*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Spot the problems with what the US are actually saying.....

Rebels deny Fallujah lost

A REBEL spokesman today said US forces were in an impasse in Fallujah and denied that the American offensive against the Iraqi town had succeeded.

"The announcement of the end of the military offensive is proof that American forces are in an impasse ... the American criminals and the Iraqi apostates have suffered more than 150 killed and more than 270 wounded," said Abu Saad al-Dlimi.

The spokesman for the Shura Council of the Muhajedeen in Fallujah was speaking by telephone to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV station.

Earlier, Iraqi government officials announced the conclusion of a massive six-day US offensive on Fallujah.

Battle 'nearing end' in Falluja

US soldiers say house searches have yielded many weapons caches
American-led forces in Falluja say that they are in control of almost all the city after six days of fighting.

They say just a few small groups are still firing in the south of the city, but reporters give differing accounts about the extent of their control.

......

One senior US officer said Falluja was "occupied, but not subdued". Commanders say a house-to-house operation is sweeping from the north to the south of the city and could take another four or five days to complete. In the last two days, up to 400 insurgents have been arrested, they say.....

.....Fadhil Badrani, a journalist operating independently in the city, told the BBC Arabic service that US-led forces had taken over only the northern districts. He said in other parts of the city they controlled only the main roads. He said heavy bombardment of the city, using aircraft, artillery and tanks is continuing.

 

[Barking_Mad]

The Independent's article on Falujah - worth the read.

A city lies in ruins, along with the lives of the wretched survivors

After six days of intense combat against the Fallujah insurgents, US warplanes, tanks and mortars have left a shattered landscape of gutted buildings, crushed cars and charred bodies. A drive through the city revealed a picture of utter destruction, with concrete houses flattened, mosques in ruins, telegraph poles down, power and phone lines hanging slack and rubble and human remains littering the empty streets. The north-west Jolan district, once an insurgent stronghold, looked like a ghost town, the only sound the rumbling of tank tracks.

US Marines pointed their assault rifles down abandoned streets, past Fallujah's simple amusement park, now deserted. Four bloated and burnt bodies lay on the main street, not far from US tanks and soldiers. The stench of the remains hung heavy in the air, mixing with the dust. Another body lay stretched out on the next block, its head blown off, perhaps in one of the countless explosions which rent the city day and night for nearly a week. Some bodies were so mutilated it was impossible to tell if they were civilians or militants, male or female.Fallujah, regarded as a place with an independent streak where citizens even defied the former leader Saddam Hussein at times, seemed lifeless. The minarets of the city's dozens of mosques stood silent, no longer broadcasting the call to holy war that so often echoed across the rooftops, inspiring fighters to join the insurgency.

Restaurant signs were covered in soot. Pavements were crushed by 70-ton Abrams tanks, and rows of crumbling buildings stood on both sides of deserted streets. Upmarket homes with garages looked as if they had been abandoned for years. Cars lay crushed in the middle of streets. Two Iraqis in one street desperately trying to salvage some of their smashed belongings were the only signs of life.As US soldiers walked through neighbourhoods, their allies in the Iraqi forces casually moved along dusty streets past wires hanging down from gutted buildings. They carried boxes of bottled water to the rooftops of the upmarket villas they now occupy. The soldiers sat on the roofs staring at the ruins.As a small convoy of Humvees moved back to position on the edge of the Jolan district, a rocket landed in the sand about 100ft away, a reminder that militants were still out there somewhere, even if the city that harboured them has fallen. The few civilians left in Fallujah talked of a city left in ruins not just by the six days of the ground assault, but the weeks of bombing that preceded the attack. Residents have long been without electricity or water, abandoning their homes and congregating in the centre of the city as the US forces advanced from all sides. They had cowered in buildings as the battle unfolded past the windows.

The reaction of US troops to attacks, say residents, have been out of all proportion; shots by snipers have been answered by rounds from Abrams tanks, devastating buildings and, it is claimed, injuring and killing civilians. This is firmly denied by the American military..

 

[Barking_Mad]

US to launch assault on Mosul?

US has lost control of much of Mosul, say officials

American Marines from Falluja and Iraqi National Guard (ING) battalions from Kurdish autonomous region have deployed to Mosul to reinforce American and ING units based in the city, Kurdish and American military officials said. They said the local security forces had lost control of much of Mosul, Iraq's third largest city with an estimated population of 1.8 million Arabs, Kurds, Turcomen and Assyrian Christians.

US troops and Iraqi security forces were fighting to retake a police station overrun by insurgents in the northern city of Mosul, a US military spokeswoman said on Sunday. Two US soldiers were also wounded in sporadic fighting in the nearby town of Tal Afar, where insurgents had attacked a police academy with small arms, she said. Last week, insurgents stormed and looted at least nine police stations in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, stealing weapons, flak jackets and police vehicles.

...........


"Mosul was about to be lost," Brigadier Anwar Dolan, commander of the ING brigade in Suleimania in the Kurdish-controlled north, said. "So, the Iraqi Defence Minister asked for forces from Suleimania, Dihouk and Erbil." Reports from inside Mosul indicated that insurgents, joined by local policemen, were patrolling the streets to demonstrate their power in neighbourhoods of the city's Arab majority. Meanwhile, outside the city, the American-ING forces were mobilising for what some military officials promise would be another Falluja-type assault.

