Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

The Price of "Liberation":
More Evidence Emerges of War Crimes of Occupation Forces

Fallujans Pay the Price of Liberation
Terrorising Those Who Are Praying
US Troops Launch New Offensive As Number of US Soldiers Killed in November Tops 100
Mosul Offensive Looms Large
Saddam Hussein's Legal Team May Sue Washington for War Crimes in Iraq
Puppet "Iraqi Ministry of Health" Orders Baghdad Hospitals Not to Admit Wounded Patients from al-Fallujah
Al-Jazeera Denounces Iraq Minister's Terror Slur
Israel's Battle in Fallujah
"Unusual Weapons" Used in Fallujah
Ten Days in Fallujah Battlefield
Witnesses Say US Forces Killed Unarmed Civilians
Fallujah and the Laws of War
Child Malnutrition Almost Doubles after US Invasion
Privatising Iraqi Agriculture

By Dr Muhamad Ayash al-Kubaisi*, November 20, 2004

When a nation's identity, existence and dignity is put at risk, the sacrifice required is far more than the lives of a group of fighters, and that is why Falluja has chosen to carry the flag of resistance in Iraq, in the clear knowledge it may be wiped out.

Fallujans and Iraqis have witnessed the boots of US marines stepping on the heads of Iraqi prisoners, not to frighten them but to tell Iraqis and the rest of the world that they owe the superpower obedience and gratitude. The fighters in Falluja are fully conscious of the balance of power, they know only too well that one bomb from their enemy's arsenal is enough to render their beautiful city a ruin.

But the inhabitants of this great city wanted to send a message to decision makers in the US that coexisting with the occupiers is not possible.

They wanted to tell US officials that it is easier for Fallujans to sacrifice their lives than to shake hands with occupiers; it is easier for them to see their houses razed to the ground than see an occupying soldier enjoy them.

This clear message has been delivered by the people and fighters of Falluja. The occupiers must understand it or the ghost of Falluja will chase them everywhere in Iraq, and they will end up with two options:

Stubbornly remain in Iraq, losing their credibility and wasting more resources which could result in a worldwide alliance against them to bring such a prodigal power – the US – to heel, or leave Iraq.

If they leave, Falluja would have paid the price of liberating the nation and saving the world from a potential danger.

Crucially, the US should not get the impression that it has performed a successful pre-emptive strike.

The Iraqi resistance is fully cognisant of the nature of the fight, and appears to be acting according to a carefully crafted plan.

The indications coming from Falluja point to the fact the resistance is continuing, which will prevent the US from enjoying the taste of success in Falluja.

The Iraqi resistance realises that it is very dangerous if the US administration thinks its excessive use of power is achieving its goals.

This can be seen throughout the mounting resistance operations across the country from Talafar in the north to al-Qaem in the west and Buhruz in the east.

Last week, Iraq's third largest city, Mosul, the capital of al-Anbar governorate (Iraq's largest governorate), Ramadi, and vital positions in Baghdad fell to the Iraqi resistance. What does that tell us?

It shows that resistance in Iraq is Iraqi, and not dominated by "foreign fighters" or the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi group as the US had claimed before the strike on Falluja.

A group of non-Iraqi fighters crossing the borders to fight the US in Iraq for whatever reason cannot achieve that, and the US is fully aware of that from a military point of view.

The widespread resistance operations in Iraq prove the issue can no longer be consigned to a "restive city" or "rebellious region" – it is obviously a popular uprising by people refusing military occupation of their homeland.

This gives us confidence that the blood of our brothers in Falluja has not been shed in vain. Rather, it is the price paid for a noble aim: The liberation of Iraq.

* Dr al-Kubaisi represents Iraq's Association of Muslim Scholars outside the country. He is a university professor in Islamic Sharia. He was born and lived in Falluja until before the invasion of Iraq. This article, written exclusively for Aljazeera.net, was translated from Arabic.

by Dahr Jamail, Iraq Dispatches, November 19, 2004

Abu Talat calls me frantic. The deafening roar of hundreds of people in a confined area yelling, "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) reverberate behind his panicked voice. 

"I am being held at gunpoint by American soldiers inside Abu Hanifa mosque Dahr," he yells, "Everyone is praying to God because the Americans are raiding our mosque during Friday prayer!" 

He makes short calls, updating me on the atrocity. 

After a few sentences of information he hangs up because he is trapped inside the mosque and trying to let me know what is happening. Being Friday, the day of prayer and holiday, this was supposed to be an off day for us. 

I just finish typing what he told me before he calls back. 

"They have shot and killed at least 4 of the people while they were praying, and at least 20 are wounded now! I cannot believe this! I can't let them see me calling you. I am on my stomach now and they have their guns on everyone, there are at least 1,500 people inside the mosque and it is sealed. We are on our bellies and in a very bad situation." 

Several Humvees and Iraqi National Guard (ING) vehicles showed up and 50 soldiers and well over 50 ING sealed and entered the mosque with the goal of detaining the Imam, Shaikh Muayid al-Adhami. 

Abu Talat calls back, "We were here praying and now there are over 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." 

The soldiers eventually released women and children along with men who were related to them. Abu Talat was only released because a boy approached him and told him to pretend to be his father. 

Shortly thereafter he phones me from his home in tears. 

"Dahr I cannot believe what has happened," pausing to collect himself, "I will go back to see what is happening now." 

I urge him not to go, but he insists. 

"This is my mosque and my people. I must go see what is happening to them." 

