adhabuhu

Dahr Jamail, The NewStandard (12 April 2004)

"What I can report from Falluja is that there is no ceasefire, and
apparently there never was. Iraqi women and children are being shot by
American snipers. Over 600 Iraqis have now been killed by American
aggression, and the residents have turned two football fields into
graveyards. Ambulances are being shot by the Americans. And now they are
preparing to launch a full-scale invasion of the city." While mainstream
reporting on Falluja has been void of any real description, Dahr Jamail
provides a frightening, firsthand, account of the grueling situation.


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http://electroniciraq.net/news/1452.shtml

I knew there was very little media coverage in Falluja, and the entire city
had been sealed and was suffering from collective punishment in the form of
no water or electricity for several days now. With only two journalists
there that I'd read and heard reports from, I felt pulled to go and witness
the atrocities that were surely being committed.

With the help of some friends, we joined a small group of internationals to
ride a large bus there carrying a load of humanitarian supplies, and with
the hopes of bringing some of the wounded out prior to the next American
onslaught, which was due to kick off at any time now.

Even leaving Baghdad now is dangerous. The military has shut down the main
highway between here and Jordan. The highway, even while just outside
Baghdad, is desolate and littered with destroyed fuel tanker trucks -- their
smoldering shells littered the highway. We rolled past a large M-1 Tank that
was still burning under an overpass which had just been hit by the
resistance.

At the first U.S. checkpoint the soldiers said they'd been there for 30
hours straight. After being searched, we continued along bumpy dirt roads,
winding our way through parts of Abu Ghraib, steadily but slowly making our
way towards besieged Falluja. While we were passing one of the small homes
in Abu Ghraib, a small child yelled at the bus, "We will be mujahedeen until
we die!"

We slowly worked our way back onto the highway. It was strewn with smoking
fuel tankers, destroyed military tanks and armored personnel carriers, and a
lorry that had been hit that was currently being looted by a nearby village,
people running to and from the highway carrying away boxes. It was a scene
of pure devastation, with barely any other cars on the road.

Once we turned off the highway, which the U.S. was perilously holding onto,
there was no U.S. military presence visible at all as we were in
mujahedeen-controlled territory. Our bus wound its way through farm roads,
and each time we passed someone they would yell, "God bless you for going to
Falluja!" Everyone we passed was flashing us the victory sign, waving, and
giving the thumbs-up.

As we neared Falluja, there were groups of children on the sides of the road
handing out water and bread to people coming into Falluja. They began
literally throwing stacks of flat bread into the bus. The fellowship and
community spirit was unbelievable. Everyone was yelling for us, cheering us
on, groups speckled along the road.

As we neared Falluja a huge mushroom caused by a large U.S. bomb rose from
the city. So much for the cease-fire.

The closer we got to the city, the more mujahedeen checkpoints we passed --
at one, men with kefir around their faces holding Kalashnikovs began
shooting their guns in the air, showing their eagerness to fight.

The city itself was virtually empty, aside from groups of mujahedeen
standing on every other street corner. It was a city at war. We rolled
towards the one small clinic where we were to deliver our medical supplies
from INTERSOS, an Italian NGO. The small clinic is managed by Mr. Maki
Al-Nazzal, who was hired just 4 days ago to do so. He is not a doctor.

He hadn't slept much, along with all of the doctors at the small clinic. It
started with just three doctors, but since the Americans bombed one of the
hospitals, and were currently sniping people as they attempted to enter/exit
the main hospital, effectively there were only 2 small clinics treating all
of Falluja. The other has been set up in a car garage.

As I was there, an endless stream of women and children who'd been sniped by
the Americans were being raced into the dirty clinic, the cars speeding over
the curb out front as their wailing family members carried them in.

One woman and small child had been shot through the neck -- the woman was
making breathy gurgling noises as the doctors frantically worked on her
amongst her muffled moaning.

The small child, his eyes glazed and staring into space, continually vomited
as the doctors raced to save his life.

After 30 minutes, it appeared as though neither of them would survive.

One victim of American aggression after another was brought into the clinic,
nearly all of them women and children.

This scene continued, off and on, into the night as the sniping continued.
As evening approached the nearby mosque loudspeaker announced that the
mujehadeen had completely destroyed a U.S. convoy. Gunfire filled the
streets, along with jubilant yelling. As the mosque began blaring prayers,
the determination and confidence of the area was palpable.

One small boy of 11, his face covered by a kefir and toting around a
Kalashnikov that was nearly as big as he was, patrolled areas around the
clinic, making sure they were secure. He was confident and very eager for
battle. I wondered how the U.S. soldiers would feel about fighting an 11
year-old child? For the next day, on the way out of Falluja, I saw several
groups of children fighting as mujahedeen.
After we delivered the aid, three of my friends agreed to ride out on the
one functioning ambulance for the clinic to retrieve the wounded. Although
the ambulance already had three bullet holes from a U.S. sniper through the
front windshield on the driver's side, having westerners on board was the
only hope that soldiers would allow them to retrieve more wounded Iraqis.
The previous driver was wounded when one of the sniper's shots grazed his
head.

