November 2005
In
November 2004 the US - with British support - launched a massive assault
on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. The scale of the attack - and its effect
on civilians - was unprecedented in the bloody history of the invasion
and occupation, yet the crimes committed in Fallujah received little attention
here and have quickly been forgotten. One year on, we look back at the
events leading up to the assault, the attack itself, and how the lack
of effective global protest led to many other towns and cities in Iraq
facing similar treatment.
Introduction
Briefing by Milan Rai
Remember Fallujah: the truth about the occupation
The "model city"
Torture, abuse and imprisonment
Eyewitness Fallujah
After
Fallujah: the ongoing attacks on Iraq's cities
War crimes in Fallujah
INTRODUCTION
Remember Fallujah...
On
8 November 2004, after more than two months of aerial attacks, the US
began its second major assault on Fallujah - originally codenamed "Thanksgiving
Massacre" - devastating the city and killing hundreds of civilians.
UK forces played an active support role, with hundreds of troops redeployed
from Southern Iraq to form part of a "ring of steel" around
Fallujah.
The
city was placed 'under a strict night-time shoot-to-kill curfew’
with 'anyone spotted in the soldiers’ night vision sights
… shot’ (Times, 12 Nov 04); male refugees were prevented from
leaving the combat zone; a health centre was bombed killing 60 patients
and support staff; and refugees from the city claimed that 'a large
number of people, including children, were killed by American snipers’
and that the US had used cluster bombs and phosphorus weapons in the offensive.
Today,
an estimated 100,000 Iraqis who fled the attack have yet to return - and
those who have have been subject to a draconian regime of checkpoints,
curfews and iris scans. Furthermore, recent US military offensives in
Ramadi, Baghdadi, Hit, Haditha, Mosul, Qaim, Tal Afar and elsewhere, have
many more civilians and created thousands more refugees.
This
November will see a series of actions and events taking place around the
country to mark the anniversary of last year’s assault, and to demand
justice and compensation for the victims and an end to the occupation.
Read the briefing Remember Fallujah: the truth
about the occupation
by Milan Rai
The "model city"
More
than 200,000 Iraqis fled the November 2004 assault on Fallujah, many of
them forced to struggle to find food, shelter and medical provision in
near-freezing temperatures. As of 8 August over a third of the city's
250,000 residents had yet to return (Los Angeles Times).
Not long after the assault 'US commanders and Iraqi leaders … declared
their intention to make Fallujah a "model city"' (Boston Globe,
5 Dec). A 6pm curfew was instituted, graffiti and public gatherings made
illegal, cars and visitors banned, and all men aged 15 to 55 required
to carry special identification cards.
At one point the US even floated the idea of compelling Fallujah's men
to join "work battalions" to clear rubble in the devastated
city (the US State Department estimates that 25% of Fallujah's housing
was rendered uninhabitable during the attack, a further 25% was severely
damaged and 50% suffered light to moderate damage - Financial Times, 14
April).
The first returnees found '[l]akes of sewage in the streets. The smell
of corpses inside charred buildings. No water and electricity [and] [l]ong
waits and thorough searches by US troops at checkpoints.' (Los Angeles
Times, 30 Dec).
As of this April US forces were 'allowing in only documented residents,
contractors, government officials or allied military forces … pull[ing]
aside men of military age for an iris scan and thumbprint (Washington
Post, 19 April) and visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick
heard a 'torrent of complaints' from members of the city council, 'focusing
on such issues as the slow pace of reconstruction aid [and] frequent intimidation
of citizens by US soldiers' (Washington Post, 14 April).
Since then, Fallujah has largely dropped off the media's horizon. However
one thing is clear: one year on, the people of Fallujah are still waiting
for justice.
