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November 19, 2004
As U.S. Forces Raided a Mosque
Dahr Jamail
BAGHDAD, Nov 19 (IPS) - An eyewitness commentary to IPS through a U.S. raid on a Baghdad mosque Friday gives a vivid picture of what a 'successful raid' can be like.
U.S. soldiers raided the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad during Friday prayers, killing at least four and wounding up to 20 worshippers.
At 12:30 pm local time, just after Imam Shaikh Muayid al-Adhami concluded his talk, about 50 U.S. soldiers with 20 Iraqi National Guardsmen (ING) entered the mosque, a witness reported.
”Everyone was there for Friday prayers, when five Humvees and several trucks carrying INGs entered,” Abu Talat told IPS on phone from within the mosque while the raid was in progress. ”Everyone starting yelling 'Allahu Akbar' (God is the greatest) because they were frightened. Then the soldiers started shooting the people praying!”
Talat said he was among a crowd of worshippers being held back at gunpoint by U.S. soldiers. Loud chanting of 'Allahu Akbar' could be heard in the background during his call. Women and children were sobbing, he said.
”They have just shot and killed at least four of the people praying,” he said in a panicked voice. ”At least 10 other people are wounded now. We are on our bellies and in a very bad situation.”
Talat gave his account over short phone calls. He said he was witnessing a horrific scene.
”We were here praying and now there are 50 here with their guns on us,” he said. ”They are holding our heads to the ground, and everyone is in chaos. This is the worst situation possible. They cannot see me talking to you. They are roughing up a blind man now.” He evidently could talk no further then.
The soldiers later released women and children along with men who were related to them. Abu Talat was released because a boy told him to pretend to be his father.
Other witnesses gave similar accounts outside the mosque. ”People were praying and the Americans invaded the mosque,” Abdulla Ra'ad Aziz from the al-Adhamiya district of Baghdad told IPS. He had been released along with his wife and children. ”Why are they killing people for praying?” He said that after the forces entered ”they went to the back doors and we heard so many bullets of the guns -- it was a gun bigger than a Kalashnikov. There were wounded and dead, I saw them myself.”
Some of the people who had been at prayer were ordered by soldiers to carry the dead and wounded out of the mosque, he said.
”One Iraqi National Guardsmen held his gun on people and yelled, 'I will kill you if you don't shut up',” said Rana Aziz, a mother who had been trapped in the mosque.. ”So they made everyone lie down, then people got quiet, and they took the women and children out.”
She said someone asked the soldiers if they would be made hostages. A soldier used foul language and asked everyone to shut up, she said. Suddenly, she laughed amid her tears. ”The Americans have learnt how to say shut up in Arabic, 'Inchev'.”
Soldiers denied Iraqi Red Crescent ambulances and medical teams access to the mosque. As doctors negotiated with U.S. soldiers outside, more gunfire was heard from inside.
About 30 men were led out with hoods over their heads and their hands tied behind them. Soldiers loaded them into a military vehicle and took them away around 3.15 pm.
A doctor with the Iraqi Red Crescent confirmed four dead and nine wounded worshippers. Pieces of brain were splattered on one of the walls inside the mosque while large blood stains covered carpets at several places.
A U.S. military spokesperson in Baghdad did not respond to requests for information on the raid.
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2004
Media Repression in 'Liberated' Land
Media Repression in 'Liberated' Land
Dahr Jamail
BAGHDAD, Nov 18 (IPS) - Journalists are increasingly being detained and threatened by the U.S.-installed interim government in Iraq. Media have been stopped particularly from covering recent horrific events in Fallujah.
The "100 Orders" penned by former U.S. administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer include Order 65 passed March 20 to establish an Iraqi communications and media commission. This commission has powers to control the media because it has complete control over licensing and regulating telecommunications, broadcasting, information services and all other media establishments.
On June 28 when the United States handed over power to a 'sovereign' Iraqi interim government, Bremer simply passed on the authority to Ayad Allawi, the U.S.-installed interim prime minister who has had longstanding ties with the British intelligence service MI6 and the CIA.
