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Fallujah Refugees Tell of Life and Death in the Kill Zone
by elle / Newstandard News
Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004 at 12:55 PM
"During the nine days I was in Fallujah, all of the wounded women,
kids and old people, none of them were evacuated," Fasa’a said. "They
either suffered to death, or somehow survived."
Journalists
and residents who have fled Fallujah share accounts of US troops
killing unarmed and wounded people; Dahr Jamail continues interviewing
survivors as images of a city under US assault further emerge.
by Dahr Jamail
Baghdad Dec 3 -
Men now seeking refuge in the Baghdad area are telling horrific stories
of indiscriminate killings by US forces during the peak of fighting
last month in the largely annihilated city of Fallujah.
In an interview with The NewStandard, Burhan Fasa’a, an Iraqi
journalist who works for the popular Lebanese satellite TV station,
LBC, said he witnessed US crimes up close. Burhan Fasa’a, who was in
Fallujah for nine days during the most intense combat, said Americans
grew easily frustrated with Iraqis who could not speak English.
"Americans did not have interpreters with them," Fasa’a said, "so
they entered houses and killed people because they didn’t speak
English. They entered the house where I was with 26 people, and [they]
shot people because [the people] didn’t obey [the soldiers’] orders,
even just because the people couldn’t understand a word of English."
Fasa’a
further speculated, "Soldiers thought the people were rejecting their
orders, so they shot them. But the people just couldn’t understand
them."
Fasa’a says American troops detained him. They interrogated him
specifically about working for the Arab media, he said, and held him
for three days. Fasa’a and other prisoners slept on the ground with no
blankets. He said prisoners were made to go to the bathroom in
handcuffs, using one toilet in the middle of the camp.
"During the nine days I was in Fallujah, all of the wounded women,
kids and old people, none of them were evacuated," Fasa’a said. "They
either suffered to death, or somehow survived."
Many refugees tell stories of having witnessed US troops killing
already injured people, including former fighters and noncombatants
alike.
"I watched them roll over wounded people in the street with tanks,"
said Kassem Mohammed Ahmed, a resident of Fallujah. "This happened so
many times."
Other refugees recount similar stories. "I saw so many civilians killed there, and I
saw several tanks roll over the wounded in the streets," said Aziz
Abdulla, 27 years old, who fled the fighting last month. Another
resident, Abu Aziz, said he also witnessed American armored vehicles
crushing people he believes were alive.
Abdul Razaq Ismail, another resident who fled Fallujah, said: "I saw
dead bodies on the ground and nobody could bury them because of the
American snipers. The Americans were dropping some of the bodies into
the Euphrates near Fallujah."
A man called Abu Hammad said he witnessed US troops throwing Iraqi
bodies into the Euphrates River. Others nodded in agreement. Abu Hammed
and others also said they saw Americans shooting unarmed Iraqis who
waved white flags.
Believing that American and Iraqi forces were bent on killing anyone
who stayed in Fallujah, Hammad said he watched people attempt to swim
across the Euphrates to escape the siege. "Even then the Americans shot
them with rifles from the shore," he said. "Even if some of them were
holding a white flag or white clothes over their heads to show they are
not fighters, they were all shot."
Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein reported witnessing
similar events. After running out of basic necessities and deciding to
flee the city at the height of the US-led assault, Hussein ran to the
Euphrates.
"I decided to swim," Hussein told colleagues at the AP, who wrote up
the photographer’s harrowing story, "but I changed my mind after seeing
US helicopters firing on and killing people who tried to cross the
river."
Hussein said he saw soldiers kill a family of five as they tried to
traverse the Euphrates, before he buried a man by the riverbank with
his bare hands.
"I kept walking along the river for two hours and I could still see
some US snipers ready to shoot anyone who might swim," Hussein
recounted. "I quit the idea of crossing the river and walked for about
five hours through orchards."
A man named Khalil, who asked The NewStandard not to use his
last name for fear of reprisals, said he had witnessed the shooting of
civilians who were waving white flags while they tried to escape the
city. "They shot women and old men in the streets," he said. "Then they
shot anyone who tried to get their bodies."
"There are bodies the Americans threw in the river," Khalil
continued, noting that he personally witnessed US troops using the
Euphrates to dispose of Iraqi dead. "And anyone who stayed thought they
would be killed by the Americans, so they tried to swim across the
river. Even people who couldn’t swim tried to cross the river. They
drowned rather than staying to be killed by the Americans," said Khalil.
US military commanders reported at least two incidents during which
they say Iraqi resistance fighters used white flags to lure Marines
into dangerous situations, including a well-orchestrated ambush.
Proponents of relaxed rules of engagement for US troops engaged in
"counter-insurgency" warfare have cited such incidents from last
month’s experience in Fallujah as arguments for more permissive combat
regulations. Some have said US forces should establish what used to be
called "free-fire zones," wherein any human being encountered is
assumed to be hostile, and thus a legitimate target, relieving American
infantrymen of their obligation to distinguish and protect civilians.
But if the stories Fallujan witnesses have shared with TNS are accurate, it appears the policy might have preceded the argument in this case.
US and Iraqi officials have called the "pacification" of Fallujah a
success and said that the action was necessary to stabilize Iraq in
preparation for the country’s planned "transition to democracy." The
military continues to deny US-led forces killed significant numbers of
civilians during November’s nearly constant fighting and
bombardment.
Amazing
by Dave
Friday, Jan. 14, 2005 at 3:19 PM
davethetbird@hotmail.com
I've read several of the Dahr Jamail stories Cleveland IMC has run; I think they're really good and should be getting for more recognition. it's a shame that a random guy from Alaska who went to Iraq just to see what's really going on does a better and more honest job than huge corporate media giants. Unlike the corporate media, Dahr should be praised for having to courage to travel unembedded and report what the military/media aren't telling people. I think he deserves one of those Pulitzers, assuming Dahr even makes it out of Iraq alive. He's putting his life on the line (an American walking around Iraq right now is practically suicide), and isn't making the big bucks doing it. He should be commended.
Dahr, you're a brave man. Please come home safe.
Dahr Jamail
by Info
Saturday, Jan. 15, 2005 at 3:35 PM
Weary of the overall failure of the US media to accurately report on the realities of the war in Iraq for the Iraqi people and US soldiers, Dahr Jamail went to Iraq to report on the war himself.
His dispatches were quickly recognized as an important media resource and he is now writing for the Inter Press Service, The NewStandard and many other outlets. His reports have also been published with The Nation, The Sunday Herald and Islam Online, to name just a few. Dahr's dispatches and hard news stories have been translated into Polish, German, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese and Arabic. On the radio, Dahr is a special correspondent for Flashpoints and reports for the BBC, Democracy Now!, and numerous other stations around the globe.
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