"We will be moving in the next day or so in Mosul to restore the rule of law," announced Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi. An Iraqi journalist in Mosul reported that ING troops have retaken two of the six police stations controlled by the insurgents. Insurgents and American-ING battalions were each demonstrating their control of different parts of Mosul in advance of what most observers believe will be a major battle for the city.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Reports from Falluja suggest Christian warnings were right

Warnings by Christian peacemakers based in Iraq about the consequences of an assault on Falluja by coalition and Iraqi forces appear to have been born out by news at the weekend. The full cost of the battle of Falluja has begun to emerge as large numbers of wounded civilians were evacuated to hospitals in Baghdad, and insurgents stepped up retaliatory attacks in other cities, reports the Observer newspaper. Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) which has maintained a almost continuous presence in Iraq since October, 2002, warned of violent reprisals and heavy civilian casualties if the assault on Falluja went ahead.

As the first Red Crescent aid convoy was allowed into Falluja, Iraq's Health Minister, Alaa Alwan, said ambulances had begun transferring a 'significant number' of injured civilians out of the battle zone, although he did not specify how many. The evacuation of the wounded from Falluja came as insurgents consolidated their grip on large areas of Iraq's third largest city, Mosul, setting up checkpoints and conducting their own patrols, and as fresh Iraqi and US troops were rushed north to counter the new threat. Reports from Mosul even before the assualt on Falluja suggested that Christians were being driven out with hard-line radical groups acting in broad daylight, and no one preventing their actions. 'The problem of terrorism is not that "those people" are so different from us. It is that they are so like us. When they are struck, they strike back.' said CPT member John Stoner. The moves came amid renewed warnings from aid groups that Iraq's civilian population was facing a 'humanitarian catastrophe'. Although many of Falluja's 200,000 to 300,000 residents fled the city before the assault, between 30,000 and 50,000 are believed to have remained during the fighting.

The horrific conditions for those who remained in the city have begun to emerge in the last 24 hours as it became clear that US military claims of 'precision' targeting of insurgent positions were false. According to one Iraqi journalist who left Falluja on Friday, some of the civilian injuries were caused by the massive firepower directed on to city neighbourhoods during the battle. 'If the fighters fire a mortar, US forces respond with huge force,' said the journalist, who asked not to be named. The city had been without power or water for days. Frozen food had spoiled and people could not charge their cellphones. 'Some people hadn't prepared well. They didn't stock up on tinned food. They didn't think it would be this bad,' he said. At the main hospital, cut off from the rest of the city, doctors have reportedly been treating the injured with nothing but bandages, while the Red Crescent says people have been bleeding to death for lack of medical attention. The claims came as an Iraqi Red Crescent convoy entered Falluja yesterday with the first aid supplies to reach the city since US-led forces began to blast their way in five days ago. Prior to that the city had been surrounded by a US military cordon and subjected to heavy daily bombardment.

Clashes erupt in Baquba

INSURGENTS clashed with Iraqi police in the central Iraqi city of Baquba today, as explosions and heavy gunfire echoed through the streets, the US military and witnesses said. The US military said insurgents opened fire on Iraqi police from inside a mosque in Baquba this morning.Iraqi police forces stormed into the mosque and then cleared it out, the US command said. A weapons cache, including rocket propelled grenades and mortars, was uncovered inside, the army said. US soldiers have been sent to help Iraqi police resolve the situation, the US military said.

Firefights also erupted just south of Baquba in the town of Buhriz, as insurgents attacked some police stations and a US base near the area, residents said. Associated Press Television News footage showed militants storming several police trucks, looting rocket-propelled grenades from the back, and then blowing it up. Thick plumes of black smoke rose over the area. The two cities are located about 57km north-east of Baghdad.

A day earlier, hundreds of protesters marched in Buhriz to protest the massive US offensive against the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah and denounce the country's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Yesterday's rally took place after the morning prayers marking Eid, the end of the month-long Ramadan period of fasting. The town was a former Saddam stronghold. Some armed men, heads covered with black hoods and brandishing Kalashnikov rifles, were among the marchers, who carried banners calling Mr Allawi a "thug" and "traitor".

"Allawi, Fallujah will be your tomb," some chanted. "You are a coward, an American agent."

 

[Barking_Mad]

US military had suffered 54 troops deaths from the 8th - 12th November
There have been 65 US deaths in the first 14 days of November compared to 63 for the whole of last month.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi Shia leaders condemn Falluja attack

Baghdad's highest Shia authority has denounced the US military assault on Falluja and called on all Iraqi religious authorities to support the Iraqi people. Shaikh Muhammad Mahdi al-Khalissi has issued a statement, obtained by Aljazeera.net on Sunday, condemning the US assault on Falluja and describing it as "aggression and dirty war".

"No matter how powerful the occupation forces are, they will be driven out of Iraq sooner or later. The current savage military attack on Falluja by US occupation forces and the US-appointed Iraqi government is an act of mass murder and a crime of war," the statement said. Al-Khalissi said he and his faction fully supported the religious decree issued by Iraq's influential Sunni Muslim authority, the Association of Muslim Scholars, in which it prohibited Iraqis from participating in the US attack on Falluja.

Another Shia scholar and member of the Islamic Movement in Iraq, Shaikh Hadi al-Khalissi, has condemned the attack on Falluja, labelling it a chapter in the cycle of aggression against Iraqis and the Muslim nation.

"Everything happening on the ground in Iraq now is part of a plan to destroy Iraq and Islam," he told Aljazeera.net. Shaik Hadi accused the US authorities in Iraq of orchestrating the assault on Falluja in a bid to keep all of Iraq in chaos. "This occupation is based on Zionist motivations. Its first aim is to destroy the state of Iraq, which has always resisted the hegemony of Zionism," he said.

