December 13, 2004

The US military is discussing plans to turn the Iraqi city of Fallujah into a giant concentration camp. Most of the city's 300,000 residents were driven out by a massive US bombing campaign in the week prior to an invasion by 10,000 US marine and army troops on November 8.

The December 5 Boston Globe reported that US commanders plan to turn Fallujah into a "model city" : "Under the plans, {US} troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned." ( http://www.uruknet.info/?p=7845 )

The plans call for "all men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions", the Globe reported, adding that: "To accomplish those goals, [US commanders] think they will have to use coercive measures allowed under martial law imposed last month by [puppet Iraqi] Prime Minister Iyad Allawi."

According to the Globe, US commanders say they want to make Fallujah into a "model city" where "they can maintain the security that has eluded them elsewhere" in Iraq.

The Globe reported that "US marine commanders cautioned against raising hopes that Fallujans would warmly welcome [US] troops when they return to ruined houses and rubble-strewn streets". They acknowledged that "many Fallujans were among the [resistance] fighters who ruled the city until the US assault drove them out in November".

US commanders say they will soon start organising the return of the refugees to Fallujah. However, a month after US commanders declared they had "secured" control over the bombed-out city, there are still intense battles there.

On December 5, CNN reported that US commanders had ordered the Iraqi Red Crescent to withdraw from the city after "an intense firefight raged for hours" about 300 metres from the IRC's headquarters in downtown Fallujah on December 3.

When he declared on November 16 that the battle for Fallujah was over, US Marine General John Sattler, said 51 US troops had died in the reoccupation of the city. Since then, the US military has imposed a virtual news blackout on what is happening in the city, including on the number of continuing US military casualties. However, on December 7, General John Abizaid, commander of all US forces in the Middle East, told reporters in Washington that 71 US troops had been killed in Fallujah since November 8.


From Green Left Weekly, December 15, 2004.
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