / deaths

In a tent outside relatives were mourning for Mushref Mohi, aged 70, who died of exhaustion during the eight hours that his family was kept waiting at US checkpoints as they fled the city.

"There was nothing much wrong with him and he usually liked to walk everywhere instead of driving," said his brother, Rabbia Mohi Maloud al-Daraji. "But they kept us waiting from 10am to 6.20pm because they searched every car for half an hour, and he could not take the strain."

Date killed? before 13th
Total 1
Civilian / Fighter

1/0

Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

Like other survivors, she was outraged by the claim by the US Marines that the 600 dead and 1,200 wounded in Fallujah were mostly armed insurgents.

...

We were taken to the families in the shelter by Dr Abed al-Illah, a specialist in internal medicine who is also a representative of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which is part of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. He had just visited Fallujah hospital. He said: "About 350 out of the 600 dead were women and children. One was only eight months old. Many died from simple wounds and could have been saved if they had medical attention."

The anger and bitterness of Iraqis such as Dr Illah, a veteran opponent of Saddam Hussein, over the slaughter of civilians in Fallujah shows how few friends the US has left in Iraq. He said: "The Americans claim that all the wounded are fighters and will not let us take them away. Families cannot escape because of their snipers."

 

Date range? 5th-9th
Total 600+
[1200 wounded]
Civilian / Fighter

'About 350 were women and children'

Selected info, comment, analysis

 

US/military viewpoint

 

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
-
Quds Press (Internet Version-WWW) in Arabic 0609 GMT
-
'IRAQI RESISTANCE' DEMANDS US SNIPERS WITHDRAW FROM FALLUJAH BY 2200, 13 APRIL
Specific incidents / deaths

The US forces violated the truce agreed on with the Iraqi resistance yesterday, killing 15 citizens of Fallujah despite the cease-fire.

Date killed? 12th
Total 15
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

 

Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

Meanwhile the Iraqi resistance in Fallujah warned that clashes with the US occupation forces would resume if US snipers controlling some points around the city were not withdrawn. These snipers have killed and wounded scores of Iraqis.

A source close to the Iraqi Resistance in Fallujah said that the resistance will resume fighting if the US snipers deployed around the town are not withdrawn. The source told Quds Press that the "Iraqi resistance will resume fighting if the snipers are not withdrawn by 2200 today."

The source stressed that "the Iraqi resistance continued to adhere to the cease-fire despite violations by the US forces yesterday and today. We adhered to the cease-fire in response to a call by the Muslim Scholars Authority, which asked us not to respond to deprive the Americans of any excuse and refute their allegations." The source added: "We -- like all the people of Fallujah -- reject the entry of Iraqi army and police into to the city. If this happens, it is ok if they are from the people of Fallujah and who (according to the source) are already present in the city."

US/military viewpoint

 

News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Reuters
-
17:35 (UK)
-
Alistair Lyon
-
ISLAMIST KIDNAPPERS TELL ITALY TO QUIT IRAQ
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

Ahmed al-Ani, an official at Falluja's main hospital, said more than 625 people had died in the fighting there, including about 20 killed in the past three days of sporadic gunfire.

Date range? 5th-13th
Total 625+
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

"These cowards, the Americans, they are killing families. They did not come here to liberate us from the (Saddam) regime, they came to kill women and children," said one guerrilla.

"We will teach them a lesson, we will turn this city into a graveyard for them."

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
-
Author
-
Title
American Friends Service Committee
-
INTERNATIONAL NGOS CALL FOR AN END TO HOSTILITIES IN IRAQ
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

 

Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

Since the United Nations withdrew from Iraq in October 2003, the Non-Governmental Coordinating Committee in Iraq (NCCI) has become the primary mechanism to coordinate the work of some 80�100 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have remained in Iraq.

...

The Working Group condemns military operations conducted against civilians and the attempts to prevent protection and relief of injured people.

In particular, the NCCI - Emergency Response Working Group is appalled by the witnessed:

   * Use of health facilities as bases for military operations

   * Occupation by coalition forces of hospitals - the main teaching hospital of Najaf and the general hospital of Fallujah (patients expelled � hospital closed)

   * Obstruction of access of wounded to health care facilities

   * Shooting at ambulances carrying patients

   * Arrest of wounded patients inside hospitals

   * Posting of snipers shooting at civilians

   * Prevented evacuation for 18 to 40 year old males from Fallujah

   * Lack of respect and the destruction of religious buildings

The working group also reminds all belligerent parties that the use of unconventional weapons is prohibited by international laws