A glaring instance is the curbs placed on the Qatar-based TV channel al-Jazeera.
Within days of the 'handover' of power to an interim Iraqi government last summer, the Baghdad office of al-Jazeera was raided and closed by security forces from the interim government. The network was accused of inaccurate reporting and banned initially for one month from reporting out of Iraq.
The ban was then extended "indefinitely." On Tuesday this week the interim government announced that any al-Jazeera journalist found reporting in Iraq would be detained.
The al-Jazeera office in Baghdad had been bombed by a U.S. warplane during the invasion of March last year. The TV channel had given their exact coordinates to the Pentagon to avoid such an occurrence. One of their journalists was killed in the bombing.
Al-Jazeera now broadcasts a daily apology "because we cannot cover Iraq news well since our offices have been closed for over three months by orders from the interim government."
Other instances of political repression abound. The media commission sent out an order recently asking news organisations to "stick to the government line on the U.S.-led offensive in Fallujah or face legal action." The warning was sent on the letterhead of Allawi.
The letter also asked media to "set aside space in your news coverage to make the position of the Iraqi government, which expresses the aspirations of most Iraqis, clear."
Last week a journalist for the al-Arabiya network was detained by U.S. forces outside Fallujah when he attempted to enter the besieged city.
Citing another al-Arabiya correspondent as its source, the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the Arabic satellite station had lost contact with Abdel Kader Saadi, a reporter and photographer living and working in the Sunni Muslim city, on Nov. 11.
French freelance photographer Corentin Fleury was detained by the U.S. military with his interpreter, 28 year-old Bahktiyar Abdulla Hadad when they were leaving Fallujah just before the siege of the city began.
They had worked in the city for nine days leading up to the siege, and were held for five days in a military detention facility outside the city.
"They were very nervous and they asked us what we saw, and looked over all my photos, asking me questions about them," Fleury told IPS. "They asked where the weapons were, what the neighborhoods were like, all of this."
Fleury said he had photographed homes destroyed by U.S. warplanes, and life in the city leading up to the siege.
"They wanted information from me regarding the situation in Fallujah, but they have yet to release my translator," he said. "I made a silly photo of him holding a sniper rifle, and I think this is why they are holding him. I've been trying to get information for the last five days on him, and the French embassy has been trying to get him out, different journalists he's worked with are sending letters, but there has been no luck so far."
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2004
800 Civilians Feared Dead in Fallujah
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
BAGHDAD, Nov 16 (IPS) - At least 800 civilians have been killed during the U.S. military siege of Fallujah, a Red Cross official estimates.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of U.S. military reprisal, a high-ranking official with the Red Cross in Baghdad told IPS that ”at least 800 civilians” have been killed in Fallujah so far.
His estimate is based on reports from Red Crescent aid workers stationed around the embattled city, from residents within the city and from refugees, he said.
”Several of our Red Cross workers have just returned from Fallujah since the Americans won't let them into the city,” he said. ”And they said the people they are tending to in the refugee camps set up in the desert outside the city are telling horrible stories of suffering and death inside Fallujah.”
The official said that both Red Cross and Iraqi Red Crescent relief teams had asked the U.S. military in Fallujah to take in medical supplies to people trapped in the city, but their repeated requests had been turned down.
A convoy of relief supplies from both relief organisations continues to wait on the outskirts of the city for military permission to enter. They have appealed to the United Nations to intervene on their behalf.
”The Americans close their ears, and that is it,” the Red Cross official said. ”They won't even let us take supplies into Fallujah General Hospital.”
The official estimated that at least 50,000 residents remain trapped within the city. They were too poor to leave, lacked friends or family outside the city and therefore had nowhere to go, or they simply had not had enough time to escape before the siege began, he said.
Aid workers in his organisation have reported that houses of civilians in Kharma, a small city near Fallujah, had been bombed by U.S. warplanes. In one instance a family of five was killed just two days ago, they reported.
”I don't know why the American leaders did not approach the Red Cross and ask us to deal with the families properly before the attacking began,” said a Red Cross aid worker, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
”Suddenly they attacked and people were stuck with no help, no medicine, no food, no supplies,” he said. ”So those who could, ran for the desert while the rest were trapped in the city.”