"I can assure you they do not want to build the country. They do not carry any good intention. All what they want is a weak Iraq that cannot rise against Israel."

Shia and Sunni

Al-Khalissi stressed that a peaceful solution could be achieved in every Iraqi-Iraqi disagreement if Iraqis were left alone.

"As long as the occupation exists on Iraq's national soil, chances of peaceful solution will always be weak, because the occupation can not afford harmony among Iraqis" he said. "I am here today as a Shia figure belonging to a prominent Shia religious family to confirm that Iraqi Sunni Muslims are our brothers and dear countrymen. We lived since the dawn of Islam in this country as brothers. We back our brotherly Sunni Muslims in the city of Falluja and nothing on earth will spoil our brotherhood with them."

Al-Khalissi's family historically dominates al-Kadhimiya mosque and religious school in Baghdad where Imam Musa al-Kadhim, a descedant of Prophet Muhammad and regarded by Shia as one of their 12 imams, is buried.

The family is known for resisting foreign domination. Grand Shaikh Muhammad al-Khalissi was one of the key leaders of the 1920 revolution against the British occupation of Iraq. The revolution paved the way for Iraq's independence in 1921.

edit: Sadr says he won't take part in elections

There was also an ominous political unravelling as a direct consequence of the Fallujah operation. A senior aide to Muqtada Sadr, the Shia cleric who has led two uprisings against the Americans, said he would not take part in the elections while "Iraqi cities are under attack".

 

[Barking_Mad]

Oil well fire out of control

SABOTEURS have set fire to four oil wells in Iraq's northern fields. Successive explosions had rocked the four wells in Khabbaza, 20km northwest of Kirkuk, the state-run Northern Oil Co said today."The fire is out of control and the attack on the four wells will definitely affect the oil production," an official said. Iraq's oil industry, which provides desperately needed money for Iraq's reconstruction efforts, has been the target of repeated attacks by insurgents in recent months.

Clashes in Baquba, Ramadi

Explosions and gunfire have broken out in Baquba, with the US headquarters in the Iraqi city coming under attack by mortar fire. Witnesses said armed fighters were fighting Iraqi police, and explosions and heavy gunfire were echoing through Baquba's streets on Monday. An Iraqi journalist told Aljazeera that five vehicles belonging to the Iraqi police were burnt out in different parts of the city. A police station was also attacked.

The US military said armed fighters opened fire on Iraqi police from inside a mosque in Baquba and police forces then stormed and clear out the mosque. A weapons cache, including rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, was uncovered inside, US command said. Firefights also erupted just south of Baquba in the town of Buhriz, as anti-US fighters attacked some police stations and a nearby US base, residents said. The two cities are located northeast of Baghdad.

Clashes between armed assailants and Iraqi security forces early on Monday south of Baghdad killed seven Iraqi police and national guardsmen and injured five others, police said. Gunmen carried out near-simultaneous attacks on a police station and an Iraqi National Guard headquarters in Suwayra, about 40km south of Baghdad, police said. Two from the police and five national guardsmen were killed.

The dead included Major Hadi Rafaidi, the director of the Suwayra police station. Before the clashes, National Guardsmen opened fire at a car approaching their headquarters, killing the driver. The car was loaded with explosives, it was later discovered. In the city of Ramadi, 112km west of the capital, heavy fighting erupted on Monday between anti-US fighters and American forces, residents said. North of Ramadi, a US convoy came under attack near the town of al-Baghdadi, with one Humvee destroyed, according to a al-Baghdadi police Lieutenant Muhammad Abd al-Karim. There was no confirmation from the US military about the incident.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Fucking horrific.....

A spokesman for the Shura Council of the Falluja Mujahidin told Aljazeera some families had been without water, food and electricity for the past five days. He said US forces were restricting the relief groups to one area.

"We plead to the conscience of the Islamic world for help," said Abu Saad al-Dulaimi.

Asma Khamis al-Muhannadi, an assistant doctor who witnessed the US and Iraqi National Guards raid into Falluja hospital told Aljazeera that the medical staff received threats from the Iraqi health minister who said if anyone disclosed information about the raid, they would be arrested or dismissed from their jobs.

"We were tied up and beaten despite being unarmed and having only our medical instruments," al-Muhannadi said. "The hospital was targeted by bombs and rockets. I was with a woman in labour. The umbilical cord had not yet been cut. At that time, a US solider shouted at one of the national guards to arrest me and tie my hands while I was helping the mother to deliver. I will never forget this incidence in my life," the assistant doctor said. "I am from Falluja and I work there. They claimed I was a fighter and stole our money and mobile phones," she said. "

The troops dragged patients from their beds and pushed them towards the wall. There were 17 injured people among the patients," al-Muhannadi said. "We exited from the hospital on the second day of the attack, but we could not return as the main Falluja-Saqlawiya junction was controlled by the US troops. We saw around 150 women, children and the elderly attacked by aircraft fire," she said.

"All of us were subject to intense inspection; the soldiers even examined children's diapers. Two female doctors were forced to totally undress," al-Muhannadi said.Residents say many civilians have died and hospitals continue to receive casualties, including children. Residents say many civilians have died and hospitals continue to receive casualties, including children.

