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Reference

Falluja Archive Oct 2004

Falluja Table - April 17

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IBC Extracted Falluja News - April 17

News Source
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Author
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Title

Kuwait Times
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IRAQIS FIND RESOLVE IN GRIEF OF FALLUJAH

Specific incidents / deaths

Hajj Mahmud takes a deep breath as he holds the telephone handset to inform a family about the death of their 23-year-old son who died while combating invading US marines in this besieged city.

...

The first body laid in the field on Thursday was that of Nasser Hussein, a 46-year-old father of four who travelled to Fallujah at the start of the US offensive here almost two weeks ago to volunteer at a local hospital. Hussein was helping four people wounded by a US tank shell when "a US sniper shot him dead," said Faisal. "When we called his brother Brahim Hussein, he said he wanted to move him later to a family cemetery in Baghdad, but he said he was proud that his brother would first be laid in the heroic soil of Fallujah."

Date killed? before 17th
Total 1 (combatant)+ 1 (hospital volunteer)=2
Civilian / Fighter

1/1

Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

More than 600 Iraqis, half of them women and children according to one Iraqi official, have been killed and over 1,250 others wounded in Fallujah since the US marines launched a major offensive here 12 days ago.

...

Hajj Mahmud shakes his head as he sits on a stone looking at a barren piece of land which used to be a popular football field. Last week the pitch was inaugurated as the city's new cemetery and it already holds over 100 bodies.

...

Mahmud Faisal, a retired civil servant, is one of the volunteers now running the football pitch-turned cemetery where residents of the neighbourhood help to dig long trenches. Each trench fits between 10 and 12 bodies, he explains, adding: "depending on if they're adults or children". "We also place headstones and keep lists in a safe place because most of those who die do not have families in the city anymore. When their relatives return they will want to know where they are," he said.

Date range? 5th-17th?
Total 600+
[1250 wounded]
(over 100 in football pitch)
Civilian / Fighter

'half of them women and children'

Selected info, comment, analysis

 

US/military viewpoint

 

News Source
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Author
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Title
Associated Press
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Jason Keyser
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TROOPS BLAST MUSIC IN SIEGE OF FALLUJAH
Specific incidents / deaths

Lying on his stomach on a rooftop and wearing goggles and earplugs, a Marine sniper keeps an eye to his rifle sight. His main task in recent days has been trying to hit the black-garbed gunmen who occasionally dash across the long street in front of him. To dodge his shots, one of the gunmen recently launched into a rolling dive across the street, a move that had the sniper and his buddies laughing.

"I think I got him later. The same guy came back and tried to do a low crawl," said Lance Cpl. Khristopher Williams, 20, from Fort Myers, Fla.

...

On the street in front of his position sits a car riddled with bullets, where the bloated, fly-infested bodies of three armed men have been left. The vehicle was shot up by Marine gunmen before the sniper set up his position.

Date killed? pre-17th
Total 1 (possible)+3 (in car)=3 (min) 4 (max)
Civilian / Fighter 0/3 (min) to 4 (max)
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

The loud music recalls the Army's use of rap and rock to help flush out Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega after the December 1989 invasion on his country, and the FBI's blaring progressively more irritating tunes in an attempt to end a standoff with armed members of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas in 1993.

...

Along the front line, Marines have been firing warning shots to scare away dogs chewing on corpses. In some cases, the troops have wrapped bodies in blankets and buried them in shallow graves.

US/military viewpoint Unable to advance farther into the city, an Army psychological operations team hopes a mix of heavy metal and insults shouted in Arabic - including, "You shoot like a goat herder" - will draw gunmen to step forward and attack. But no luck Thursday night.

...

"These guys don't have a centralized leader; they're just here to fight. I don't see what negotiations are going to do," said Capt. Shannon Johnson, a company commander for the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment.

...

Others have run across the street, hiding behind children on bicycles, said the sniper. In his position - reachable only by scaling the outside ledge of a building - he sits for hours with his finger poised on the trigger of a rifle that fires 50-caliber armor-piercing bullets with such force that the muzzle flash and exiting gasses from the weapon have blackened the bricks around the gun.

...

At night, the psychological operations unit attached to the Marine battalion here sends out messages from a loudspeaker mounted on an armored Humvee. On Thursday night, the crew and its Arabic-language interpreter taunted fighters, saying, "May all the ambulances in Fallujah have enough fuel to pick up the bodies of the mujahadeen."

The message was specially timed for an attack moments later by an AC-130 gunship that pounded targets in the city.

Later, the team blasted Jimi Hendrix and other rock music, and afterward some sound effects like babies crying, men screaming, a symphony of cats and barking dogs and piercing screeches. They were unable to draw any gunmen to fight, and seemed disappointed.

News Source
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Author
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Title
Los Angeles Times
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Tony Perry
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MARINE CORPS SNIPERS AIM TO STRIKE FEAR
Specific incidents / deaths

Although official policy discourages Marines from keeping a personal count of those they have killed, the custom continues. In nearly two weeks of conflict here, the corporal from a Midwestern city has emerged as the top sniper, with 24 confirmed kills. By comparison, the top Marine Corps sniper in Vietnam had 103 confirmed kills in 16 months.

Date killed? 5th-17th
Total 24
'confirmed kills'
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

A shaky truce exists between the Marines who surround the city and the fighters within the circle. But the cease-fire allows the Marines to carry out defensive operations within the city, which they define as, among other things, allowing fire on insurgents who display weapons, break the curfew or move their forces toward U.S. troops.

...

Unlike most Marines, the sniper sees his enemy before killing him. The enemy has a face.