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Democracy Now
-
"FEAR IS TRANSMUTING INTO ANGER" - RAHUL MAHAJAN REPORTS ON RESISTANCE IN IRAQ
Specific incidents / deaths I saw with my own eyes, many women and children who were injured and at least one who was quite certain to die. They have been reporting shooting at ambulances by snipers. Right now, the quote, "cease-fire" in effect, the primary mode of attack for the United States is not the heavy bombs they were using in the earlier stages but snipers on rooftops. I can tell you that I saw two ambulances, one of them had two bullet holes on the downward trajectory right in front of the driver's side of the ambulance. They were probably direct hits on the heart of the ambulance driver. Another ambulance, again with one single, neat bullet hole. This is no way this was an accident. These were deliberate shots into the windshield of the ambulance to kill people sitting in the front seat. Given the circumstances in Fallujah at the time, with completely blacked out streets and ambulances with bright lights with the sirens blowing, I can't imagine that the sniper could have mistaken them for something else.

...

But, as I said, the snipers were sniping everywhere. There was a constant stream of wounded into the hospitals. This tiny little makeshift clinic had a dozen people come in, and there would have been far more if there weren't entire sections of the town cut off by the snipers and incapable of getting someone from one place to the clinic without being killed.
Date killed? 12th (or after)
Total 1 (woman 'quite certain to die')
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

Reports coming out of Fallujah indicate a massacre of some 600 Iraqis, including many women and children, at the hands of U.S. troops.

...

Al-Jazeera is saying that about half of the 600 people killed, at least, were women and children, and of course, larger number were -- in total were non-combatants.

Date range? 5th-13th?
Total 'some' 600
Civilian / Fighter 'at least' half women and children; majority of total were non-combatants
Selected info, comment, analysis

We speak with author and antiwar activist Rahul Mahajan in Baghdad who was one of the only western reporters in Fallujah during the U.S. siege. He says: "The United States has completely lost control, and even the mildest of people are now absolutely enraged at what is being done in Fallujah, and want the United States out...anyone that didn't have a gun today could pick up a gun tomorrow."

...

I can tell you from whatever I have seen, there's a big controversy now with the Arab press, Al-Jazeera, in particular reporting U.S. atrocities and war crimes in Fallujah, and the U.S. press tamely reporting Brigadier General Mark Kim's claims no such thing is happening. I can tell you from what I have seen with my own eyes that Al-Jazeera is much closer to the truth.

...

AMY GOODMAN: In your blog at empirenotes.org, you quote "Time" magazine "in some neighborhoods, the marines say anyone they spot in the streets is considered a bad guy." says Marine Major, Larry Kafish, "It's hard to differentiate between people who are insurgent or civilians. You just have to go with your gut feeling." Your response.

RAHUL MAHAJAN: Well, it's absolutely true. It is true that some of the young men in Fallujah have not picked up their kalasnikovs yet, but the resistance, the Mujahadin, they are the people of the town.

...

It's true that anyone that doesn't have a gun today could pick up a gun tomorrow. That says, to me, not that they're justified in killing any military age male or making sure they remain there in besieged Fallujah. Which is their policy. They're not letting military age men out in general. They made an exception for us. We brought some wounded out. But it says, to me, that rather than saying that what they're doing is justified, it says they're in the wrong town in the wrong country, executing the wrong policy. If anyone could be the enemy, then you have no justification for being there. It is in fact the exact logic they used in large areas of Vietnam, in any of the three fire zones. For example, military aged males, if they were moving at all, they were targets, and they could be shot at indiscriminately.

...

AMY GOODMAN: What about the U.S. government saying that it is calm now in Fallujah, that there is a cease-fire?

RAHUL MAHAJAN: Well, they were saying that when I was there, and there was no cease-fire. I mean, I think what they did was they spent a few days without dropping the 500-pound bombs, which is what they were using, 500-pound bombs on residential areas is a terrifying thing. They were not using those, so they called it a "cease-fire".

...

So I think the claim of a cease-fire was a joke and I see no reason to believe it now, either.

...

AMY GOODMAN: Would you say that there is tremendous fear among the Iraqis?

RAHUL MAHAJAN: There was fear. There was a great deal of fear. But I see -- I actually see Iraqis losing their fear, and seeing it translated into anger. The same people that have said, you know, "Al Sadr's people are thugs", well, some of them still say it, but now they say it, in a sense, "they're our thugs and they're protecting us against the brutal occupiers". People of Fallujah say that the Mujahadin, they're our boys and our people and, you know, we support them. So, I don't think that the Iraqi people feel -- I think that they do feel that there will be consequences. There are women in Baghdad who go around with uncovered heads who know that in Fallujah, if they do that, they're very likely to be the subject of violence, but they still support the Mujahadin because they're so much against the brutal occupation. So I see much less fear and much more anger.