 

[richtea]

US military: no civilians trapped in Fallujah

US disputes civilians trapped

From correspondents near Fallujah, Iraq
November 15, 2004

THE US military said overnight it saw no need for the Iraqi Red Crescent to deliver aid to people inside Fallujah as it did not think any Iraqi civilians were trapped inside the city.

"There is no need to bring (Red Crescent) supplies in because we have supplies of our own for the people," said US Marine Colonel Mike Shupp.

"Now that the bridge (into Fallujah) is open, I will bring out casualties and all aid work can be done here (at Fallujah's hospital)."

He said he had not heard of any Iraqi civilians being trapped inside the city and did not think that was the case.

The Iraqi Red Crescent believes at least 150 families are trapped inside Fallujah and that many are in desperate need of food, blankets, water and medicine.

Some residents still inside the city, contacted by Reuters today, said their children were suffering from diarrhoea and had not eaten for several days.

Asked what he intended to do about families and other non-combatants trapped inside the city, Col Shupp said: "I don't think that is the case.

"I haven't heard that myself and the Iraqi soldiers didn't tell me about that. We want to help them as much as we can. We are on the radio broadcast telling them how to come out and how to come up to coalition forces."

The Red Crescent has sent a convoy of seven aid trucks and ambulances to Fallujah, but it has been stopped at the city's main hospital, on the west bank of the Euphrates river, away from the city centre.

There is almost no-one at the hospital for doctors to treat and residents still in the city are said to have been too scared to leave their homes during the fighting.

The Red Crescent has said the only effective way it can help them is to go into the city.

Fallujah's normal population is about 300,000. About half the residents are thought to have fled before the main US-led assault on insurgents in the city began last week.

Reuters

 

[Barking_Mad]

US bombs kill 20 in Baquba

BAQUBA - US forces have unleashed two air strikes and ground fire on the restive city of Baquba following clashes between rebels and Iraqi security forces, in a day of chaos that left about 20 insurgents dead, a US military official said. Four US soldiers were also slightly wounded in the unrest, which marked the latest in a wave of violence that has swept through the Sunni Muslim heartlands of Iraq in response to a huge US-Iraqi assault on the rebel hub of Fallujah.

"There have been several attacks in the past few days," said US Army Staff Sergeant Steve Johnson. "We have been expecting increased activity," he said, citing trigger factors such as the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which ended on Sunday and a spike in lawlessness in Iraq's northern capital of Mosul due to the Fallujah offensive.

"A combination of these events has put (us) on alert," he said. The day's mayhem started when a bus-load of rebels drove into Baquba, 60 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, at about 8:00 am (0500 GMT). Iraqi national guards and gangs of militants clashed in three separate skirmishes, while other rebels were spotted planting roadside bombs and US-led military forces in the area were attacked from a mosque, Johnson said.

........The escalating lawlessness prompted US forces to drop two 500-pound bombs on suspected insurgent targets in the southern outskirts of Baquba - the Kathoon and Sebarnisan districts - Johnson said. The attack was coupled with five artillery strikes.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Eyewitness: Falluja battle scars

American forces say they are still fighting small pockets of insurgents in the city of Falluja. Our correspondent, Paul Wood, is with American marines in the city. He gave the following interview to BBC Radio 4's Today programme: If you look outside of my window now, you can see a deserted street with about five bodies on it. They still have their weapons with them - [you can hear] a little bit of what they call "suppressing fire" from the marines, because occasionally people are still circling around. These are bodies of insurgents who tried to attack the base over the last couple of days. These bodies still have their weapons with them, because the marines think it's just too risky to go out a couple of hundred metres further from this base to take the weapons away. The consequence of this, for the ordinary people of Falluja, is that for four days now there have been bodies lying in the streets. It is starting to become a serious health risk. I spoke to an officer who had been a little way out from the base and he said that cats and dogs are now starting to eat these bodies.

It is a quite horrific picture which I'm drawing but that is what awaits the people of Falluja when they come back.

Question: What resistance is there left? To what extent do the Americans now control the city?

Paul Wood: They do pretty much control it, but there is still intense fighting going on. Now remember that on Sunday, the Iraqi government declared mission accomplished. Well, we're not quite there yet. There are still injured coming into this base, yet you might hear occasionally at this base thunderous explosions - those are mortars firing volleys in support of the mission of the rest of this unit, which is now right in the south of the city. The attack, to quote one officer this morning, "is being pressed very hard in the south of the city". But the character of the fighting has changed. It is no longer through extremely dense narrow streets and alleyways. I went out with the marines doing a little bit of that on Friday and it was absolutely horrific. We took casualties on just 15 minutes into that fighting. The marines were being peppered with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades constantly. They dragged these casualties on - one guy literally bled all over my right trouser leg as we brought him back. They both survived.

The character of the fighting is changed now, because they have pushed the insurgents right to the edge of Falluja. The insurgents have nowhere else to go - there's only desert and the US army beyond them. Given the volume of gunfire which is being poured out by the Americans, any civilians who are still here, of course their plight is desperate

So in these last hours and days of the fighting, it is more frantic, it is more intense.

]

 

[Barking_Mad]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A800AA57-C2A4-47FB-9BB5-6D6E1B9C3C22.htm

A spokesman for the Shura Council of the Falluja Mujahidin told Aljazeera some families had been without water, food and electricity for the past five days. He said US forces were restricting the relief groups to one area.

"We plead to the conscience of the Islamic world for help," said Abu Saad al-Dulaimi.