It is now 2:15 pm and the mosque is still sealed. We begin to interview people he is with via the mobile as he describes the scene. 

"People were praying and the Americans invaded the mosque," Abdulla Ra'ad Aziz said, who had been released along with his wife and children. 

"Why are they killing people for praying? After the forces entered they went to the back doors and we heard so many bullets of the guns. 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. 

"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. She was now waiting outside for her brother, who was still inside. 

She said someone asked the soldiers if they were hostages. "A soldier yelled at everyone to 'Shut the Fuck Up,'" she said. 

Suddenly, she laughed amid her tears. "The Americans have learned how to say shut up in Arabic, 'Inchev.'"

Hammad Mohammed, a 20 year-old man, said, "My uncle's coffin was taken inside the mosque to be prayed on, and the Americans raided the mosque and went to the Imams' room. Then 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, as I saw them myself. I saw 4 killed and 9 wounded." 

Abu Talat then breaks the interview and tells me, "Doctors and staff are standing outside but the Americans refuse to let them inside. They can do nothing, and the Americans are not letting them inside while there are wounded people inside the mosque." 

Just like in Fallujah, soldiers denied Iraqi Red Crescent ambulances and medical teams access to the mosque. As doctors negotiated with US soldiers outside, more gunfire was heard from inside the mosque. 

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 in several places. 

Later Abu Talat comes to my hotel to see me. 

He is distraught, crying while he recounts the story. After listening to the tape he recorded inside the mosque during the atrocity, he says. 

"I am in a very sad position. I do not see any freedom or any democracy. If this could lead into a freedom, it is a freedom with blood. It is a freedom of emotions of sadness. It is a freedom of killing. You cannot gain democracy through blood or killing. You do not find the freedom that way. People are going to pray to God and they were killed and wounded. There were 1,500 people praying to God and they went on a holiday where people go every Friday for prayers. And they were shot and killed. There were so many women and kids lying on the ground. This is not democracy, neither freedom." 

After several weeks of relative calm in Adhamiya, the detention of the Imam of Abu Hanifa and killing of worshippers inside their mosque is sure to ignite the fires of revenge in this area, which is already known as the Fallujah of Baghdad.

Highlighting Iraq's on-going lack of security, meanwhile, US forces have launched a new offensive against rebel strongholds as the number of American soldiers killed in November topped 100. Backed by helicopters and fighter-jets, US Marines are now attempting to regain control of northern Babil province, a restive region just south of Baghdad. Over the next few days, officials said, more than 5,000 American and British troops, along with 1,200 members of the Iraqi security forces, are expected to take part in the offensive, dubbed Operation Plymouth Rock.

Officials said they would continue a series of preplanned raids in towns and farming areas largely within a so-called "death triangle" of cities bordered by Latifiya, Mahmoudiya and Yousifiya – a region where US forces and their Iraqi collaborators have come under repeated attacks by car bombs, rockets and small arms fire. It is the third major military offensive against insurgents since the massive Fallujah operation, which claimed the lives of more than 50 US soldiers and wounded more than 400, and the Mosul operation to at least partially regain control of that city following an insurgent uprising.

It comes as the US military death toll in Iraq for November reached at least 101 following the deaths of three Marines who were wounded in action during the Fallujah offensive and later died at American hospitals in Germany and the United States, according to the Pentagon. Since the initial US invasion, the only other month in which American deaths exceeded 100 was last April, when insurgent violence flared and Marines fought fierce battles in Fallujah and Ramadi. The number of US troops wounded throughout Iraq since the Fallujah offensive began has surpassed 850, and the wounded total for the entire war has topped 9,000. The flow of seriously wounded US soldiers to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany reportedly jumped to twice the normal rate after the second battle for Fallujah began early this month.

(Radio Havana Cuba, Baghdad, November 23)

By Saleh Amer, IslamOnline.net, November 22, 2004

Iraq's ethnically diverse northern city of Mosul is bracing for a full-scale offensive as the US-led occupation troops seem poised to replicate the onslaught on war-battered Fallujah. 

Despite the relatively tranquil atmosphere prevailing in the city following days of fierce clashes culminating in the killing of nine Iraqi troops, many Mosul residents believe that it is only a lull before another storm. 

People were scared off by fear and panic from schools and places of work despite reassuring calls from Iraqi officials. 

The US-backed Iraqi troops have recently stepped up attacks against resistance targets in Mosul after the city had slipped out of control. 

Parts of Mosul were set ablaze last week when unknown people ransacked and torched about 10 police stations in coordinated attacks, panicking police who abandoned their posts. 

They are now sure of only one thing that a bloody attack is looming large specially after Gen. Foliyah Rashid, the commander of a special force called in from Baghdad last week to control the city, asserted the imminent attack was aimed at flushing out resistance pockets. 

"Many pupils have been absent from school over the past few days," Ibtsam Abdullah, an English teacher in a single-sex school, told IslamOnline.net. 

"My colleagues and I really consider absenting ourselves from work as the worst is yet to come," she added while erasing present tense rules from the blackboard. 

Mostafa Hassan, a fourth-grade student, also went to his nearby 600-strong school to only find 15 students. 

The usually bursting-at-the-seams markets of Mosul are mostly closed as the city seemed to be a ghost town. 

Salesmen limited their working hours to only three from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. 

"People can't take the risk of crossing the bridge linking the eastern and western parts of Mosul on the Tigris, since it can be closed by US forces at anytime," said Moaz Ahmed, who owns a textile store in the onetime bustling Al-Maash market. 

