Eerie calms grips Fallujah after gruesome killings, Bremer vows revenge (Fed the dead to the dogs)

AFP ^ | Thu, Apr 01, 2004 | AFP

[Eurotwit]

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - An eerie calm gripped this town west of Baghdad, a day after four American civilians were burned to death and their bodies dismembered, as US overseer Paul Bremer vowed the deaths and those of five US soldiers in a separate attack would be avenged.

"Their deaths will not go unpunished. They have not died in vain," Bremer said in Baghdad as he attended the graduation of a new batch of 479 Iraqi police at the police academy.

Bremer described Wednesday's attacks by insurgents in and near Fallujah as "inexcusable and despicable".

But he vowed that the US-led coalition that toppled the ironfisted regime of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) almost a year ago will forge ahead with efforts to restore security in Iraq (news - web sites) and hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis on July 1.

"They will not derail the march towards stability and democracy," Bremer told the new police cadets.

Reaction was also fierce from Washington, where White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "We condemn these attacks on the strongest possible terms".

In Fallujah, schools and shops were open on Thursday and burn marks on the surface of the main street were the only evidence of the gruesome deaths of the four employees of the private US firm Blackwater Security Consulting, AFP correspondents said.

One witness said that what remained of the charred bodies after they were dragged from their cars, mutilated and strung from a bridge had been "cut up into pieces, with parts thrown into the river or to the dogs".

Residents also took away the carcasses of the two four-wheel-drive vehicles that had been ambushed and set on fire by gunmen, burning the occupants to death, the witness said.

US marines, who were seen Wednesday at the eastern entrance of Fallujah, were nowhere in sight while Iraqi police and paramilitary defence units manned a checkpoint to search cars entering the town and control identities.

The previous evening, hours after the killings, crowds were still celebrating in the streets, with people firing in the air and distributing candies.

They shouted, "Down with the occupation, down with America" and "long live Islam."

"The death of each one of these people is worth 10 Iraqi lives. This is our only deterrence to the (US-led) occupation of Iraq," Nayef, a car merchant who declined to give his surname, told AFP on Thursday.

The previous day a man at the scene, his face hidden by a scarf, vowed that "Fallujah will be the cemetery of the Americans".

Meanwhile the US-backed paramilitary Iraqi Civil Defence Corps urged restraint in Fallujah in a statement handed out to residents late Wednesday.

"An agreement has been negotiated with the occupation forces to lift the siege of Fallujah and to withdraw. We are hoping you will cooperate to protect Fallujah and guarantee its security," the message said.

The death of the four civilians coincided with a roadside bomb blast that killed five US soldiers near the military base in Habbaniya, just west of Fallujah.

It is thought to be the worst single incident involving coalition troops since a US military helicopter was downed on January 8 near Fallujah, killing all nine people aboard.

The latest deaths brought to 291 the number of US soldiers killed in action since US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) declared major hostilities over on May 1, according to an AFP toll.

In other violence Thursday one US soldier was wounded when his convoy hit a roadside bomb in northwest Baghdad, an Iraqi police officer said. The US military did not immediately confirm the report.

And in the northern city of Kirkuk three soldiers were wounded when five Katyusha rockets struck their base located in a local airport just west of the city early Thursday, a US officer said.

[niteowl77]

This report is coming from AFP the same outfits whose photographer who were on the scene recording this for the world to see.

After yesterday, global journalism is on the same level as Osama et Cie. Lots of orchestration is going on in Fallujah- time to find out what AFP/AP personnel knew, and when they knew it.

[cynicom]

Our government is deeply concerned over this affair. Almost sounds like Clinton is still in office.

[Charles Henrickson]

"Fallujah will be the cemetery of the Americans"

Fallujah needs to be the cemetery of some Fallujans.

[chachacha]

I want to see the head of that Frickin teenager I seen on TV setting on top of a stick.

[rface]

bulldozer every square inch and check every rat that runs out of the rubble

[Let's Roll]

Well, it's time to feed their dead to the hogs or at the very least mount credible rumors of same.

[tiamat]

I hope you're right!

[ArrogantBustard]

General Jackson? Thomas?

The reports of your death seem to have been exaggerated.

[Skooz]

Hopefully it is the calm before the hellish storm.

[FeliciaCat]

I have NO hope for these people as a culture. ...barbaric, cruel and easily prone to mob violence seems to be the norm far too often. Of course there are exceptions and I dont want to paint with too broad of a brush, but this is just beyond the pale.

[MinuteGal]

Yep, the Arabs contributed the concept of Zero to the world centuries ago.....and that's what they're still contributing.

Leni

[Skooz]

Wait a minute......they invented the word "shampoo," too.

I guess that about sums up their contribution to the planet.

[MizSterious]

You know, I keep trying to be rational about this, but every time I think of what happened, rage just overwhelms me. It might not be a sane thing to say, but I'd like to see the whole town turned into a glowing piece of green glass that would not sustain life for thousands of years. I'd like to see everyone of those grinning b*st*rds--and the dogs they fed--become a part of the mushroom cloud.

[jeremiah]

I don't believe his words, he is probably speaking of the arrest and detention of those that can be identified by their faces on camera. For me, I vote for an above ground nuclear test. Of course if I were President on Sept 12 2001, Mecca would have been erased, followed by Medina if need be.

[RedEyeJack]

What seige are they talking about? It may be time to initiate a real "seige" against that place. Historically, we should not let such a deed go unpunished....

"Henry returns to the English camp. The French have broken the rules of war and killed the luggage - the civilians who are not soldiers but carry the equipment. This is completely forbidden.

Henry is furious, and vows revenge on the French:

"We’ll cut the throats of those we have
And not a man of them that we shall take
Shall taste our mercy." "

[KarlInOhio]

Arabs contributed the concept of Zero to the world centuries ago

Just like the rest of the "Arabic" numerals, they swiped that from the Indians.

[Alberta's Child]

I said earlier that we should have Richard Perle drive around Falljah every day for the next seven months. Our troubles there will soon be over -- whatever it takes.

/sarcasm off/

[mewzilla]

Henry V?

[boxerblues]

My blood pressure was just coming down until I read this. I cannot for the life of me think why anybody on our side would put this out.

[tiamat]

I agree with you completly.

I've read history.

There is no real seige, had not been a real occupation, and they should have had their necks put under the boot ages ago.

They respect nothing else.

The Romans had the right idea in the Middle East.

But I'm not a nice person anymore.