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Falluja Archive Oct 2004

Falluja Table - April 27

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IBC Extracted Falluja News - April 27

News Source
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Author
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Title
Democracy Now
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[Radio Transcript]
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THE BATTLE FOR FALLUJAH INTESIFIES; U.S. POISED TO ATTACK NAJAF
Specific incidents / deaths

 

Date killed?  
Total

 

Civilian / Fighter

 

Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

 

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

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, the War and Peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. Also at democracynow.org. We were talking about Najaf. Now to Fallujah. Rahul Mahajan has just come out of Fallujah, one of the few westerners who has been there. The situation: eight Iraqi, one U.S. Soldier killed in clashes in Fallujah. The marines called in air strikes destroying a minaret, which they said insurgents had reportedly been firing from. Can you talk about the situation in Fallujah?

RAHUL MAHAJAN: Well, obviously it's very tense. All of the signs point to a renewed offensive. The US assaulted the city with pretty much everything but the kitchen sink: 2,000 bombs from f-16's, ac-130's, specter gun ships, super cobra helicopter tanks. They were not able to take it in the first offensive. So they decided to try to win a military victory by negotiation instead, by getting the rebels essentially to disarm after which, presumably, the united states would go into the city and round them all up and put -- throw them into the prison and throw away the key as they have done with so many thousands of other Iraqis. Obviously, that wasn't going to work. The rebels were not going to disarm. It's just a matter of time. They're trying to get that military victory by negotiation. They're talking about joint patrols with Iraqi security forces which essentially means using Iraqi security forces as human shields. It's a common practice when they do have joint patrols. But that's just a way of seeing whether they can force a capitulation or provoke another escalation and go in and finish off the job. It's likely to be extremely bloody, if they do.


US/military viewpoint

 

News Source
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Author
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Title
New York Times
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CHRISTINE HAUSER
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IN FALLUJA, FINDING A PLACE FOR THE DEAD
Specific incidents / deaths

The paint on the gravestones is as red as blood. And on some of them, it has not yet dried.

"A young brother and sister are buried here," said one of the gravediggers, who gave only his first name, Hamza, as he pointed to two crudely cut blocks propped up on a dirt mound.

The place where the dead lie in this town, 30 miles west of Baghdad, was once a soccer stadium named the Falluja Sports Club. But now, after more than three weeks of fighting between American marines and insurgents, it is known as the Falluja Martyrs Cemetery.

Smeared in hand-written Arabic lettering on the stone markers were the names of Amal and Mustafa Alawi, killed in the Hay Julan district, a poor neighborhood in Falluja where much of the fighting has taken place.

Date killed? pre-26th
Total 2
(young brother and sister Amal and Mustafa Alawi, killed in the Hay Julan district)
Civilian / Fighter 2/0
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

"There are 250 people buried here from American strikes on houses," said Nasser, another gravedigger. "We have stacked up the bodies one on top of the other."

...

The gravediggers said that the cemetery was full of women and children. And there were headstones attesting to the graves beneath holding civilian victims, marked "child," for example. But there were also signs of fallen fighters - some of the headstones bore the Arabic word for "hero" painted alongside the names.

...

The Iraqi Ministry of Health has tried to piece together the number of Iraqis killed in the fighting, in which American forces have used warplanes, attack helicopters and tanks against the mortars and rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire of the guerrillas.

The ministry said that 271 people had been killed since the start of the offensive on April 5. Local doctors quoted by news agencies have given figures more than double that.

Date range? 5th-26th?
Total 250
(in one makeshift cemetery)
271
(IHM)
'more than double [the IHM figure]'
(local doctors)
Civilian / Fighter cemetery 'full of women and children' but also some 'signs of fallen fighters'
Selected info, comment, analysis

As in many conflicts, there were unanswered questions. One headstone read simply "unknown," but it named the place where the person had been killed, Hay Askari, a district in this town of about 300,000 where some of the fighting has taken place since the American siege started early this month.

And there were also the ongoing sounds of battle, belying the shaky truce.

"Hear that?" said a man as the rattle of machine-gun fire and thump of explosions echoed in the distance. He was milling around the cemetery with some other residents, as well as a few fighters, their faces shrouded with Arabic scarves and their hands clutching automatic weapons. They all came to an abrupt standstill to listen to the sudden sounds of renewed combat.

...

Judging by the littered cemetery grounds, bodies had been brought here from hospitals or ambulance medics. Rubber surgical gloves and masks had been tossed amid the graves. Boxes of incense lay spent and discarded, and dried palm fronds were stuck into the dirt of the mounded plots.

...

"There are still a lot of bodies out there," said Hamza. "But we can't get them because of the fighting."

US/military viewpoint  
News Source
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Author
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Title
Knight-Ridder
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Carol Rosenberg
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U.S. MARINES INCREASINGLY TARGETING ENEMY FIGHTERS WITH SNIPERS
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]

In the past three weeks, two sniper teams attached to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment have shot down 90 people who have strayed into their sights. The two teams are part of the 100 Marine sharpshooters deployed by three battalions around the city. One sniper secreted away in another corner of Fallujah has "26 confirmed kills," military officers here report.

...

Already, Reyes has been in Fallujah 21 days and counts eight confirmed kills and another five probable kills in that time.