With the market in the eastern part now looking deserted, merchants and farmers took their commodities and crops on mobile carriages to make a living. 

"Now I feel like a real drudge as I have to go all the way to the western part of the city every day," said Abu Abdul Rahman, who was busy arranging vegetables on his hoary cart. 

The spectre of the offensive cost butcher Salem Ali dearly as many of his slaughtered sheep remained unsold given that he cannot afford renting a car to take them to the western part. 

Arab people here are further alarmed as the US occupation troops are turning to their old allies, the Kurds, to tighten the grip on Mosul. 

A battalion of Iraq's paramilitary National Guard has been sent in from the Kurdish cities of Arbil and Dohuk and another could soon join them, raising the total to around 1,800 men, Reuters news agency reported. 

While now in National Guard uniform and answerable to the Iraqi Defence Ministry in Baghdad, most of the Kurds were until recently "peshmerga" fighters, a well-organised and feared force set up by Kurdish leaders in the mountains who, with US help, fought Saddam Hussein's army to a standstill after the Gulf War. 

Their deployment has provoked consternation among Arab residents who fear that the Kurds, who want a fully independent state in northern Iraq, are trying to expand their territory onto the oil-rich plain to the south of their strongholds. 

"Nobody wants the Kurdish army here," said Abeet Ranam, 40, an Arab storeowner in an upscale neighbourhood of northeastern Mosul. 

"There have been Kurds living here for centuries and that is fine. But we do not want the Kurdish army." 

In the west of the city on Sunday, a Reuters reporter saw the bodies of three National Guards. A note by the bodies read: "These are peshmerga soldiers."

Members of Saddam Hussein's former government are considering suing the Bush administration in the World Court for war crimes in Iraq, according to the head of Hussein's legal team. Ziad al-Khasawneh told reporters in Amman that the Jordan-based defence team could not initiate legal action on its own against the US government in the International Court of Justice at The Hague because the tribunal refuses to hear individual cases.

The attorney said that since the World Court doesn't accept cases from individuals, "the lawsuit could be filed on behalf of members of President Saddam's government", although he declined to identify any former Iraqi officials who might bring such a suit.

It was not immediately clear if the lawsuit – should it be filed – would create a legal precedent or whether the World Court has heard cases previously from former governments no longer in power.

The head of the legal team appointed by Saddam Hussein's wife, Sajida, said that the recent US military incursion into Fallujah, including the killing of an apparently unarmed and wounded Iraqi by a US Marine at a mosque, was "one of scores of examples of American atrocities". Al-Khasawneh said the legal team was also encouraged by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's recent statements describing the invasion as "illegal".

According to the lead attorney of the legal team, they have enlisted a number of attorneys from the United States, Britain and France to assist in the possible lawsuit. He said, however, there were no lawyers from Arab countries, apparently because of sensitivity by Arab governments.

Jordan, a key Arab ally of the United States that currently chairs the International Criminal Court, has turned down several requests by Washington to extend immunity to US soldiers against prosecution for war crimes. But some officials have said off the record that Jordan has promised to avoid taking action against US soldiers.

To date, US authorities have refused to let the legal team or other lawyers see Saddam Hussein, who was detained in December last year and is reportedly being held in a US-controlled jail.

(Radio Havana Cuba, Amman, November 24)

Albasrah.net, November 25, 2004

The patriotic Iraqi website albasrah.net reported Thursday that the puppet so-called Iraqi health ministry had issued instructions in the last two days to hospitals in Baghdad not to accept wounded persons from al-Fallujah for what it called "security reasons". 

Sources inside the puppet "health ministry" and in several Baghdad hospitals told albasrah.net that such instructions had been sent to all hospitals in the last two days. The sources reported that a number of Baghdad hospitals were complying with these instructions and refusing to admit wounded patients from al-Fallujah, thus putting their lives at risk. 

An ambulance driver, who drives seriously injured patients to Baghdad when the medical facilities in al-Fallujah feel they cannot handle the cases, said that he had brought patients around to several hospitals in Baghdad but had been unable to find one that would agree to admit the patients. As a result one of them died. 

Sources in the "health ministry" said that the notices not to accept al-Fallujah patients were issued under the category of "security notices" but the only conclusion that can be drawn from them is that Baghdad hospitals are being ordered to give up their humanitarian role and mission for the benefit of the political and party authorities. 

Albasrah.net notes that since the US invasion, the puppet "ministry of health" has been controlled by administrative cadres selected from among leaders of the Shi'i chauvinist and collaborationist parties known as the Da'wah and Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, whose forces entered Iraq together with the US troops when they invaded the country in spring 2003. Leaders of these parties were given seats in the US-installed puppet government in occupied Baghdad. 

(Translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr)

Middle East Online reports that the puppet Iraqi government's Defence Minister, Hamiz al-Shalan, called Al-Jazeera a "channel of terrorism", when speaking to the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. 

"These allegations are baseless and we deplore them wholeheartedly," a November 23 press statement issued by Al-Jazeera said. "The minister's statement is downright defamatory and irresponsible," it said. 

Al- Jazeera said the possibility of taking al-Shalan to court for his defamatory remarks has not been ruled out. "We are studying legal aspects of the minister's public statement, as it puts the lives of Al-Jazeera's journalists and other employees in Iraq to serious risk," a channel spokesman told The Peninsula.