If the U.S. forces would call a temporary cease-fire ”we could get our trucks in and get the civilians left in Fallujah who need medical care, we could get them out,” he said.
Mosques have organised massive collections of food and relief supplies for Fallujah residents as they did last April when the city was under attack, but these supplies have not been allowed into the city either.
The Red Cross official said they had received several reports from refugees that the military had dropped cluster bombs in Fallujah, and used a phosphorous weapon that caused severe burns.
The U.S. military claims to have killed 1,200 ”insurgents” in Fallujah. Abdel Khader Janabi, a resistance leader from the city has said that only about 100 among them were fighters.
”Both of them are lying,” the Red Cross official said. ”While they agree on the 1,200 number, they are both lying about the number of dead fighters.” He added that ”our estimate of 800 civilians is likely to be too low.”
The situation within Fallujah is grim, he said. If help does not reach people soon, ”the children who are trapped will most likely die.”
He said the Ministry of Health in the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi government had stopped supplying hospitals and clinics in Fallujah two months before the current siege.
”The hospitals do not even have aspirin,” he said. ”This shows, in my opinion, that they've had a plan to attack for a long time and were trying to weaken the people.”
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)
The Iraqi Resistance Spreads
November 16, 2004
The Ester Republic
www.esterrepublic.com
Dahr Jamail and Salam T.
While the US military says it now controls Fallujah and is simply “mopping up” what is left of the Iraqi resistance, over 400 soldiers wounded in the fighting have been flown out of Iraq to US air bases in Germany.
As giant C-141 transport planes carrying wounded and maimed American soldiers roar over the Iraqi desert, armed men carrying rocket propelled grenades and kalashnikov machine guns roam freely in the streets of Mosul, the third largest city in Iraq.
After the US military withdrew from inside Mosul, looters with mattresses tied to the tops of cars and pushing desks in wheelbarrows emptied the abandoned American base of its contents.
The horrendous situation afflicting civilians in Fallujah, which the Iraqi Red Crescent Society refers to as a big disaster, didn’t seem to concern a contractor from India who works supplying US bases in Iraq.
“One thing I feel is that in Fallujah, most of the insurgents are there and nobody bothered to clear them off,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity, “So many innocent people were killed and no actions were taken.” He then added, “So one way is good to clear those insurgents.”
The Iraqi Red Crescent Society states that scores of civilians have died in Fallujah. Thousands of families remain trapped in the city with no source of food, clean water or electricity. They report outbreaks of cholera, as well as children bleeding to death because there are no medical facilities left in the city. Red Crescent attempts to get relief supplies through the US military cordon around the city have been nearly impossible.
Due to the disaster in Fallujah, Muqtada al-Sadr has announced that his followers will boycott the elections, scheduled for January. The Islamic Party of Iraq is seriously considering boycotting them as well. Ayad al-Azi, spokesman for the Islamic Party of Iraq, said, “The Americans called for all the civilians to come to the mosques in Fallujah and they detained all of the men and let the women and children go. We are calling for all the people in the world to look at this humanitarian disaster.” He added, “We are strongly considering withdrawing from the elections.”
With over 30 US troops dead and what US-appointed Iraqi security advisor Ayad Daoud claims are 1,000 insurgents killed in Fallujah, the goal of their operation, capturing the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has escaped them.
But Zarqawi isn’t the only one to have escaped, as up to 80 percent of the resistance fighters in Fallujah may have left before the siege even began.
“The Iraqi government announced there are fifteen cities not under their control,” said Dafer al-Ani, an Iraqi political analyst, “Fallujah and Samarra are just the start, and there is serious resistance all over Iraq now outside of the government’s control. If we are talking about Fallujah and Ramadi, they are using street fighting.”
He continued, “It’s not their [the Iraqi resistance] aim to keep controlling the cities. They are just making the enemy lose as much as possible and then pulling out to go to other cities. What everybody knows is the resistance in Fallujah, they left before the siege of Fallujah, and what they left was less than twenty percent of the resistance there. And we can see what losses they caused for the occupation forces around the country.”
