Posted on 11/15/2004 7:01:02 AM PST by TexKat
See post #55.
Mujahidin terrorised Fallujah, residents say
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Mutilated bodies dumped on Fallujah's bombed out streets today painted a harrowing picture of eight months of rebel rule.
As US and Iraqi troops mopped up the last vestiges of resistance in the city after a week of bombardment and fighting, residents who stayed on through last week's offensive were emerging and telling harrowing tales of the brutality they endured.
Flyposters still litter the walls bearing all manner of decrees from insurgent commanders, to be heeded on pain of death. Amid the rubble of the main shopping street, one decree bearing the insurgents' insignia - two Kalashnikovs propped together - and dated November 1 gives vendors three days to remove nine market stalls from outside the city's library or face execution.
The pretext given is that the rebels wanted to convert the building into a headquarters for the "Mujahidin Advisory Council" through which they ran the city.
Another poster in the ruins of the souk bears testament to the strict brand of Sunni Islam imposed by the council, fronted by hardline cleric Abdullah Junabi. The decree warns all women that they must cover up from head to toe outdoors, or face execution by the armed militants who controlled the streets.
Two female bodies found yesterday suggest such threats were far from idle. An Arab woman, in a violet nightdress, lay in a post-mortem embrace with a male corpse in the middle of the street. Both bodies had died from bullets to the head.
Just six metres away on the same street lay the decomposing corpse of a blonde-haired white woman, too disfigured for swift identification but presumed to be the body of one of the many foreign hostages kidnapped by the rebels.
It was initially thought to be either the body of Margaret Hassan, the Dublin-born aid worker with dual British and Iraqi nationality who was kidnapped last month, or a Polish woman kidnapped two weeks ago. A Polish official said today there was no evidence to suggest that the body was that of the kidnapped Pole.
Although the US military says it is now in control of the Sunni Muslim city, US forces were today attacking diehard rebel positions in the south of Fallujah, including an underground bunker complex of steel-reinforced tunnels containing weapons including an anti-aircraft artillery gun.
"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, the Marine general who commanded the Fallujah offensive, told the BBC.
"I think they’re probably willing to lay down their lives in the fight. But we’re more determined and we’re going to wipe them out," he said.
The Iraqi Red Crescent today abandoned plans to take an aid convoy into the city after being refused entry by US forces who deny that there is any humanitarian emergency. The seven-truck convoy was instead heading to nearby villages, where tens of thousands of refugees from Fallujah are camped out.
Meanwhile International Red Cross spokesman today claimed that in the hours before the attack began, US troops had been preventing Iraqi males of military age from leaving Fallujah. Ahmed Ravi told the ITV News Channel: "There are still civilians inside Fallujah who are in serious need for any kind of help. Also, the water treatment plan, under control of Iraqi and American troops, is not functioning right now."
At least 38 US soldiers, five Iraqi soldiers and 1,200 insurgents are thought to have been killed during the week-long offensive, but civilian casualties are unclear - except for an implausible denial from Iyad Allawi, the acting Iraqi Prime Minister, that there are any.
Witness accounts appeared to contradict him. A member of an Iraqi relief committee told al-Jazeera television he saw 22 bodies buried in rubble in Fallujah’s northern Jolan district yesterday.
"Of the 22 bodies, five were found in one house as well as two children whose ages did not exceed 15 and a man with an artificial leg," Mohammed Farhan Awad said."Some of the bodies we found had been eaten by stray dogs and cats. It was a very painful sight."
A source close to Dr Allawi said this morning that two of the Prime Minister's female relatives abducted last week were freed last night. But Dr Allawi's 75-year-old cousin was still being held.
A previously unknown rebel group last week threatened to behead Dr Allawi's cousin, his wife and their heavily pregnant daughter-in-law unless the assault on Fallujah was stopped.
Such is the fear that the heavily armed militants held over Fallujah that many of the residents who emerged from the ruins welcomed the US marines, despite the massive destruction their firepower had inflicted on their city.
