Doug Lorimer
Strengthening fears that another attempt to retake the rebel city of Fallujah will occur straight after the November 2 US presidential election, on October 15 the US military imposed a siege on the city, stopping any of its 250,000 residents from leaving.
The US Army was forced out of Fallujah by resistance fighters in early February and an attempt to reoccupy the city in April by 4500 US marines — backed by air strikes and artillery shelling which killed at least 700 Fallujah residents — was abandoned after three weeks in the face of mounting mass anger in Baghdad.
The October 16 New York Times reported that "American jets began their most intense bombardment of the city yet, dropping 11 satellite- and laser-guided 500-pound bombs on suspected guerrilla safehouses and weapons depots, as 1600 American marines moved forward under artillery fire to set up the checkpoints, designed to snare insurgents moving out of the city".
The US military has carried out nightly air attacks on Fallujah since late September, claiming they are "precision strikes" against a "terrorist network" allegedly led by Jordanian-born Islamist Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Homes and restaurants have been bombed, followed by Pentagon claims that the bombings have been against "terrorist safehouses".
In reality, the air strikes are aimed at punishing the residents of Fallujah for resisting the US occupation forces. This was made clear by an article in the October 12 New York Times that noted that on October 8 "the American military headquarters in Baghdad announced that a 'precision strike' hit a house where Zarqawi associates were meeting. But immediately after the attack, Fallujah residents and doctors said that 17 people — neither insurgents nor foreign terrorists — had been wounded, including nine women and children.
"One person identified by Reuters as a witness said that a wedding party had been held in the house the evening before the attack, and that the bridegroom had been killed and the bride wounded in the raid."
"We know what the strike was supposed to hit, and we hit it. If a wedding was going on, well, it was in concert with a meeting with a top Zarqawi lieutenant", the NYT was told by "a senior Pentagon official who monitors the daily assessments of the bombing campaign".
"If there are civilians dying in connection with these attacks, and with the destruction, the locals at some point have to make a decision. Do they want to harbour the insurgents and suffer the consequences that come with that, or do they want to get rid of the insurgents and have the benefits of not having them there?", another Pentagon official told the NYT.
Fallujah clerics insist that Zarqawi, whose Tawhid and Jihad movement has claimed responsibility for multiple suicide car-bombings and hostage beheadings, is not in the city. "They feel this is just an excuse to enter Fallujah, like the Americans used weapons of mass destruction as an excuse to enter Iraq", Baghdad University professor Salman al Jumaili, who is a Fallujah native, told the US Knight Ridder news agency on October 15.
The same KRN article reported that US commanders expressed disappointment at the quality and quantity of arms handed in by residents of Sadr City, Baghdad's huge Shiite slum that is a stronghold for rebel cleric Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
Under a deal between Sadr's representatives and the US military, the militia was supposed to hand in its weapons in exchange for cash.
Captain Brian O'Malley, a US Army spokesperson, told KRN, "we still have not seen the thousands of weapons and (homemade bombs) that we are expecting".
KRN reported that "many residents expressed disdain for the plan and said they were participating only to earn fast cash. A 35-year-old housewife, Samira Hussein, said she turned in a mortar round she found in a garbage heap. She had no plans to give up the better weapons her family keeps at home.
"'I'll hand over the useless weapons and keep the machine gun to fight our enemies', she said. 'By enemies I mean the Americans and anyone else who is against our religion and our government'."
On October 18 KRN reported that "the US military said that only about 25% of estimated weapons" in Sadr City had been handed over. The October 18 New York Times reported that "US military said that Sadr's militia had so far turned in about 700 rocket-propelled grenades and about 400 mortar shells, along with hundreds of other, lighter weapons, and that the Iraqi government had paid about $1.2 million for the weapons".
From Green Left Weekly, October 27, 2004.
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