By Rashid Khashana, Al-Hayat, November 22, 2004

It has become clear that Israel played a major role in the battle for Fallujah, despite the American concern to conceal this fact. What news leaked of officers, soldiers, and even rabbis of dual citizenships that took part in the battles, some of which were killed by the resistance's bullets, is only the tip of the iceberg. The killing of an Israeli officer in Fallujah exposed the existence of a large number officers, snipers, and paratroopers in Iraq. Based on Israeli press statistics, Israel currently has no fewer than 1,000 officers and soldiers scattered around the American units working in Iraq. In addition, 37 rabbis are operating within the American troops, which leads to believe that the real number is greater; since Ha'aretz admitted that others are concealing their Jewish identities, which makes them self-driven Israeli citizens. Currently, there is a recruitment campaign coinciding with the escalation of the operations in Iraq, which seeks to send further assistance there. Amongst these campaigns is the incitement of Rabbi Irving Elson in his latest speech given in New York to allocate further "Fighting Rabbis" and encourage them to enlist in the American forces, in addition to another rabbi's advisory stating that those killed in Fallujah are "martyrs". 

America needs the Israelis' experience in gang wars in order to manage the battles in the Iraqi cities; given that two generations of its armed forces lack this experience since the end of the Vietnam War. However, the Israeli role is neither technical nor complementary to the American plan. Rather, it is part of the vision established by its military and political leadership prior to the launching of the war, which aims at annulling any regional role for Iraq and eliminating any threat it might cause to its future. The Israeli plan became clear due to various headlines, most prominent of which is dispatching Mossad operatives to establish offices and networks in the north, south, eliminate the Iraqi scientists and intensify the real estate purchase of property and land in the north; specifically in Arbil, Kirkuk and Mosul. This comes as a completion of the previous project, launched ten years prior to the fall of Baghdad, through Jewish Turks. 

Israel encourages the Kurdish leaderships to decentralise from Baghdad in administering their regions but at the same time, it aims at having the Kurdish parties play a pivotal role in the post-war Iraq due to the historical relations that it had established with the Kurds. More likely, Israel has advanced in developing the plan announced previously by the minister of infrastructure Joseph Paritzky that aims at laying oil pipelines from Iraq to Israel passing through Jordan; since a Turkish security report recently published by Jumhuriyet confirmed Israel's attempts to activate the line towards Haifa as soon as possible. Based on this vision, the Israelis believe that the American forces are incapable of imposing security and stability in Iraq. This obliged the Israelis to develop their own channels with the local powers beginning at the fulcrum point in the north and advancing in the implementation plan, which they had prepared prior to the fall of the former regime. However, they are now avoiding a confrontation with Turkey, which is worried from their expansion in the north. 

In this course, Israel incites the Iraqi Jews to the forefront in order to head the bridge of organising the relations with the new government and specifically intensify the trade initiatives with Iraq through Jordan. It also wants it to have a word in Iraq's destiny through the indirect influence at the Sharm El-Sheikh summit, which infuriated both Syria and Turkey. The vast and unexpected expansion of the Israeli role in various fields in Iraq, confirms that Israel is the major beneficiary in the continuity of the war, same as it is the first beneficiary from the American escalation with Iran regarding its nuclear file. Iraq is not Russia, and Iran is not China, hence they cause no threat to the US, nevertheless, they both represent a threat to the Hebrew state. In conclusion, it is possible to say that the Likudniks, who control decision-making posts in America, are using Bush's campaign against terrorism as a cover-up to accomplish Israel's objectives in Iraq. Hence, the purpose of the Fallujah battle is to break the backbone of the resistance and pave the way for the completion of the Israeli plan.

by Dahr Jamail, Inter Press Service, November 26, 2004

The US military has used poison gas and other non-conventional weapons against civilians in Fallujah, eyewitnesses report. 

"Poisonous gases have been used in Fallujah," 35-year-old trader from Fallujah Abu Hammad told IPS. "They used everything – tanks, artillery, infantry, poison gas. Fallujah has been bombed to the ground." 

Hammad is from the Julan district of Fallujah where some of the heaviest fighting occurred. Other residents of that area report the use of illegal weapons. 

"They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud," Abu Sabah, another Fallujah refugee from the Julan area told IPS. "Then small pieces fall from the air with long tails of smoke behind them." 

He said pieces of these bombs exploded into large fires that burnt the skin even when water was thrown on the burns. Phosphorous weapons as well as napalm are known to cause such effects. "People suffered so much from these," he said. 

Macabre accounts of killing of civilians are emerging through the cordon US forces are still maintaining around Fallujah. 

"Doctors in Fallujah are reporting to me that there are patients in the hospital there who were forced out by the Americans," said Mehdi Abdulla, a 33-year-old ambulance driver at a hospital in Baghdad. "Some doctors there told me they had a major operation going, but the soldiers took the doctors away and left the patient to die." 

Kassem Mohammed Ahmed who escaped from Fallujah a little over a week ago told IPS he witnessed many atrocities committed by US soldiers in the city. 

"I watched them roll over wounded people in the street with tanks," he said. "This happened so many times." 

Abdul Razaq Ismail who escaped from Fallujah two weeks back said soldiers had used tanks to pull bodies to the soccer stadium to be buried. "I saw dead bodies on the ground and nobody could bury them because of the American snipers," he said. "The Americans were dropping some of the bodies into the Euphrates near Fallujah." 