Bombs were heard sporadically exploding around the city, along with random
gunfire.

It grew dark, so we ended up spending the night with one of the local men
who had filmed the atrocities. He showed us footage of a dead baby who he
claimed was torn from his mother's chest by Marines. Other horrendous
footage of slain Iraqis was shown to us as well.

My entire time in Falluja there was the constant buzzing of military drones.
As we walked through the empty streets towards the house where we would
sleep, a plane flew over us and dropped several flares. We ran for a nearby
wall to hunker down, afraid it was dropping cluster bombs. There had been
reports of this, as two of the last victims that arrived at the clinic were
reported by the locals to have been hit by cluster bombs -- they were
horribly burned and their bodies shredded.

It was a long night-between being sick from drinking unfiltered water and
the nagging concern of the full invasion beginning, I didn't sleep. Each
time I would begin to slip into sleep, a jet would fly over and I wondered
if the full scale bombing would commence. Meanwhile, the drones continued to
buzz throughout Falluja.

The next morning we walked back to the clinic, and the mujahedeen in the
area were extremely edgy, expecting the invasion anytime. They were taking
up positions to fight. One of my friends who'd done another ambulance run to
collect two bodies said that a Marine she encountered had told them to
leave, because the military was about to use air support to begin 'clearing
the city.' One of the bodies they brought to the clinic was that of an old
man who was shot by a sniper outside of his home, while his wife and
children sat wailing inside.

The family couldn't reach his body, for fear of being sniped by the
Americans themselves. His stiff body was carried into the clinic with flies
swarming above it.

The already insane situation continued to degrade, and by the time the
wounded from the clinic were loaded onto our bus and we prepared to leave,
everyone felt the invasion was looming near. American bombs continued to
fall not far from us, and sporadic gunfire continued. Jets were circling the
outskirts of the city.

We drove out, past loads of mujahedeen at their posts along the streets. In
a long line of vehicles loaded with families, we slowly crept out of the
embattled city, passing several military vehicles on the outskirts town.
When we took a wrong turn at one point and tried to go down a road
controlled by a different group of mujeheen, we were promptly surrounded by
men cocking their weapons and aiming them at us. The doctors and patients on
board explained to them we were coming from Falluja and on a humanitarian
aid mission, so they let us go.

The trip back to Baghdad was slow, but relatively uneventful. We passed
several more smoking shells of vehicles destroyed by the freedom fighters;
more fuel tankers, more military vehicles destroyed.

What I can report from Falluja is that there is no ceasefire, and apparently
there never was. Iraqi women and children are being shot by American
snipers. Over 600 Iraqis have now been killed by American aggression, and
the residents have turned two football fields into graveyards. Ambulances
are being shot by the Americans. And now they are preparing to launch a
full-scale invasion of the city.

All of which is occurring under the guise of catching the people who killed
the four Blackwater Security personnel and hung two of their bodies from a
bridge.


Dahr Jamail is Baghdad correspondent for The NewStandard. He is an Alaskan
devoted to covering the untold stories from occupied Iraq. You can help Dahr
continue his crucial work in Iraq by making donations. For more information
or to donate to Dahr, visit http://newstandardnews.net/iraqdispatches

arklyte_

Hey, loser, that was 2 days ago.

One more thing, loser, how do you tell soldiers from civilians?
They wear no uniforms, in direct violation of the Geneva Convention.

Fuck 'em.

--

( W W P D ) - What Would Patton Do?

dave baker

Uh, the ones that are 2 ft high & playing with dolls aren't soldiers.


Like your holding of prisoners in Guantanamo is in direct violation of the Geneva Convention?


Uh, aren't you there to liberate them?

Dave

charles_liu

That's right, why bother with all this "freedom/liberty/WMD" b*llsh*t?

arklyte_

You can't have freedom with various 'militias' being allowed to cause chaos.

Wake up.

--

( W W P D ) - What Would Patton Do?

dave baker

Yeah, a few hundred thousand Yanks dropping bombs & firing missiles all over
the place aren't causing any chaos.

Blame it on those pesky Iraqis in their own country! They'll accept our brand
of freedom even if we have to kill them first!

Dave

the sanity inspector

Like wow, Scooby; look what Dave Baker <newsgroup_poster@jodael.com>

There's an idea: Let's threaten the foreign fighters & leftover
Ba'athists with Camp Gitmo, if they don't surrender peacefully.
Ooooh, I can hear the knees knocking already.


--
bruce
The dignified don't even enter in the game.
-- The Jam

dave baker

Oooh, I can see your hypocrisy showing already.

Dave

Thats what happens when allahs holy warriors hid behind civilians.

dave baker

In their own towns?

Maybe the Americans would like to lend them some B-52s so they can drop bombs
on the American villages while hiding at 30,000 ft, or Apache helicopters or
A-10s so they can strafe while hiding behind bullet-proof armour?

Seems that it's ok to shoot a civilian if there is a soldier behind them? Is
this the new "rules-of-engagement" that the US is using?

Dave