Asma Khamis al-Muhannadi, an assistant doctor who witnessed the US and Iraqi National Guards raid into Falluja hospital told Aljazeera that the medical staff received threats from the Iraqi health minister who said if anyone disclosed information about the raid, they would be arrested or dismissed from their jobs.

"We were tied up and beaten despite being unarmed and having only our medical instruments," al-Muhannadi said. "The hospital was targeted by bombs and rockets. I was with a woman in labour. The umbilical cord had not yet been cut. At that time, a US solider shouted at one of the national guards to arrest me and tie my hands while I was helping the mother to deliver. I will never forget this incidence in my life," the assistant doctor said. "I am from Falluja and I work there. They claimed I was a fighter and stole our money and mobile phones," she said. "

The troops dragged patients from their beds and pushed them towards the wall. There were 17 injured people among the patients," al-Muhannadi said. "We exited from the hospital on the second day of the attack, but we could not return as the main Falluja-Saqlawiya junction was controlled by the US troops. We saw around 150 women, children and the elderly attacked by aircraft fire," she said.

"All of us were subject to intense inspection; the soldiers even examined children's diapers. Two female doctors were forced to totally undress," al-Muhannadi said.Residents say many civilians have died and hospitals continue to receive casualties, including children. Residents say many civilians have died and hospitals continue to receive casualties, including children.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Read the list of places where fighting is taking place - then go read the BBC web site and compare the differences.......

The Other Face of U.S. 'Success' in Fallujah

A freelance journalist in the city told al-Jazeera on telephone from the city: "The situation is very bad, there is no security, only armed resistance groups on the streets, and it seems there is no government in Mosul." The U.S. military says it has taken back control of Mosul police stations and other areas. Iraqi rebels are now also in control of large areas of Ramadi, Samarra, Haditha, Baquba, Hiyt, Qaim, Latifiyah,Taji and Khaldiyah. Fighting has been reported also in the Shia holy city Kerbala.

The uprising has spread across the capital as well. The districts al-Dora, al-Amiriyah, Abu Ghraib, al-Adhamiya and Khan Dhari are now largely controlled by resistance fighters. U.S. military vehicles have been damaged and destroyed near the city Hiyt. Fighting has spread to the normally peaceful town Hilla, just south of Baghdad. "The security situation there has gone from bad to worse," Ali Abdulla, a 35-year-old carpenter from Hilla said. "You can hear the fighting all around the city now, and the resistance is fighting against the Polish very fiercely."

Abdulla said this was the first time there had been fighting between Polish troops and resistance fighters.

 

[Barking_Mad]

From the same article linked above.

The Other Face of U.S. 'Success' in Fallujah

BAGHDAD, Nov 15 (IPS) - Everyone saw it coming, only the U.S. forces did not: humanitarian disaster in Fallujah, and stronger resistance against U.S. and allied occupying forces all around Iraq. The real face of the 'success' of the U.S. military assault in Fallujah is now beginning to present itself. Thousands of families remain trapped inside Fallujah with no food, clean water or medical assistance. No one can say how many of the 1,200 'rebels' U.S. forces claim to have killed inside Fallujah are civilians, or whether the death toll is higher.

..........

U.S. forces have said they will now carry out 'humanitarian' tasks on their own. It could be too late, going by the people's voices that are now emerging. Muna Salim who managed to flee the city with her sister after the rest of their family was killed by U.S. bombs, said Fallujah had turned from a battlefield to a ghost town in recent days.

”Most families stayed inside their houses all the time,” she said after reaching Baghdad. ”We were always very hungry because we didn't want to eat our food or drink all of the water. We never knew if we would be able to get more, so we tried to be careful.” She could not bring herself to talk of the killings.

”The Americans didn't care about us,” said a young refugee who gave his name only as Ahmed. He arrived in Baghdad with most of his family three days back. ”All the medical people left the city and the only people in the city are Fallujans or from Ramadi or other cities who came to try to help us.”

People in Fallujah had been left helpless, he said. ”Anyone who left their house would either be shot by American snipers or recruited by the Mujahideen,” he said. ”So we stayed inside most of the time and prayed. The more the bombs exploded the more we prayed and cried.” Ahmed says he did not expect to survive. ”Every night we said goodbye to one another because we expected to die,” he said. ”You could see areas where all the houses were flattened, there was just nothing left. We could get water at times, but there was no electricity ever.”

U.S. forces had bombed families in their homes, he said. ”Even those of us who do not fight, we are suffering so much because of the U.S. bombs and tanks. Can't they see this is turning so many people against them?”

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26274

 

[bigfish]

Eyewitness: Falluja battle scars
]

This Paul Woods joker should be writing copy for the Argus catalogue instead of cowboying around pretending to to be a fucking war correspondent.

Eyewitness account my arse. The guys a fucking snake.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Another article showing the extent of the fighting........

Mosul revolt spreads to town near Syria

BAGHDAD Pitched battles have erupted between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces in the northern city of Mosul, with the revolt spreading to Tal Afar, a town near the Syrian border, prompting residents to flee and U.S. armored vehicles to encircle it.

In Mosul, carloads of insurgents drove unhindered through parts of the city and attacked security forces on bridges spanning the Tigris River. The fighters barricaded themselves in a police station and then wounded at least 20 Iraqi security commandos, who called for help from a U.S. unit during the ensuing five-hour gun battle. Responding to a request from the provincial governor, thousands of Kurdish militiamen from outside Mosul began taking up positions in the streets, and residents said they saw vehicles from the Iraqi security forces rumbling in from the south.