Abu Hammad said he saw people attempt to swim across the Euphrates to escape the siege. "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." 

Hammad said he had seen elderly women carrying white flags shot by US soldiers. "Even the wounded people were killed. The Americans made announcements for people to come to one mosque if they wanted to leave Fallujah, and even the people who went there carrying white flags were killed." 

Another Fallujah resident Khalil, 40, told IPS he saw civilians shot as they held up makeshift white flags. "They shot women and old men in the streets," he said. "Then they shot anyone who tried to get their bodies...Fallujah is suffering too much, it is almost gone now." 

Refugees had moved to another kind of misery now, he said. "It's a disaster living here at this camp," Khalil said. "We are living like dogs and the kids do not have enough clothes." 

Spokesman for the Iraqi Red Crescent in Baghdad Abdel Hamid Salim told IPS that none of their relief teams had been allowed into Fallujah, and that the military had said it would be at least two more weeks before any refugees would be allowed back into the city. 

"There is still heavy fighting in Fallujah," said Salim. "And the Americans won't let us in so we can help people." 

In many camps around Fallujah and throughout Baghdad, refugees are living without enough food, clothing and shelter. Relief groups estimate there are at least 15,000 refugee families in temporary shelters outside Fallujah.

By Li Jizhi and Jiang Xiaofeng, Xinhuanet, November 21, 2004

Twelve days after losing contact with a correspondent based in Fallujah, Xinhua reporters were relieved to see him report back for work in deplorable shape on Saturday. 

Abdul Rahman, a 30-year-old Fallujah resident working for Xinhua, made a phone call to the Xinhua office in Baghdad with his Iraqna mobile on Nov. 9, which became the last message Xinhua received from him. 

He reported on that day that Fallujah had been ripped into two parts controlled by US-Iraqi forces and fighters respectively. With his words still resonating, Xinhua reporters were happy to see Rahman safe and sound. 

Relaxing on a sofa for the first time after 10 days in hell, Rahman calmed down and recounted his experience as a correspondent and eyewitness of the bloody fighting in the past two weeks, as well as his tale of escaping alive. 

"I could either escape for life or stay to cover the truth. I chose the latter," he said. 

"At the beginning, the resistance in the Jolan district was strong and the American troops backed up. After rounds of air bombings, the area became relatively silent and the Americans pushed into the city with limited resistance," he recalled. Rahman could not confirm if the US forces used any chemical weapons as some newspapers claimed. 

But he told Xinhua that some doctors in Fallujah were shocked to see that many bodies were charred without apparent injuries. With fierce clashes on the ground and bombardment by US aircraft, many houses were levelled or people were killed. "My friend and I heard the groaning of some injured people under ruins of some destroyed houses, but we could do nothing for them. 

"He was the witness of a scene where six injured Iraqis dragged by several US soldiers to a street were rolled over by a tank. He also saw an Iraqi cameraman gunned down by a sniper while shooting in face of US vehicles. 

"I don't know how long it will take me to get over this," said Rahman, still reeling from what he saw. 

During the hardest period, helpless Rahman ran and crawled around, looking for shelters and food. 

In the last days, Rahman was pushed to the Shuhada district, where US Marines said they trapped most insurgents and geared up for a duel. 

Weighing the dangerous situation, Rahman decided to leave the city with the help of a friend whose shop was destroyed in the US raids. 

"I thought Abdul Rahman was killed before he came to my house a week ago and asked me to escape with him," said Qahtan Mohamed Jawad, an agricultural engineer. 

"We stayed together, ran here and there and looked for food and drinks," said the Samaritan. 

Rahman said in the city he had even met a woman whose husband and two sons were shot dead in front of her eyes when the family went to US soldiers to turn themselves in. 

Hearing her story, Rahman decided not to go to a mosque in the north which US forces said receives civilians. 

The duo also avoided the routes in the west, where helicopters and snipers were taking full positions. 

"South is the only chance," he said, "but the roads were full of dangers and we had to crawl with bare hands in darkness and hide in houses in daytime for fear of being shot by American snipers." 

"We had only one bottle of water and drank little each time. As for food, we only had dates," said Rahman. 

"On the way, we saw groups of insurgents and some spotted us. They let us go after we told them we were reporters," he said. For consecutive nights, Rahman and Jawad crawled on unpaved roads and rough fields for about 3 kms before they reached the Euphrates river and were ferried to the southwest bank. On Nov. 19, they were saved by the hospitable locals in the rural area and driven to make shift refugee camps outside Fallujah. In Amriahat, a small town near Fallujah, Rahman was reunited with his brothers who were Islamic humanitarian workers and other family members who fled the city ahead of the massive offensive. "The moment when we reached the other side of the Euphrates, I realised that we were safe," recalled Rahman, whose left arm was wrapped with gauze, a reminder of the arduous journey. The US-Iraqi forces mounted the major attack against Fallujah on Nov. 8 to retake the city from fighters loyal to Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as they claimed. 

A senior US commander said last Thursday that about 1,200 insurgents had been killed in the all-out assault, and 1,025 prisoners were held. 

Neither the Iraqi government nor the US military released any figure about civilian casualties.

By Kim Sengupta , The Independent, November 24, 2004

Allegations of widespread abuse by US forces in Fallujah, including the killing of unarmed civilians and the targeting of a hospital in an attack, have been made by people who have escaped from the city.

They said, in interviews with The Independent, that as well as deaths from bombs and artillery shells, a large number of people including children were killed by American snipers. US forces refused repeated calls for medical aid for injured civilians, they said.

