Posted on 12/24/2004 4:36:01 AM PST by foolscap
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqis reacted with anger, frustration and resentment Friday after many returned to Falluja to discover their homes in rubble and their livelihoods ruined following last month's U.S. offensive.
"I saw the city and al-Andalus destroyed," said Ali Mahmood, 35, referring to the district of the city he returned to briefly Thursday but now plans to leave after seeing the mess.
"My house is completely destroyed. There is nothing left for me to stay for," the teacher said, adding that he would rather live in the tented camp outside Falluja that has been his family's home for the past two months.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on a suprise pre-Christmas visit to Iraq, visited troops at a base near Falluja Friday but made no mention of the city's rebuilding.
Marine Lieutenant General John Sattler told Rumsfeld how intense the fighting had been in the city, where much of the combat was house-to-house and even hand-to-hand.
"You come through the door and it's who wants it most, and it was us," Sattler said, praising the resolve of his men.
Conservative estimates say several hundred buildings were partly or completely destroyed by the U.S. assault, which began on Nov. 8 and involved bombardment by U.S. planes, tanks and artillery. Rebels also blew up many homes in booby-trap blasts.
The offensive, designed to uproot insurgents from what had become a guerrilla bastion, was declared a success more than a month ago, but fighting continued in several districts. U.S. planes bombed a western neighborhood overnight, residents said.
An Iraqi Health Ministry official said his greatest concern was the resentment Falluja's people were likely to feel when they saw how much damage had been done to their homes.
That was certainly the case Friday. While those who fled were at pains to say they had nothing to do with the rebels who made Falluja their stronghold, many of them have since become angry and militant as a result of the offensive.
"Would Allah want us to return to a city that animals can't live in?" said Yasser Satar as he saw his destroyed home.
"Even animals who have no human sense and feelings can not live here," he said, crying. "What do they want from Falluja? This is the crime of the century. They want to destroy Islam and Muslims. But our anger and resistance will increase."
NO WATER, ELECTRICITY
Aid workers said 200,000 people fled Falluja before the assault and have spent the past seven weeks living in nearby towns and villages or in tented refugee camps nearby.
The city was estimated to have had a population of around 250,000 before the offensive. It is not clear how many people stayed behind during the fighting, although it is thought to have been around 50,000, mostly in outlying areas. Most central areas became a ghost town.
The Iraqi interim government and the U.S. military this week announced that around 2,000 heads of household would be allowed to return to the Andalus district of Falluja, considered one of the more secure, from Thursday.
Some 900 people, mostly men, made the journey, going through intense security checks before being allowed to enter, including fingerprinting and iris scanning of "suspicious military-age men" to ensure insurgents do not filter back in.
The U.S. military said the program to return residents had gone well Thursday and it expected more people to flow back into the Andalus district in the days ahead. In the coming weeks, others will be allowed to return to their neighborhoods.
But they will be without water and electricity as basic services and communications were knocked out in the assault.
Iraq's government has said it will pay $2,000 compensation for partial damage to homes, $4,000 for substantial damage and $10,000 to those whose homes were completely destroyed -- far less than Iraqis say they would need to rebuild their homes.
Shopkeepers will receive $1,500-$3,000 based on the size of their shop and what they sell. But that may not be enough to assuage the anger of many
Too effing bad. Instead of whining, my advice for these "poor" Islams is get busy rebuilding, and keep the terrorists from using their city as a base ...
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on a suprise pre-Christmas visit to Iraq...Apparently Reuters eschews spellcheck.
Perhaps if some of these locals had assisted in ridding this craphole of a city of the thugs the U.S. wouldn't have had to kick butt.
Simply by informing of where the weapons caches and gurillas were we wouldn't have had to make an example.
As it is I hope a rat won't be able to live ever again in this graveyard.
They should have taken care of the terrorist scum themselves then.
bump
I guess material possesions are more important than freedom to some. Amazing how some people love surpression, hate and misery.
bump
Straight off the top - If these timid, domination loving "Civilians" would simply muster up the backbone to take a stand against the Terrorists all of this could have been avoided. IMO They are blaming the wrong side - That is if they aren't on the Insurgents side.
They don't realize that the real animals have been removed?!
I couldn't agree more!These "lily-livered"COWARDS allowed their city to become a RAT's NEST,not to mention having tolerated the abuses of Saddam for 30-years!!Let them clean the place up or(better yet),leave it as it is as a memorial to the fact that The United States of America will NOT abide TERRORISTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
While I feel sorry for the inocent people, it's their problem not ours. I suggest that they help clean up their own mess and quit whining.
al-Reuters is at it again, I see. I'm glad they're on our side. < /megasarcasm>
These are the types of scumbags who believed Allah wanted Kurd women and children gassed and thrown into mass graves. Iraq needs a serious purge of these hatemongers.
Perhaps those people should have shot their Islamic "brothers" themselves, but no, they all think and hate alike.
But they wanted to play both sides against the middle.....and their gamble lost.
Too bad about their exquisite Frank Lloyd Wright houses. However, most of these ungrateful, unmotivated lazies belong in goat-skin tents, anyway.
Leni
I have no feelings whatsoever for these people. They will not fight for themsleves. They run from the battlefield after being trained by the best warriors on earth. I say back away and torch. Our brave men and women deserve at least some respect from these cowards for sacrificing for their freedom. I actually am beginning to think that we should just send sadaam back and re-instate him and let the whole gene pot of that area go to hell.
Are they ever anything but angry?
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