The fighting in Mosul, the country's third-largest city, came on the fourth day of an uprising that has devastated the police force there and has created a northern front as the Americans fought in Falluja, about 400 kilometers, or 250 miles, south. Hundreds of policemen in Mosul fled when attackers with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed at least six police stations on Thursday. The coordinated assaults took the U.S. military by surprise, and commanders say they are struggling now to root out entrenched guerrilla cells."The situation in Mosul is tense, but certainly not desperate," said Brigadier General Carter Ham, commander of Task Force Olympia, the U.S. force charged with controlling northern Iraq. "There is still much work to be done."

"I expect the next few days will still bring some hard fighting," he said.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted insurgent leader in Iraq, may have moved his new base to Mosul from Falluja, according to a military intelligence report. In recent days, fliers signed by Zarqawi's group have appeared on the streets saying that any looters would be killed. Guerrilla attacks have also flared in Tal Afar, about 50 kilometers west of Mosul. On Sunday, insurgents laid siege to several police stations in the area, partly demolishing one in a bomb attack, said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings, a spokesman for Task Force Olympia. Frightened residents piled into cars and began fleeing the town. U.S. soldiers battled an insurgent uprising in Tal Afar in early September and said they had secured the area after killing dozens of fighters, many of whom were believed to have entered from Syria.

The attacks breaking out across northern Iraq underscore a growing problem for U.S. forces: namely, that battlefield victories can be quickly undermined after the Americans leave and weaker Iraqi security forces are left to keep the area.
.
U.S. soldiers sealed off roads from Tal Afar and searched departing cars.
.
"The mujahedeen are attacking the Americans, who have been inside the city for two days now," Sabah Muhammad said as he drove from the town with two dozen family members packed into two trucks. "So we must protect our families."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Fighting in Ramadi

In the city of Ramadi, 112km west of the capital, heavy fighting erupted on Monday between anti-US fighters and American forces, residents said. North of Ramadi, a US convoy came under attack near the town of al-Baghdadi, with one Humvee destroyed, according to a al-Baghdadi police Lieutenant Muhammad Abd al-Karim. There was no confirmation from the US military about the incident.

 

[Barking_Mad]

V. interesting........

Iraq tells media to toe the line

Iraq's media regulator warned news organizations Thursday to stick to the government line on the U.S.-led offensive in Fallouja or face legal action. Invoking a 60-day state of emergency declared by Iraq's interim government ahead of the assault that began Monday, Iraq's Media High Commission said media should distinguish between insurgents and ordinary residents of the Sunni Muslim city.

The commission, set up by the former U.S. governor of Iraq, was intended to be independent of the government and to encourage investment in the media and deter state meddling after decades of strict control under President Saddam Hussein. The commission statement bore the letterhead of the Iraqi prime minister's office.

It said all media organizations operating in Iraq should "differentiate between the innocent Fallouja residents who are not targeted by military operations and terrorist groups that infiltrated the city and held its people hostage under the pretext of resistance and jihad."

It said news organizations should "guide correspondents in Fallouja … not to promote unrealistic positions or project nationalist tags on terrorist gangs of criminals and killers." It also asked media to "set aside space in your news coverage to make the position of the Iraqi government, which expresses the aspirations of most Iraqis, clear."

"We hope you comply … otherwise we regret we will be forced to take all the legal measures to guarantee higher national interests," the statement said. It did not elaborate.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US troops hurt in car bombing

A SUICIDE driver detonated his vehicle today near an American military convoy in the western edge of Mosul, injuring five US soldiers, a military spokeswoman said. The driver tried to ram his vehicle into the convoy but missed, Captain Angela Bowman said. A second car then tried to approach the same patrol, but the troops opened fire, killing the driver, she added. Four of the injured soldiers returned to duty later in the day, she said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

The last line of this is an interesting comment - Saddam had police officers that 'fell beneath US civil rights standards, and well all know what that meant.......

Iraq Officials Fire Thousands of Policemen

Iraqi authorities have fired thousands of police officers and taken over the recruiting of new policemen, the Washington Times reported Sunday. "Most of the screening as far as the staff is up to the Iraqi staff now," said U.S. Army Capt. Kevin Bradley, who trains Iraqi national guardsmen. "Right now, whether or not the person is clean, it depends on the Iraqis."

The Times said the police officers trained and hired by the United States are believed to have been enemy informants and sympathizers who undermined numerous operations and tipped off terrorists. The police chiefs of Mosul and Samarra were also fired following numerous insurgent attacks. U.S. and Iraqi officials confirmed that many other law enforcement officers have been fired for incompetence or suspected insurgent sentiments since Iraqis regained sovereignty from coalition forces at the end of June.

"The Iraqis have their own methods of recruiting police officers that might fall short of U.S. civil rights standards, but they are proving effective," according to Bradley.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Allawi says he doesn't think any civilians have died.......WHat a fucking c*nt.

Falluja rebels battle on

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes have bombarded hard core rebel areas of Falluja and troops hunted insurgents house-to-house, while heavy clashes broke out in other cities and insurgents attacked Iraq's oil network.

The U.S. military says it has taken control of Falluja, but scattered resistance remained, particularly in southern parts of the city. Large areas lie in ruins, devastated by the ferocity of the military's seven-day onslaught.

Since the U.S. offensive was launched, militant activity has surged across Iraq's Sunni Muslim region.