The Iraqi resistance now controls large areas of Ramadi, Samarra, Haditha, Baquba, Hiyt, Qaim, Latifiyah, Taji, Khaldiyah, and Baghdad, along with fighting in the holy city of Kerbala.
Having been closed on November 7, Baghdad International Airport remains closed indefinitely. Along with the borders of Syria and Jordan being closed under US-appointed Ayad Allawi’s announcement of martial law in Iraq, people here are now left with no exit from the liberated country.
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2004
The Other Face of U.S. 'Success' in Fallujah
BAGHDAD, Nov 15 (IPS) - Everyone saw it coming, only the U.S. forces did not: humanitarian disaster in Fallujah, and stronger resistance against U.S. and allied occupying forces all around Iraq.
The real face of the 'success' of the U.S. military assault in Fallujah is now beginning to present itself. Thousands of families remain trapped inside Fallujah with no food, clean water or medical assistance.
No one can say how many of the 1,200 'rebels' U.S. forces claim to have killed inside Fallujah are civilians, or whether the death toll is higher.
The Iraqi Red Crescent Society, which is supported by the Red Cross and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has called the situation in Fallujah a ”big disaster”.
The Iraqi Red Crescent has several teams of relief workers and doctors, and truckloads of food waiting for the authorisation from the U.S.-backed interim government and the U.S. military, but they have not been allowed in.
The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) has expressed grave concern for the civilians left in the city. ”All those taking part in the combat have a responsibility to spare civilians and give access to the wounded,” ICRC spokesman Rana Sidani said in a statement.
U.S. forces have said they will now carry out 'humanitarian' tasks on their own. It could be too late, going by the people's voices that are now emerging.
Muna Salim who managed to flee the city with her sister after the rest of their family was killed by U.S. bombs, said Fallujah had turned from a battlefield to a ghost town in recent days.
”Most families stayed inside their houses all the time,” she said after reaching Baghdad. ”We were always very hungry because we didn't want to eat our food or drink all of the water. We never knew if we would be able to get more, so we tried to be careful.” She could not bring herself to talk of the killings.
”The Americans didn't care about us,” said a young refugee who gave his name only as Ahmed. He arrived in Baghdad with most of his family three days back. ”All the medical people left the city and the only people in the city are Fallujans or from Ramadi or other cities who came to try to help us.”
People in Fallujah had been left helpless, he said. ”Anyone who left their house would either be shot by American snipers or recruited by the Mujahideen,” he said. ”So we stayed inside most of the time and prayed. The more the bombs exploded the more we prayed and cried.”
Ahmed says he did not expect to survive. ”Every night we said goodbye to one another because we expected to die,” he said. ”You could see areas where all the houses were flattened, there was just nothing left. We could get water at times, but there was no electricity ever.”
U.S. forces had bombed families in their homes, he said. ”Even those of us who do not fight, we are suffering so much because of the U.S. bombs and tanks. Can't they see this is turning so many people against them?”
Iraqi resistance has taken control of many cities across Iraq following the U.S. siege of Fallujah. Despite U.S. military claims of being in control of Mosul in the north, al-Jazeera reported that the U.S. military, Iraqi police and National Guardsmen have disappeared from the streets and armed men wearing masks are wandering freely around.
A freelance journalist in the city told al-Jazeera on telephone from the city: ”The situation is very bad, there is no security, only armed resistance groups on the streets, and it seems there is no government in Mosul.” The U.S. military says it has taken back control of Mosul police stations and other areas. Iraqi rebels are now also in control of large areas of Ramadi, Samarra, Haditha, Baquba, Hiyt, Qaim, Latifiyah,Taji and Khaldiyah. Fighting has been reported also in the Shia holy city Kerbala.
The uprising has spread across the capital as well. The districts al-Dora, al-Amiriyah, Abu Ghraib, al-Adhamiya and Khan Dhari are now largely controlled by resistance fighters.
U.S. military vehicles have been damaged and destroyed near the city Hiyt. Fighting has spread to the normally peaceful town Hilla, just south of Baghdad.