Some of the killings took place in the build-up to the assault on the rebel stronghold, and at least in one case – that of the death of a family of seven, including a three-month baby – the American authorities have admitted responsibility and offered compensation.

The refugees from Fallujah describe a situation of extreme violence in which remaining civilians in the city, who have been told by the Americans to leave, appeared to have been seen as complicit in the insurgency. Men of military age were particularly vulnerable. But there are accounts of children as young as four, and women and old men being killed.

The American authorities have accused militant sympathisers of spreading disinformation, and have also claimed that people in Fallujah have exaggerated the number of casualties and the level of damage in the air campaign that preceded the assault.

The US military, which is inquiring into last week's shooting of an injured Iraqi fighter in Fallujah by a US marine, has said that any claims of abuse will be investigated. They also maintain that the dead and injured civilians may have been victims of insurgents.

The claims of abuse and killings, from different sources, appear, however, to follow a consistent pattern. Dr Ali Abbas, who arrived in Baghdad from Fallujah four days ago, worked at a clinic in the city which was bombed by the Americans. He said that at least five patients were killed.

The doctor said that the attack took place despite assurances from American officers that they were aware of its location and would ensure that it was spared military action.

Dr Abbas, 28, said: "We had five people under treatment and they were killed. We do not know why the clinic was hit. Our colleagues from the Fallujah General Hospital, which was further out in the city, had talked to the Americans and had told us that they would avoid attacking us.

"Afterwards myself and other members of staff went from house to house when we could to help people who had been hurt. Many of them died in front of us because we did not have the medicine or the facilities to carry out operations. We contacted the doctors at the Fallujah hospital and said how bad the situation was. We wanted them to evacuate the more badly injured and send drugs and more doctors. They tried to do that, but they said the Americans stopped them.

"One of things we noticed the most were the numbers of people killed by American snipers. They were not just men but women and some children as well. The youngest one I saw was a four-year-old boy. Almost all these people had been shot in the head, chest or neck."

The family of Aziz Radhi Tellaib were killed before the battle for Fallujah began. He had been driving them to Ramadi to visit relations when the car was hit by fire from an American Humvee and careered into a tributary of the Euphrates.

Mr Tellaib freed himself but could not save the rest of the family. Those who died included Mr Tellaib's wife Ahlam, 26; his sons Omar, seven, and Barat, three, and his daughter Zainab. Also killed were his niece Rokyab, 26, her three-year-old son Fadhi, and three-month-old daughter Farah.

Mr Tellaib, 33, a merchant, said: "We were stopped, in a line of cars, by some Humvees which had overtaken us. One soldier waved us forward, but as I drove up there was firing from another Humvee. I was shot in the side of the head, and my wife and elder son were shot in the chest. I think they must have died then. There was blood all over my eyes. I lost control of the car which fell into the river. I managed to get out, and then tried to get the others out, but I could not and the car sank.

"The Americans told the police that it was all a mistake, and I could get compensation. But what about my family? My life has gone. They might as well have killed me as well."

Rahim Abdullah, 46, a teacher, said that anyone in the street was regarded by the Americans as the enemy. "I was trying to get to my uncle's house, waving a piece of white cloth as we had been advised when they started shooting at me. I saw two men being shot. They were just ordinary people. The only way to stay alive was to stay inside and hope your house did not get hit by a shell."

By Richard Hoffman, November 24, 2004

Even as US forces launch new offensives against Iraqi cities, the flow of reports of serious war crimes committed by the American military in the assault on Fallujah continues. The United States and world media have focussed on one incident that occurred in full view of a television crew – the slaying of a defenceless Iraqi prisoner. It has been portrayed as an isolated incident.

On the contrary, all the independent evidence establishes beyond any doubt that the killings and destruction committed by US forces were so gross and deliberate that the name Fallujah will be recorded in the history books alongside such infamous atrocities as the 1937 bombing of Guernica, the crushing of the 1944 Warsaw uprising and the Vietnam War.

In its very conception, the onslaught on Fallujah was a calculated and illegal mass reprisal against the city and its inhabitants. It was undisguised revenge for the failure of the earlier operation by US forces in April 2004 to destroy the resistance of the city. It was conducted in flagrant and contemptuous violation of all the Geneva Conventions on the laws of war, which were adopted in 1949 in response to the horrors of the Second World War, and in particular the atrocities inflicted by the Nazi armed forces in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

In a pep talk before the operation, Sergeant Major Carlton Kent, the most senior enlisted marine in Iraq, told his troops: "You’re all in the process of making history. This is another Hue city in the making. I have no doubt if we do get the word that each and every one of you is going to do what you have always done – kick some butt." (The former Vietnamese imperial capital of Hue was nearly destroyed by the US military while attempting to counter the Tet Offensive in 1968.)

New York Post columnist and former military officer Ralph Peters summed up the mentality guiding the White House and Pentagon. "We must not be afraid to make an example of Fallujah. We need to demonstrate that the United States military cannot be deterred or defeated. If that means widespread destruction, we must accept the price... Even if Fallujah has to go the way of Carthage, reduced to shards, the price will be worth it."

There is an objective, historical measure by which the actions of the Bush administration and the US forces can be judged. All acts of reprisal and collective punishment are explicitly outlawed by the 1949 Geneva Conventions, under Protocol 1, which was adopted in 1977. Article 51, Protocol 1 states: "Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or terrorism are prohibited."