Date range? 5th-26th?
Total 90 + 26 ('kills' of two sniper teams - each contains one actual sniper - + one other sniper, of 100 snipers in Falluja)
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis U.S. Marines awaiting orders to attack here are using a not-so-secret weapon to winnow down enemy fighters that commanders consider more effective than a 500-pound bomb: Sniper teams that target anyone suspected of being an insurgent.

...

The role of the snipers here has been a stealthy one amid a cease-fire that U.S. officials say has been repeatedly broken by Arab insurgents. The snipers were deployed in early April, as guerrilla ambushes claimed more than 50 Marine lives in the bloodiest fighting since U.S. troops entered Iraq last year. Not since the Vietnam War have American forces deployed so many sharpshooters.

Day and night, the sniper teams stalk their prey, well beyond the bases from which Marines control about a quarter of the city. From rooftops, in fields and around alleyways, the sharpshooters are an offensive force - at a time when most Marines are under orders to fire only when attacked.

A sniper team consists of four men, each of whom carries a sniper rifle, an M16 and a pistol, as well as extra ammo and a host of other equipment. They set up sniper nests from which they track suspected enemy fighters with special long-range scopes, thermal imaging devices and computerized equipment. If the team agrees a person has "hostile intent" - such as carrying a weapon or rocket-propelled grenade - a designated sharpshooter cuts him down with a special bolt-action rifle, killing him with a single shot up to 1,000 yards away.

US/military viewpoint

"Every time we get to kill somebody, he is no longer shooting at the Marines," said Sgt. Dennis Elchlinger, 31, of Encampment, Wyo., who is one of only 500 scout-snipers in the Marine Corps.

Elchlinger admits he doesn't really know whether his team's victims are foreign fighters or local citizens brandishing weapons in a bid to drive out the American occupiers.

"They don't wear a uniform," Elchlinger said. "It's hard to tell the nationality of someone with a towel on his face."


...

"Every time we get to kill somebody, he is no longer shooting at the Marines," said Sgt. Dennis Elchlinger, 31, of Encampment, Wyo., who is one of only 500 scout-snipers in the Marine Corps.

Elchlinger admits he doesn't really know whether his team's victims are foreign fighters or local citizens brandishing weapons in a bid to drive out the American occupiers.

"They don't wear a uniform," Elchlinger said. "It's hard to tell the nationality of someone with a towel on his face."

...

"We didn't come for full-scale warfare. We brought soccer balls and Frisbees, wanted to make friends with these people. Once you drop a couple guys - call it information ops or psych ops - you get the message to the whole area."

In fact, commanders boast that in on-again, off-again negotiations with Fallujah's civic leaders, the Arabs asked first that the Marines withdraw their snipers. Refugees fleeing Fallujah complained that the sharpshooters target civilians.

The snipers say they target only people with "hostile intent" and are given wide latitude to determine that. While an infantryman is under orders to fire only if a person is leveling a weapon, sharpshooters may fire at people whose behavior suggests they are part of the insurgency.

There's no shortage of targets.

"Seems there's more enemy here to me. Everyone was walking freely with AK-47s," said Cpl. Oscar Reyes, comparing his assignment in Fallujah to one of a year ago, when he was posted near Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace in Baghdad, picking off enemies who came near U.S. forces.

That mission lasted three days. Already, Reyes has been in Fallujah 21 days and counts eight confirmed kills and another five probable kills in that time.

Besides sharpshooting, the snipers have also called in airstrikes on mortar positions and used their long-range rifles to detonate a dead rebel with an explosive vest at a safe distance.

They don't think their efforts will forestall the need eventually for the Marines to launch a full-scale assault. "These guys are bunkered down in their houses. You got to get them out of the house to do the job," said 1st Lt. Timothy Murray, 26, of Aliso Viejo, Calif., who commands a scout-sniper platoon of 20.

News Source
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Author
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Title
New York Times
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FIERCE BATTLE AT FALLUJA MOSQUE FURTHER DIMS HOPES FOR ACCORD
Specific incidents / deaths  
Date killed?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]  
Date range?  
Total  
Civilian / Fighter  
Selected info, comment, analysis A protracted firefight between marines and insurgents in a Falluja suburb on Monday culminated in American helicopter gunships and tanks firing at a mosque and toppling its minaret, further dimming hopes for a peaceful resolution to the three-week-old siege.

...

At Falluja, the fighting around the mosque underscored the odds against a lasting breakthrough to avert a military showdown. The agreement on Sunday to have joint American and Iraqi patrols through the city came as a huge relief to many Iraqis, especially in Baghdad, where there were fears that a resumed Marine offensive could set off a wave of anti-American violence.

But the Monday events revived the widespread conviction that both sides have made Falluja a watershed of the wider Iraqi struggle, and that neither the American forces nor the insurgents will back down. If the battle at the mosque suggested that the insurgents were still a long way from submitting, it also showed the marines' willingness to use some of their heaviest weapons against them.

General Kimmitt said the marines had reacted to the first volleys from the mosque, in the northwestern district of Jolan, by advancing under fire, then pausing to allow the insurgents a chance to surrender. When nobody emerged, the general said, marines went in and found the mosque deserted, "with the exception of a significant amount of expended shell casings in the minaret."

He said the Americans had then pulled back, only to take renewed fire from the mosque.

US/military viewpoint [An American spokesman] said commanders still intended to go ahead with a plan to send American troops on joint patrols with Iraqi security forces into contested parts of the city. But that plan, put forward by Falluja civic leaders on Sunday to avert an American invasion of the city, appeared to be in jeopardy.

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