AMY GOODMAN: And have you gotten an chance to talk to U.S. soldiers?

RAHUL MAHAJAN: Initially I did, when I was in Sadr city, a couple of days after the outbreak of violence there, and I talked to some young men who were posted there. They had only been in Iraq three weeks, so they were more friendly and easier to approach. There was one we tried to talk to who simply kind of waved at us in the way that most troops will do if they've been in the country a long time, they get extremely wary and nervous. But these guys talked to us. They were perfectly nice. They were very, very ignorant of what was going on in Iraq. They were there in Sadr city because of clashes with Al Sadr's Madi army. So, I asked them, "What do you think about the stuff with Al Sadr. What do you think about the Madi army?" They said, "What? Who is that? Who are they? In fact one of them was very curious and came up and asked us several questions trying to figure out who these people were. They were thrown in here. They don't know any Arabic. They don't even know how to say, "please get away from the tank" in a respectful way, and they're sent over here to kill people and die. And it is a shame. I haven't been able to talk to any in more recent days.

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Jo Wilding
-
APRIL 11TH - FALLUJA
Specific incidents / deaths

US snipers in Falluja shoot unarmed man in the back, old woman with white flag, children fleeing their homes and the ambulance that we were going in to fetch a woman in premature labour.

...

Screaming women come in, praying, slapping their chests and faces. Ummi, my mother, one cries. I hold her until Maki, a consultant and acting director of the clinic, brings me to the bed where a child of about ten is lying with a bullet wound to the head. A smaller child is being treated for a similar injury in the next bed. A US sniper hit them and their grandmother as they left their home to flee Falluja.

The lights go out, the fan stops and in the sudden quiet someone holds up the flame of a cigarette lighter for the doctor to carry on operating by. The electricity to the town has been cut off for days and when the generator runs out of petrol they just have to manage till it comes back on. Dave quickly donates his torch. The children are not going to live.

...

We take off the blue gowns as the sky starts exploding somewhere beyond the building opposite. Minutes later a car roars up to the clinic. I can hear him screaming before I can see that there's no skin left on his body. He's burnt from head to foot. For sure there's nothing they can do. He'll die of dehydration within a few days.

...

The doctors look haggard in the morning. None has slept more than a couple of hours a night for a week. One as had only eight hours of sleep in the last seven days, missing the funerals of his brother and aunt because he was needed at the hospital.

"The dead we cannot help," Jassim said. "I must worry about the injured."

...

First we go down the street we were sent to. There's a man, face down, in a white dishdasha, a small round red stain on his back. We run to him. Again the flies ave got there first. Dave is at his shoulders, I'm by his knees and as we reach to roll him onto the stretcher Dave's hand goes through his chest, through the cavity left by the bullet that entered so neatly through his back and blew his heart out.

There's no weapon in his hand. Only when we arrive, his sons come out, crying, shouting. He was unarmed, they scream. He was unarmed. He just went out the gate and they shot him. None of them have dared come out since. No one had dared come to get his body, horrified, terrified, forced to violate the traditions of treating the body immediately. They couldn't have known we were coming so it's inconceivable tat anyone came out and retrieved a weapon but left the body.

He was unarmed, 55 years old, shot in the back.

Date killed? 11th-after 12th?
Total 2 ('children are not going to live') +1 ('He'll die of dehydration within a few days') +2 (brother and aunt of doctor) +1 (55-yr-old man) =6
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

"Come," says Maki and ushers me alone into a room where an old woman has just had an abdominal bullet wound stitched up. Another in her leg is being dressed, the bed under her foot soaked with blood, a white flag still clutched in her hand and the same story: I was leaving my home to go to Baghdad when I was hit by a US sniper. Some of the town is held by US marines, other parts by the local fighters. Their homes are in the US controlled area and they are adamant that the snipers were US marines.

Snipers are causing not just carnage but also the paralysis of the ambulance and evacuation services. The biggest hospital after the main one was bombed is in US territory and cut off from the clinic by snipers. The ambulance has been repaired four times after bullet damage. Bodies are lying in the streets because no one can go to collect them without being shot.

...

Another man is pulled from the car onto a stretcher. Cluster bombs, they say, although it's not clear whether they mean one or both of them.

...

We go again, Dave, Rana and me, this time in a pick up. There are some sick people close to the marines' line who need evacuating. No one dares come out of their house because the marines are on top of the buildings shooting at anything that moves. Saad fetches us a white flag and tells us not to worry, he's checked and secured the road, no Mujahedin will fire at us, that peace is upon us, this eleven year old child, his face covered with a keffiyeh, but for is bright brown eyes, his AK47 almost as tall as he is.