There have been five days of violence in Mosul, in the north, and there was heavy fighting in Baquba, near Baghdad, on Monday where U.S. jets dropped 500-pound bombs. Rebels also set fire to oil wells and a pumping station across the north.

The U.S. Marine general who commanded the fight to take Falluja said those who remained were the rebel hard core who would be killed. There was no aid crisis in the city, he said.

"What you're seeing now are some of the hardliners, they seem to be better equipped than some of the earlier ones, we've seen flak jackets on some of them," Major General Richard Natonski told the BBC on Monday. "But we're more determined and we're going to wipe them out," he said.

While U.S. forces have won a military victory, the process of rebuilding Falluja, assisting around 150,000 residents who fled, and preparing it for January elections could take months.

Iraq's Red Crescent group sent seven truckloads of food and medicine to the city, but U.S. forces blocked the aid convoy at Falluja's main hospital and said it could not enter. The convoy turned back on Monday after three days of frustration.

 

[Barking_Mad]

News Analysis: At Iraqi police post, no one home

RAMADI, Iraq U.S. soldiers went to see the Iraqi police at the Farouk substation in Ramadi, but no one was home. Not much was left of the station, either. Instead, the soldiers were surprised to find a shell of a building, with concrete slabs arcing downward from what appeared to be a giant blast, where not long ago perhaps 50 police officers had worked.

Neighbors said that the police had left five or six days ago, and that they had heard a loud explosion at night. "This thing was hit pretty hard," said Captain Christian Lewis as he picked his way through pieces of plaster, glass and concrete on Sunday.

At first, it appeared the building had been merely looted, with electrical sockets and wiring ripped from walls. But then soldiers saw that high explosives had collapsed the second floor and ripped open parts of exterior walls. "It looks like the muj pushed these guys out and bombed the place," said Lewis, using a shorthand reference for the mujahedeen, a catchall term used by the Americans for Islamist insurgents.

In the plan of the U.S. military, the police substation, one of six in Ramadi, should be brimming with police work and training in preparation for Iraqis' taking over security from U.S.-led forces. At least that is part of the three-step U.S. strategy for success in Iraq: American forces will root out insurgents and foreign fighters, prepare the country for national elections, and train the Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guard so they can competently take over security. But in guerrilla strongholds like Ramadi, the reality is bleak: At best, the police are feckless and scared; at worst, they are corrupt and in league with insurgents and terrorists. Either way, the experience in Ramadi suggests that no matter how well the Americans are doing with the first two steps of the plan, it may be a long time before they accomplish the third.

........

From his experience, Gubler said, the Iraqi guardsmen in the region are only slightly better, though one Iraqi National Guard officer he knew stood out: the lieutenant colonel in charge of a guard battalion near Falluja, about 50 kilometers, or 30 miles, east of Ramadi. He "was very good, but he was captured in Falluja and his head was cut off," Gubler said. He said he believed that the commander's subordinates had probably been complicit in the killing, committed in August. "That's what you get out of the ING," he said of the Iraqi National Guard. "They gave up their battalion commander, laid their weapons down, and 23 cars and trucks and massive amounts of ammunition went to Falluja. It's just pitiful."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Freedom, Iraqi style: Iraqi govt. bans officials from cooperating with Al-Jazeerah channel

The Iraqi cabinet issued an order to the ministries banning all Iraqi officials from holding interviews or giving statements to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeerah satellite television channel.

“How is the situation in Falloojeh?”

My father asked. We all knew the answer. It was terrible in Falloojeh and getting worse by day. They were constantly being bombarded with missiles and bombs. The city was in ruins. Families were gathering what they could and leaving. Houses were being demolished by tanks and planes. But the question had to be asked.

Umm Ahmed swallowed nervously and her frown deepened. “It’s quite bad. We left two days ago. The Americans are surrounding the city and they wouldn’t let us out using the main road. We had to be smuggled out through another way…” The baby began to whine softly and she tried to rock it to sleep. “We had to leave…” she said apologetically, “I couldn’t stay there with the children....”

“I hope everyone is ok…” I offered tentatively. Umm Ahmed focused for a moment on me and shook her head, “Well, last week we buried our neighbor Umm Najib and her two daughters. They were sleeping when a missile fell in the garden and the house collapsed....”

As I sat staring at the woman, the horror of the war came back to me- the days upon days of bombing and shooting- the tanks blasting away down the streets, and helicopters hovering above menacingly. I wondered how she would spend the next couple of agonizing days, waiting for word from her son and husband. The worst part of it is being separated from the people you care about and wondering about their fates. It’s a feeling of restlessness that gnaws away inside of you, leaving you feeling exhausted and agitated all at once. It’s a thousand pessimistic voices whispering stories of death and destruction in your head. It’s a terrible feeling of helplessness in the face of such powerful devastation.

So Umm Ahmed is one of the terrorists who were driven from the city. Should her husband and son die, they will be leaders from Al-Qaeda or even relatives of Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi himself… that’s the way they tell the story in America....
Allawi is vile and the frightening thing is that he will *never* be safe in Iraq without American military support. As long as he is in power, there will be American tanks and bases all over the country. How does he expect to win any support by threatening to unleash the occupation forces against Falloojeh? People are greeting refugees from Falloojeh like heroes. They are emptying rooms in houses to accommodate them and donating food, money and first-aid supplies.

Everyone here knows Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi isn’t in Falloojeh. He isn’t anywhere, as far as anyone can tell. He’s like the WMD: surrender your weapons or else we’ll attack. Now that the damage is done, it is discovered that there were no weapons. It will be the same with Zarqawi.... As soon as the debacle in Falloojeh is over, Zarqawi will just move conveniently to Iran, Syria or even North Korea....