Torture, abuse and imprisonment
Much
of the current US military strategy in Iraq - in which 'mass detentions
and indiscriminate torture appear to be the main tools' (Financial Times,
29 June) - can be seen in microcosm in Fallujah.
For
example, over 1450 people were detained during last November's assault
on Fallujah (AP, 23 November 2004). Whilst at least 400 of these were
released within a matter of weeks, those unfortunate enough to be transferred
to the US-run prison Camp Bucca in southern Iraq face an average length
of incarceration - usually without charge or trial - of a year (Atlanta
Journal Constitution, 11 September). This despite the fact that the US
commander who oversees Bucca estimates that one in four prisoners "perhaps
were just snagged in a dragnet operation" or were victims of personal
vendettas (at the end of June the US was holding over 10,000 Iraqis in
detention).
Routine
abuse
Meanwhile, three soldiers with the US Army's 82nd Airborne division have
recently described how their battalion - which was deployed at Forward
Operating Base Mercury, just outside Fallujah - 'routinely used physical
abuse and mental torture [of detainees] as a means of intelligence gathering
and for stress relief' (Human Rights Watch, 17 September).
The
torture and abuse took place almost daily during the entirety of the division's
deployment at the base from September 2003 to April 2004 and 'was systematic
and … known at varying levels of command,' with military intelligence
personnel 'direct[ing] and encouraging army personnel to subject prisoners
to forced, repetitive exercise, sometimes to the point of unconsciousness,
sleep deprivation for days on end, and exposure to extremes of heat and
cold.'
Daily
beatings were also incorporated in preparation for interrogations and
broken bones occurred "every other week." "After Abu Ghraib
things toned down," one of the soldiers explained. "It is still
going on now the same way, I am sure. Maybe not as blatant but it is how
we do things."
Eyewitness Fallujah
British
activist Jo Wilding was in Fallujah during the April 2004 siege of the
city. Here she describes her experience riding an ambulance in the city:
'We
wash the blood off our hands and get in the ambulance. There are people
trapped in the other hospital who need to go to Baghdad. Siren screaming,
lights flashing, we huddle on the floor of the ambulance, passports and
ID cards held out the windows. We pack it with people, one with his chest
taped together and a drip, one on a stretcher, legs jerking violently
so I have to hold them down as we wheel him out, lifting him over steps.
'The doctor rushes out to meet me: "Can you go to fetch a lady, she
is pregnant and she is delivering the baby too soon?"
'Azzam
is driving, Ahmed in the middle directing him and me by the window, the
visible foreigner, the passport.
Something
scatters across my hand, simultaneous with the crashing of a bullet through
the ambulance, some plastic part dislodged, flying through the window.
'We
stop, turn off the siren, keep the blue light flashing, wait, eyes on
the silhouettes of men in US marine uniforms on the corners of the buildings.
Several shots come. We duck, get as low as possible and I can see tiny
red lights whipping past the window, past my head. Some, it's hard to
tell, are hitting the ambulance. I start singing. What else do you do
when someone's shooting at you? A tyre bursts with an enormous noise and
a jerk of the vehicle.
'I'm outraged. We're trying to get to a woman who's giving birth without
any medical attention, without electricity, in a city under siege, in
a clearly marked ambulance, and you're shooting at us. How dare you?
See
here for more.
After
Fallujah:
the ongoing attacks on Iraq's cities
In
many respects the first siege of Fallujah set the pattern for subsequent
US military operations in Iraq - a pattern which persists to this day.
The following is far-from-comprehensive sample of subsequent attacks:
19
May 2004:
US forces attack the tiny village of Mukaradeeb, killing 42 people - all
civilians - including 11 women and 14 children (Guardian, 25 May). US
claims that they were targeting a "safe house" for foreign fighters
are rapidly discredited.
August
2004: Hundreds of civilians are killed during a month-long US
assault on Najaf.
28
August - 8 October: at least 82 people, including nine children,
are killed in a series of airstrikes on Fallujah.
September
/ October 2004: US-led forces attack Samarra and Tal Afar. Water
and electricity are cut in both cities. 150,000 residents flee Tal Afar
and the first 70 dead brought to Samara General Hospital, include 18 women
and 23 children. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumseld says, "What
has to be done in [Iraq] is what basically was done in Samarra over the
last 48 hours."
8
November 2004: US forces launch a massive assault on Fallujah,
killing hundreds of civilians (see opposite).
February
2005: US-led forces attack Ramadi, Hit, Baghdadi and Haditha.