...

The people seem to pour out of the houses now in the hope we can escort them safely out of the line of fire, kids, women, men, anxiously asking us whether they can all go, or only the women and children. We go to ask.

...

And the satellite news says the cease-fire is holding and George Bush says to the troops on Easter Sunday that, "I know what we're doing in Iraq is right." Shooting unarmed men in the back outside their family home is right. Shooting grandmothers with white flags is right? Shooting at women and children who are fleeing their homes is right? Firing at ambulances is right?

Well George, I know too now. I know what it looks like when you brutalise people so much that they've nothing left to lose. I know what it looks like when an operation is being done without anaesthetic because the hospitals are destroyed or under sniper fire and the city's under siege and aid isn't getting in properly. I know what it sounds like too. I know what it looks like when tracer bullets are passing your head, even though you're in an ambulance. I know what it looks like when a man's chest is no longer inside him and what it smells like and I know what it looks like when his wife and children pour out of his house.

It's a crime and it's a disgrace to us all.

US/military viewpoint The young marine tells us that men of fighting age can't leave. What's fighting age, I want to know. He contemplates. Anything under forty five. No lower limit.
News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Pacifica
-
US MARINES SHOOT AMBULANCES IN FALLUJAH
Specific incidents / deaths

"When you see a child five years old with no head what can you say?" asks one doctor in Fallujah, whose name is being with-held for his own safety. "When you see a child with no brain just an open cavity what can you say? When you see a mother just hold her infant with no head and the shells are all over her body."

Date killed? before 12th
Total 1
Civilian / Fighter 1/0
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

So many Fallujahans have been killed by the US Marines that residents have resorted to digging mass graves. The City's foot-ball stadium now holds more than 200 dead bodies:

"We buried many in the stadium for football until it became full. When you are burying you cannot stay long because they (US Marines) will just shoot you. So we use the shovel. Just dig a big hole and put a whole family in the hole and leave as soon as possible so we are not shot."

The official number killed in Fallujah is 600, but the total number of civilian casualties is likely much higher. The official tally only reflects those deaths reported by the cities mosques and clinics. But American snipers and bombers have killed many people while they are inside their homes.

Date range? 5th-12th?
Total 600
(total number 'likely much higher')
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

"We buried many in the stadium for football until it became full. When you are burying you cannot stay long because they (US Marines) will just shoot you. So we use the shovel. Just dig a big hole and put a whole family in the hole and leave as soon as possible so we are not shot."

...

The doctor says his ambulance was attacked multiple times as it sought to bring aid to residents stranded in their homes. Once when it was trying to retrieve dead bodies for burial and a second time when it was attempting to bring food aid to homes cut off by American snipers

"I see people carrying a white flag and yelling for us saying 'We are here' just try to save us but we cannot save them because whenever we open the ambulance they will shoot us. We try to carry food or water by constrainers. As soon as you carry food or water, the snipers shot the containers of food.

 

US/military viewpoint Speaking from his ranch in Crawford, Texas the President the United States, George W. Bush told reporters American soldiers have acted against, quote: "lawlessness and gangs" in Iraq in the past week.
News Source
-
Author
-
Title
Associated Press
-
3:13 p.m. ET
-
JASON KEYSER
-
SOME TROOPS EXPECT ALL-OUT FALLUJAH FIGHT
Specific incidents / deaths A Marine with an M-16 shot dead a man on a balcony shouting orders to black-clad men below, Dillbeck said. He was thought to be directing snipers and mortar fire.

...

Gunmen rushed the convoy but it pushed ahead, leaving nine insurgents dead, the troops said.

Date killed? 12th
Total 1 + 9
Civilian / Fighter 0/9
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis  
US/military viewpoint

With U.S.-backed Iraqi officials still talking with city leaders about ending the standoff, it's not for the troops to decide how this tangle of conflicting forces will unravel.

But as Marines traded gun and mortar fire with rooftop snipers and fighters on the northern edge of Fallujah, some of them anticipated a bloody push to take the city of 200,000 people, a stronghold of Sunni Muslim insurgents.

"If they're trying to find a peaceful way out of this, great. But at this point, there seem to be few options other than to get innocents out and level it, wipe it clear off the map," said 1st Lt. Frank Dillbeck, scanning the city's outskirts with binoculars during a relative lull in fighting.

...

Christiansen said he was unfazed by concerns that the gunmen may be using the cease-fire to regroup.

"I really don't care; they're all gonna die," he said.

[top of page]