They’ve been bombing Falloojeh for several weeks now. They usually do the bombing during the night, and no one is there to cover the damage and all the deaths. It’s only later we hear about complete families being buried alive or shot to death by snipers on the street.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Hungarian Parliament Voted To Withdraw Contingent In Iraq By End of Year

Budabest. Hungarian Parliament voted to withdraw the country’s 300-servicemen contingent in Iraq by the end of the year, reported AFP. 191 MPs have voted “for” while have 159 voted “against”, thus rejecting Cabinet’s proposal to prolong the mandate of Hungarian soldiers by March next year.

Fallujah toll rises

ONE US marine was killed and three others injured in fighting with rebels in the south of the battle-scarred Iraqi city of Fallujah today, a military officer said. The clashes took place as US and Iraqi forces combed the devastated streets of the former rebel enclave for the last remaining militants after a battle that was launched one week ago. The latest death takes to 39 the number of US soldiers who have died since the assault on Fallujah was launched, according to military figures.

Polish Embassy in Iraq Under Fire

More than a dozen Iraqi rebels have attacked the Polish Embassy in Baghdad, it was reported early on Monday. The insurgents targeted the edifice with machine guns, and exchanged fire with the embassy's guards for about half an hour. Media said that US troops rushed to the site after the attack began, but by the time they arrived the militants had fled. Poland commands an Iraq peacekeeping force of 6,000 troops, including Bulgaria's unit that was recently relocated from Karbala to Diwaniya.

 

[Barking_Mad]

From PNAC - Fallujah posting........*pukes*

MEMORANDUM TO: OPINION LEADERS

FROM: GARY SCHMITT

SUBJECT: Fallujah

Barely has Fallujah been retaken from the hands of the Sunni insurgents and Islamist terrorists by American and Iraqi forces than the majority of print and electronic media has "clucked" at that success. To them, it seems no victory is ever a real victory.

But let's be clear, Fallujah was a real victory. The military killed large numbers of the enemy, deprived the anti-democratic forces in Iraq of a safe haven and did so with fewer casualties (including civilian) than anyone expected. They also put an end to the view - widely shared in Iraq and the Arab world - that U.S. forces did not have the stomach to undertake the toughest of military operations.

Is all of this sufficient? Of course not. Fallujah will need to be pacified and the damage to it repaired. Sunnis who have been sitting on the fence with respect to the new government will need to know that that the only way forward for them is participating in Iraq's democratic experiment. Nor will the insurgency go away just because its main base of operations has been taken away. Successful counterinsurgencies require time and plenty of manpower. Washington, and the Pentagon in particular, have to understand that there will be no quick fixes.

That said, unless and until Fallujah had been taken, progress in remaking Iraq was virtually impossible. It was a strategic mistake not to deal with the problem of Fallujah last spring, but the administration, to its credit, has corrected that mistake - and in so doing, has cleared a major obstacle to moving forward in Iraq.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Allawi announces arrest of militant group

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The leader of a militant group involved in beheading hostages and other attacks has been arrested and the group was broken up, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Monday.

Allawi identified the group as Jaish Muhammad, Arabic for Muhammad's Army. The group "has been arrested ... We arrested their leader," Allawi said, identifying him as Moayad Ahmed Yasseen, also known as Abu Ahmed.

Muhammad's Army was known to have cooperated with Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al-Qaida and Saddam loyalists and was responsible for killing and beheading a number of Iraqis, Arabs and foreigners in Iraq, Allawi said.

"They were planning to destroy Fallujah...by blowing up important positions," he said. "They have extensions abroad that I cannot talk about now." Allawi did not say how many members of the group were captured or what kidnappings the group has been involved in.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Lindsey Hilsum from Channel 4 says that from what she was seen there are no buildings left untouched in Fallujah by the fighting. She called it a 'ruined city'

I wonder what the reaction will be when those Fallujah citizens return home.......

 

[Barking_Mad]

Allawi announces arrest of militant group

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The leader of a militant group involved in beheading hostages and other attacks has been arrested and the group was broken up, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Monday.

Allawi identified the group as Jaish Muhammad, Arabic for Muhammad's Army. The group "has been arrested ... We arrested their leader," Allawi said, identifying him as Moayad Ahmed Yasseen, also known as Abu Ahmed.

Muhammad's Army was known to have cooperated with Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al-Qaida and Saddam loyalists and was responsible for killing and beheading a number of Iraqis, Arabs and foreigners in Iraq, Allawi said.

"They were planning to destroy Fallujah...by blowing up important positions," he said. "They have extensions abroad that I cannot talk about now." Allawi did not say how many members of the group were captured or what kidnappings the group has been involved in.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Two year old loses leg in Fallujah fighting.

Iraqi prisoner

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4010467.stm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Possible U.S. war crime in Fallujah

WASHINGTON - American soldiers might have committed a war crime Thursday when they sent fleeing Iraqi civilians back into Fallujah , some observers said Friday. The provisions of the Geneva Conventionsrequire military forces to protect civilians as refugees and forbid returning them to a combat zone.

"This is highly problematical conduct in terms of exposing people to grave danger by returning them to an area where fighting is going on," said Jordan Paust, a University of Houston law professor and former Army prosecutor.

About 300 men, women and children, were detained by U.S. soldiers as they left southern Fallujah . The women and children were allowed to proceed. The men were sent back.