A man in his sixties, half-naked and his underwear stained with blood from shrapnel wounds from a US munition, cursed the insurgents as he greeted the advancing marines on Saturday night.
"I wish the Americans had come here the very first day and not waited eight months," he said, trembling. Nearby, a mosque courtyard had been used as a weapons store by the militants.
Another elderly man, who did not want his name used for fear the rebels would one day return and restore their draconian rule, said he was detained by the militants last Tuesday and held for four days before being freed. He described how he had then sought refuge in a friend's house where they had huddled together clutching Korans in silent prayer for their lives as the massive US bombardment put the insurgents to flight.
"It was horrible," he told an AFP reporter."We suffered from the bombings. Innocent people died or were wounded by the bombings.
"But we were happy you did what you did because Fallujah had been suffocated by the Mujahidin. Anyone considered suspicious would be slaughtered. We would see unknown corpses around the city all the time."
The same story of arbitrary executions was told by another resident, found by US troops cowering in his home with his brother and his family.
"They would wear black masks, carry rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikovs, and search streets and alleys," said Iyad Assam, 24. "I would hear stories, about how they executed five men one day and seven another for collaborating with the Americans. They made checkpoints on the roads. They put announcements on walls banning music and telling women to wear the veil from head to toe."
It was not just pedlars of alcohol or Western videos and women deemed improperly dressed who faced the militants' wrath. Even residents who regard themselves as observant Muslims lived in fear because they did not share the puritan brand of Sunni Islam that the insurgents enforced.
One devotee of a Sufi sect, followers of a mystical form of worship deemed herectical by the hardliners, told how he and other members of his order had lived in terror inside their homes for fear of retribution.
"It was a very hard life. We couldn't move. We could not work," said the man sporting the white robe and skullcap prescribed by his faith. "If they had any issue with a person, they would kill him or throw him in jail."
BTTT!
God bless our armed forces.
Bump for future downloading
yesterday's thread had quite a bit of info.. start here for some pix/info
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1279710/posts?page=83#83
the whole thread is pretty interesting , if you have time to go thru..
somewhere in the thread is a link to the cap of writing. It is apecial situation & can't be put on thread.. just link
Hope this helps
NBC Says Marine Shot Dead Wounded Iraqi Prisoner
LONDON (Reuters) - A television pool report by U.S. network NBC said on Monday that a U.S. Marine had shot dead an unarmed and wounded Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in Falluja.,/i>
I've seen the film..I think the soldier thought he was faking and perceived a risk..
A dead terrorist will NOT kill you or your buddies. Better to be safe than sorry. Extra bullet for idiot embed
Ernest this is not good either. Just saw Michael Ware embedded reporter on MSNBC highly upset and reporting that the Zarqawi crew has relocated to Baghdad, in striking distance of the Green Zone and other important areas.
When a transcript is available I will post it. Probably tomorrow.
Ernest..I hate this man is in trouble..I hate the fact they are fresh from battle, ambush, seeing their buddies shot or killed and may act in haste..but he is alive and he might have been dead...
I am not the judge..but you can be sure all the networks will replay this over and over and judge..every antiwar reporter will way in and judge ..and that angers me greatly...
I have never been there..I will let those who have the experience judge..but not the bleeding heart reporters...
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Children who fled from the battle-torn town of Falluja play with toy guns at a temporary refugee camp in Baghdad November 16, 2004. Thousands of residents fled Falluja in advance of an offensive by U.S. military forces aimed at driving militants from the restive city. The Iraqi Red Crescent - one of the few aid agencies operating in Iraq (news - web sites) - is still negotiating with U.S. forces after being denied access to Falluja. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen |
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Now that you asked this thread will balloon into the hundreds with the resident arms experts ;-)
Amazing Marines. When this is over and Iraq becomes a true democracy, I hope their parliament thanks the US and coalition. Without them, Iraqis would have no future.
From that out-of-focus picture? No.
LOL. No, it's not just you.
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