The scale and frenzied character of the slaughter had an almost psychotic character to it. For over a week the city was subjected to awesome air and ground bombardment of a kind which militarily would only be justified by the presence of massive defensive forces and installations. The size of some of the bombs used (up to 2000 lbs) were greater than any used by Luftwaffe dive-bombers in the attacks on Poland, France and Russia.

The obliteration of much of the city was designed to terrify the entire Iraqi population into submission and to cower all further resistance to US military aggression throughout the country. Article 51 plainly prohibits "acts or threats of violence, the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population...."

The opening stages of the attack included the capture or pinpointed destruction of the city’s medical facilities and the killing of medical staff. During the week-long operation, virtually all medical facilities were rendered inoperable. Humanitarian and medical aid was refused access to the city in order to heighten the trauma and suffering of the wounded.

Article 18 of Convention IV states: "Civilian hospitals organised to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict."

The protection given to civilian hospitals is regarded as so paramount that Article 19 states that it is no excuse that "sick or wounded members of the armed forces are nursed in these hospitals", nor is "the presence of small arms and ammunition taken from such combatants which have not yet been handed to the proper service".

The bombardment of Fallujah was indiscriminate, as was the killing of the population. There was no distinction made between civilians and resistance fighters. All males in the city between 15 and 55 were specifically targeted. As the carnage was wreaked upon the city people attempting to flee the city were shot. There are reports of whole families being shot and killed as they tried to swim across the Euphrates River to escape.

Article 51 of Protocol 1 further provides: "The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack... Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are: (a) those which are not directed at a specific military objective; (b) those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective; or (c) those which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by this Protocol."

An indiscriminate attack is also defined as one "which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated".

Houses and buildings in which people were detected – often with the use of heat-detection equipment – were strafed with machine gun fire and subjected to artillery attack, irrespective of the identify of those inside. Many hundreds of dead and wounded civilians are buried beneath the city rubble. Dozens more lay strewn across streets and footpaths throughout the city. The death toll will never be known but it is probably in the many thousands.

Protocol I, Article 18 states: "The Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives."

Significantly, not a shred of evidence has emerged from the smoking ruins of Fallujah to back the US propaganda that the resistance was primarily comprised of foreign terrorists or that such terrorists were holding the city "hostage". On the contrary, it is clear from events that a legitimate armed struggle of Iraqi citizens against the violent and illegal occupation by the United States is underway.

Even assuming, however, that the reasons asserted by the US for its destruction of Fallujah had any truth in them, that is, that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and others were using Fallujah as their base, this could never amount to a legitimate justification for what was perpetrated by US forces. Article 50, Protocol I says: "The presence within the civilian population of persons that do not come within the definition of civilian does not deprive the population of its civilian character."

The laws of war

In its onslaught on the people of Fallujah, the United States has repudiated the modern laws of war, which have evolved over nearly 400 years. In their most developed form these laws reflect the attempts of civilised society to reduce the suffering of war to a minimum and to insist, to the fullest extent possible, on its humane conduct.

In 1625 the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius, in his work On the Law of War and Peace, first condemned the conception that one nation could attack another "arbitrarily or for profit". This was the origin of the modern international legal doctrine outlawing wars of aggression.

The US war crimes in Iraq, beginning with last year’s invasion, are being carried out arbitrarily and for profit. Specifically, Washington is seeking to gain control of the oil and gas resources of the Middle East and Central Asia in an effort to reverse the decline in the position of heavily-indebted US capitalism in the world economy.

The Geneva Conventions emerged directly from the experience of the American Civil War. The horrible suffering in that conflict, which was the first modern technological war, resulted in 12 nations signing the First Geneva Convention in 1864. It dealt primarily with the care of sick and wounded military personnel, treatment of prisoners and the neutrality and protection of medical personnel and hospitals. In the first war crimes trial conducted on American soil – in 1865 – Confederate officer Henry Wirz was convicted and hanged for the murder of Union prisoners of war.

War crimes committed overseas can also be prosecuted under US law. Serious infractions of the Geneva Conventions and Protocols are criminal offences under the federal War Crimes Act 1996. This law provides for penalties including life imprisonment and death in cases where a victim of criminal conduct dies.

As US imperialism unleashes its terrifying violence in the Middle East, the world should recall the trials at Nuremberg in 1946. In his judgment, the British judge, Judge Parker said:

"The evidence relating to war crimes has been overwhelming, in its volume and its detail. The truth remains that war crimes were committed on a vast scale, never before seen in the history of war... There can be no doubt that the majority of them arose from the Nazi conceptions of ‘total war’, with which the aggressive wars were waged. For in this conception of ‘total war’ the moral ideas underlying the conventions which seek to make war more humane are no longer regarded as having force or validity. Everything is made subordinate to the overmastering dictates of war. Rules, regulations, assurances, and treaties all alike are of no moment, and so, freed from the restraining influence of international law, the aggressive war is conducted by the Nazi leaders in the most barbaric way. Accordingly war crimes were committed when and wherever the Fuhrer and his close associates thought them to be advantageous. They were for the most part the result of cold and criminal calculations."

These words could be written about the Bush administration. Taking place in the immediate aftermath of its re-election, the war crime of Fallujah is a grave warning of the future direction of the American ruling class. The US administration and its puppet government in Iraq face a political and military quagmire. The interim regime under Allawi has no social base to speak of, in either the Shiite south or the Sunni regions. Hence the ferocity of the American forces. But the destruction of Fallujah has only compounded all the political and military problems.