Most combatants get only a glimpse of their enemies. The distance is too great, the spray of bullets too rapid.

But the sniper, with time to set up his shot, sees his victims more clearly through a powerful scope: their faces, their eyes, the weapons in their hands. And their expression when the bullet hits 'their center mass.'

'You have to have a combat mind-set,' the corporal said.

Unlike other infantry troops, the sniper has greater confidence that his shot won't hit a civilian or a 'friendly.'

US/military viewpoint

'It's a sniper's dream,' he said in polite, matter-of-fact tones. 'You can go anywhere and there are so many ways to fire at the enemy without him knowing where you are.'

...

The Marines believe their snipers have killed hundreds of insurgents, though that figure alone does not accurately portray the significance of sniping. A sign on the wall of sniper school at Camp Pendleton displays a Chinese proverb: 'Kill One Man, Terrorize a Thousand.'

'Sometimes a guy will go down, and I'll let him scream a bit to destroy the morale of his buddies,' said the Marine corporal. 'Then I'll use a second shot.'

...

'As a sniper your goal is to completely demoralize the enemy,' said the corporal, who played football and ran track in high school and dreams of becoming a high school coach. 'I couldn't have asked to be in a better place. I just got lucky: to be here at the right time and with the right training.'

...

'The first time you get the adrenaline rush afterward,' he said. 'During the shooting, you have to take care of your breathing. It felt good to do my job, good to take a bad guy out.'

...

Marine officers credit the snipers, all of whom are enlisted men, with saving Marine lives by suppressing enemy fire and allowing their comrades greater freedom of movement.

'The snipers clear the streets for us,' said Capt. Douglas Zembiec. 'The snipers are true heroes.'

...

The corporal hopes to get back home by late fall, in time to take his girlfriend to a college football game and go deer hunting with his father.

'When I go hunting for whitetail, it's for food and sport,' he said. 'Here, when I go hunting, it's personal, very personal.'

News Source
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Author
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Title

Guardian
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Jo Wilding was talking to Rachel Shabi
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'GETTING AID PAST US SNIPERS IS IMPOSSIBLE'

Specific incidents / deaths

We went and found an old man lying outside his house. He was unarmed and he was dead, shot in the back. I don't know how long he had been there, but his family were still inside the house, too terrified even to go and get him, even though to leave a body in the street for Muslims is just not possible. They were trapped in the no man's land between the mojahedin line and the marine line.

Date killed? 10th?
Total 1
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries] We are hearing that the death toll is around 880 civilians, and that within the first few days 86 children were killed.
Date range?  
Total 880+
(possibly country-wide figure via AP)
Civilian / Fighter 86 children
Selected info, comment, analysis

Everybody in Falluja has lost someone. There is not a person here who doesn't have a close friend or relative who has been killed, and a lot of them have lost several.

...

The times I have been shot at - once in an ambulance and once on foot trying to deliver medical supplies - it was US snipers in both cases. It is so unacceptable to stop medical aid getting through. They could have just asked to search us.

...

Now the people you see on the streets of Falluja are the fighters. Everyone else is staying indoors. We were able to evacuate some women and children from their houses. We were asked to go and pick up some people close to a marine line.

...

Both sides have been firing, despite the ceasefire. On Wednesday night some mojahedin were trying to shoot down a drone plane. There are young children involved in the fighting. I saw boys, about 11 years old, masked up and holding AK-47s.

There is nowhere in Falluja that is safe . The only place people can go is Baghdad. At the checkpoint leaving Falluja towards Baghdad, women and children have been trying to leave, but in cars driven by men (women don't drive here) so they weren't allowed out. They are not letting men aged 14 to 45 - of "fighting age" - leave the city.

We negotiated so that one male driver was allowed per car through the checkpoint. But people fear that once a large proportion of women and children leave, the Americans will destroy the city.

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
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Author
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Title
Associated Press
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Lee Keath
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U.S. CLOSES TWO HIGHWAYS INTO BAGHDAD
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis

Gunfire was nearly halted in Fallujah on Friday night, and the quiet continued through Saturday. A nominal truce since April 11 had been repeatedly shaken by nighttime battles as both insurgents and Marines dug in.

Talks toward ending the standoff were to resume Monday, but the top U.S. military negotiator suggested their continuation depended on continued quiet.

...

Negotiations outside Fallujah focused on strengthening a fragile truce, allowing residents access to hospitals and arranging the return of tens of thousands who have fled the city.

The two sides are also working on a way to carry out the handover of the killers of four American civilians, whose slaying and mutilation sparked the Marine assault on Fallujah, launched on April 5, a representative of the Iraqi Governing Council at the talks said.

"We have a mechanism for that, and when we conclude our talks we will announce that," Hashem al-Hassani told reporters after six hours of negotiations ended.

If the cease-fire holds and talks continue, negotiators have suggested they could move on to tackle more extensive moves sought by the Americans: the surrender of masses of weapons in the hands of insurgents, the return of police and Iraqi security forces to their posts and the handover of "terrorists and foreign militants."

...

In the first round of talks Friday, U.S. officials agreed to reposition troops to allow Fallujah residents better access to hospitals.

At the southern entrance to Fallujah, U.S. troops turned back a convoy of trucks bearing humanitarian supplies sent by the Iraqi Commerce Ministry.

US/military viewpoint

"I can't stress enough how key it is for the cease-fire to hold over the next 24 to 48 hours," said Maj. Gen. Joseph Weber, the top U.S. military negotiator.

...

"We are going to stabilize Fallujah," U.S. coalition spokesman Dan Senor said. "Those individuals must depart and in most cases they must be turned over to us."

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