”The security situation there has gone from bad to worse,” Ali Abdulla, a 35-year-old carpenter from Hilla said. ”You can hear the fighting all around the city now, and the resistance is fighting against the Polish very fiercely.”
Abdulla said this was the first time there had been fighting between Polish troops and resistance fighters.
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2004
Inside Fallujah: one family’s diary of terror
Last week the US launched a major offensive on Fallujah using heavy artillery, bulldozers and tanks. The target was insurgents, but here one family reveals the horror of being caught in the conflict
By Dahr Jamail in Baghdad
14 November 2004, The Sunday Herald - Scotland's award-winning independent newspaper
She weeps while telling the story. The abaya (tunic) she wears cannot hide the shaking of her body as waves of grief roll through her. “I cannot get the image out of my mind of her foetus being blown out of her body.”
Muna Salim’s sister, Artica, was seven months’ pregnant when two rockets from US warplanes struck her home in Fallujah on November 1. “My sister Selma and I only survived because we were staying at our neighbours’ house that night,” Muna continued, unable to reconcile her survival while eight members of her family perished during the pre-assault bombing of Fallujah that had dragged on for weeks.
Khalid, one of their brothers who was also killed in the attack, has left behind a wife and five young children.
“There were no fighters in our area, so I don’t know why they bombed our home,” said Muna. “When it began there were full assaults from the air and tanks attacking the city, so we left from the eastern side of Fallujah and came to Baghdad.”
Selma, Muna’s 41-year-old sister, told of horrific scenes in the city which has become the centre of resistance in Iraq over the last few months. She described houses that had been razed by countless US air strikes, where the stench of decaying bodies swirled around the city on the dry, dusty winds.
“The bombed houses had collapsed and covered the bodies, and nobody could get to them because people were too afraid to drive a bulldozer,” she explained, throwing her hands into the air in despair.
“Even for people to walk out of their houses is impossible in Fallujah because of the snipers.”
Both sisters described a nightmarish existence inside the city where fighters controlled many areas, food and medicine were often in short supply, and the thumping concussions of US bombs had become a daily reality.
Water also was often in short supply, and electricity a rarity. Like many families cowered down inside Fallujah they ran a small generator when they could afford the fuel.
“Even when the bombs were far away, glasses would fall off our shelves and break,” said Muna. “None of us could sleep as during the night it was worse.”
While going to the market in the middle of the day to find food, the sisters said they felt terrorised by US warplanes, which often roared over the sprawling city. “The jets flew over so much,” said Selma, “but we never knew when they would strike the city.”
The women described a scene of closed shops, mostly empty streets, and terrorised residents wandering around the city not knowing what to do.
“Fallujah was like a ghost town most of the time,” described Muna. “Most families stayed inside their houses all the time, only going out for food when they had to.”
Tanks often attacked the outskirts of the city in skirmishes with resistance fighters, adding to the chaos and unrest. Attack helicopters rattling low over the desert were especially terrifying, criss-crossing over the city and firing rockets into the centre.
While recounting their family’s traumatic experiences over the last few weeks, from their uncle’s home in Baghdad, each of the sisters often paused, staring at the ground as if lost in the images before adding more detail. Their 65-year-old mother, Hadima, was killed in the bombing, as was their brother Khalid, who was an Iraqi police captain. Their sister Ka’ahla and her 22-year-old son also died.
“Our situation was like so many in Fallujah,” said Selma, continuing, her voice now almost emotionless and matter of fact. The months of living in terror are etched on her face.
“So many people could not leave because they had nowhere to go, and no money.”
Adhra’a, another of their sisters, and Samr, Artica’s husband, were also among the victims. Samr had a PhD in religious studies. Artica and Samr had a four-year-old son, Amorad, who died with his parents and his unborn brother or sister.
The two sisters managed to flee the city from the eastern side, carefully making their way through the US military cordon which, for the most part, encircled the area. As they left, they witnessed a scene that was full assaults on their city from US warplanes and tanks .
“Why was our family bombed?” pleaded Muna, tears streaming down her cheeks, “There were never any fighters in our area.”
14 November 2004
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 07:44 AM | Comments (0)