As the debacle deepens and America’s imperial mission in the Middle East suffers further reversals, the clamour for more troops will get louder in the administration and in the media. The New York Times has already called for a further 40,000 troops. (See New York Times calls for more troops in Iraq, November 9, 2004.) Soon we may hear calls for a new version of "total war".

By Rick Kelly, World Socialist Web Site, November 26, 2004

A study conducted by the Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science, a Norwegian research group, found that acute malnutrition among Iraqi children between the ages of six months and five years has increased from 4 percent to 7.7 percent since the US-led invasion in March last year.

"It’s in the level of some African countries," Jon Pederson, the institute’s deputy managing director, told Associated Press. "Of course, no child should be malnourished, but when we’re getting to levels of 7 to 8 percent, it’s a clear sign of concern."

The findings were based on a survey conducted in April and May of 22,000 Iraqi homes. The study, which is yet to be officially released, was assisted by Iraq’s central office for statistics and information technology, as well as the United Nations Development Programme.

Carol Bellamy, head of UNICEF, the UN’s children’s agency, condemned the war for its impact on Iraqi children. "War is waged by adults, but it is the children who suffer the most. This protracted fighting and instability is wreaking havoc on Iraqi children."

Approximately 400,000 Iraqi children now suffer from malnutrition. Affected children usually have stunted physical growth, as well as irreparably retarded mental development. The condition also leaves children vulnerable to other diseases and infections, including pneumonia and gastroenteritis.

The condition of Iraqi children stands as another indictment of the US occupation. The war, compounding the devastating effects of the first Gulf War and the subsequent sanctions regime, has devastated what was once a comparatively advanced society and economy. As the Washington Post noted last Sunday, the most pressing nutrition problem facing Iraqi youth a generation ago was obesity.

Malnutrition only became a serious problem in the aftermath of the Gulf War. With the US leading a United Nations-backed embargo of many foods and medicines, acute malnutrition in Iraqi children peaked at 11 percent in 1996. Only with the introduction of the "oil for food" programme did this rate begin to decline. By 2002 it was down to 4 percent.

Child malnourishment has again escalated under the occupation. The problem is bound up with the general social and economic crisis that has wracked Iraq since the invasion. Some 6.5 million Iraqis remain dependent on food rations. The poorest Iraqis frequently trade these rations for desperately needed medicine and clothing.

The Iraqi economy has been shattered, with unemployment estimated to be as high as 60 or 70 percent. The widespread poverty makes it very difficult for millions of families to afford adequate food for young children, or to purchase nutritional supplements necessary for the treatment of the malnourished.

The Washington Post reported on the situation in Baghdad’s main children’s hospital:

"‘Things have been worse for me since the war,’ said Kasim Said, a day labourer [visiting]his ailing year-old son, Abdullah. The child, lying on a pillow with a Winnie the Pooh washcloth to keep the flies off his head, weighs just 11 pounds.

"‘During the previous regime, I used to work on the government projects. Now there are no projects,’ his father said.

"When he finds work, he added, he can bring home $10 to $14 a day. If his wife is fortunate enough to find a can of Isomil, the nutritional supplement that doctors recommend, she pays $7 for it.

"‘But the lady in the next bed said she just paid $10," said Suad Ahmed, who sat cross-legged on a bed in the same ward, trying to console her skeletal four-month-old granddaughter, Hiba, who suffers from chronic diarrhoea."

An absence of consistent electricity and clean water supply in many parts of Iraq has also contributed to the massive increase in child malnutrition. The ongoing power shortages make it difficult for many people to boil unsafe drinking water. "Even myself, I suffer from the quality of water," Zina Yahya, a nurse in a Baghdad maternity hospital, declared. "If you put it in a glass, you can see it’s turbid. I’ve heard of typhoid cases."

The Iraqi health system has virtually collapsed. "From August to October 2004, Iraq’s health care system regressed considerably, moving further away from the tipping point," concluded a recent study conducted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. "In fact, of all the sectors reviewed for this report, health care had the most negative movement. Iraq’s health care system is currently incapable of providing adequate basic health care to the majority of the population."

The health crisis in Iraq underscores the cynicism of the Bush administration’s claim to have liberated Iraq. Of the $18.4 billion allocated by Congress last year for Iraqi reconstruction, only $2 million has been spent on the health system. Last month the State Department cut the projected budget for repairing the electricity network by $1.1 billion, and water and sanitation infrastructure by $1.9 billion.

When former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator Paul Bremer left Baghdad after the so-called "transfer of sovereignty" in June 2004, he left behind the 100 orders he enacted as chief of the occupation authority in Iraq. Among them is Order 81 on "Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety". This order amends Iraq's original patent law of 1970 and unless and until it is revised or repealed by a new Iraqi government, it now has the status and force of a binding law.

For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free innovation with and exchange of planting materials among farming communities has long been the basis of agricultural practice. This has been made illegal under the new law. The seeds that farmers are now allowed to plant – "protected" crop varieties brought into Iraq by transnational corporations in the name of agricultural reconstruction – will be the property of the corporations. The new law is presented as being necessary to ensure the supply of good quality seeds in Iraq and to facilitate Iraq's accession to the WTO. What it will actually do is facilitate the penetration of Iraqi agriculture by the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow Chemical – the corporate giants that control seed trade across the globe.

("Grain", October 2004)