7
May 2005: US forces launch a massive assault on Qaim, killing
scores of people, attacking the local hospital and forcing thousands to
flee their homes.
June
2005: US forces attack Karabila and Qaim, killing at least 17
civilians. Iraq's deputy health minister warns of possible starvation
among the 6,000 families who fled the assault.
August
2005: US-led forces attack Haditha, Haqlaniya and Barwana. One
Haditha resident describes the bombs as 'falling like heavy rain' and
claims to have witnessed marines kill two unarmed inhabitants. Forty civilians
are killed in airstrikes in Husayba.
2
September 2005: US-led forces launch a massive assault on Tal
Afar. The local hospital reports receiving cases of dead women and children.
Tens of thousands of residents had fled the city in anticipation.
1
October 2005: 1,000 US troops backed by helicopters attack Sadah.
Power and water are cut. Two families fleeing the fighting are shot dead,
as is the driver of an ambulance called to the area.
16
October 2005: US airstrikes in western Iraq kill more than 70
people, including dozens of women and children, according to witnesses
(Guardian, 18 Oct).
War crimes in Fallujah
April
2004
According to a detailed analysis of 300 contemporary news reports by Iraq
Body Count (www.iraqbodycount.org) at least 572 of the roughly 800 reported
deaths during the first US siege of Fallujah in April 2004 were civilians,
with over 300 of these being women and children.
US
forces committed major war crimes during the assault:
n Warplanes, fighter bombers, military helicopters and gunships were used
to attack residential areas, killing many civilians. In one incident '16
children and eight women were reported to have been killed when US aircraft
hit four houses' (Independent, 8 April).
-
At least one [US] battalion had 'orders to shoot any male of military
age on the streets after dark, armed or not' (New York Times, 14 April)
and there were numerous press reports of US snipers firing on - and
killing - unarmed civilians, including children.
-
Several reports strongly suggested that US snipers targeted ambulances
in Fallujah. Indeed, a UK national, Jo Wilding, was present in a clearly
marked ambulance that she claims was shot at by US snipers.
-
The
city's main hospital was closed by marines and a sniper was placed
on top of the hospital's water tower in violation of the Geneva Convention
(Guardian, 24 April).
November 2004
A
high-ranking Red Cross official estimated that "at least 800 civilians"
were killed in the first 9 days of the November 2004 assault on Fallujah
(Inter Press Service, 16 November 2004) - an operation originally codenamed
"Thanksgiving massacre" (Telegraph, 24 December 2004).
Once
again US forces committed major war crimes:
-
The
city was placed 'under a strict night-time shoot-to-kill curfew' with
'anyone spotted in the soldiers' night vision sights…shot' (Times,
12 Nov 04)
-
Male refugees were prevented from leaving the combat zone (AP, 13
Nov 04)
-
US
forces were filmed killing an unarmed, wounded Iraqi (Guardian, 16
Nov)
-
US warplanes dropped 3 bombs on the Central Health Centre clinic,
killing 35 patients (including 5 children under the age of ten) and
24 medical staff (The Nation, 13 Dec 04)
-
Refugees
from the city claimed that 'a large number of people, including children,
were killed by American snipers' (Independent, 24 Nov 04).
-
US forces used phosphorus weapons 'that create a screen of fire that
cannot be extinguished with water' (Washington Post, 10 Nov 04).
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All the information on this
page is available in the Voices
4 page publication, which was published as part of Peace
News in November 2005 (PDF 317kb)
"[It's] hard to differentiate between people who are insurgents
or civilians. You just have to go with your gut feeling"
US Marine
Major, Time, 11 April 2004
"My
son got shrapnel in his stomach when our house was hit at dawn, but we
couldn't take him for treatment. We just bandaged his stomach and gave
him water, but he was losing a lot of blood. He died this afternoon"
Fallujah
resident
Mohammed Abboud, November 2004.
'Asked
what he would tell Iraqis about televised images
"of Americans and coalition soldiers killing innocent civilians,"
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt,
the senior military spokesman in Iraq answered
"Change the channel."'
(New York Times, 12 April).
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