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JB Stone
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 Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 10:34 am Post subject: |
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THE BAD GUYS TALK BACK:
IRAQ: Zarqawi goads supporters
News.com.au ^ | November 16, 2004 | From correspondents in Dubai
AN audiotape on an Islamist website purportedly from Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, urged his supporters to brace for new battles against US forces after the showdown in Fallujah.
"The enemy... has mobilised most of its assets and potential to destroy Islam in Fallujah. Once they have finished in Fallujah, they will head towards you," the voice on the tape said, urging insurgents to seize the initiative.
"Be cautious and foil their plan," he said, in an implicit recognition that the week-long battle in Fallujah, the rebel hotspot west of Baghdad, was virtually lost for the insurgents under US assault for the past week.
The message was addressed to "the heroes of Baghdad and Al-Anbar", the province which is home to Fallujah, to "the lions of Mosul" in northern Iraq and the "lion cubs of Diyala, Samarra and Salahadin".
"The enemy are avoiding fighting us for fear of being dispersed and of a war of attrition," and "they are weak and cannot widen the battle," it said, warning that US forces would confront one insurgent stronghold after another.
"Don't be satisfied with repelling them from your territory... Shower them with rockets and mortar rounds," said the man claiming to be Zarqawi, apparently giving orders to his fighters.
"Cut all their supply lines, the main and secondary ones... and carry out ambushes on these routes," he said, in the message whose authenticity was impossible to verify.
"Make sure that the initiative in the battle remains in your hands ... Prolong the battle because each day, for them, is worse than the one before," said the voice.
"The enemy is counting on the time factor to reduce the rhythm of the battle and lessen its intensity," he said.
In a similar message posted on the Internet on November 12, a voice attributed to Zarqawi, who has a $US25m bounty on his head, called on his fighters to resist.
Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda-linked group has claimed responsibility for a number of the most ferocious attacks in Iraq, including car bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.
| Quote: | OH, THEY'LL TALK....
Wounded Of Fallujah Are Pressed To Inform
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 11-16-2004 | Toby Harnden
Posted on 11/15/2004 6:25:56 PM PST by blam
Wounded of Fallujah are pressed to inform
By Toby Harnden in Fallujah
(Filed: 16/11/2004)
The new patients at the field aid station screamed out in agony as they were gently laid on stretchers. Fresh from the battlefield, flies swarmed around their infected wounds. US army medics barked out orders beside the makeshift triage beds.
But the four men being treated were not American soldiers. Blindfolded, stripped to the waist, the tags tied to their stretchers identified them as "EPWs" - enemy prisoners of war.
Disorientated and perhaps bewildered, they were surrounded by doctors and US interrogators with their translators, seeking to gain intelligence that might be of use in the battle for Fallujah.
The four were all foreigners - three Jordanians and a Sudanese. "These were the guys shooting RPGs [Rocket Propelled Grenades] at us," said a burly military intelligence NCO.
"They came out of their holes and just surrendered. We can't get any straight stories. They all say they came to work."
This was the same field aid station where a mortally injured lieutenant had been brought just 24 hours before. Suffering from a direct hit to the abdomen with an RPG, he died shortly after being evacuated to the Bravo Surgical hospital at Camp Fallujah.
Prisoner 14/3 cried out as his shattered left leg was bandaged. It had been broken several days earlier and doctors said it might have to be amputated.
He said his name was Abbas Yousef, an 18-year-old Jordanian. "I was brought to Baghdad in a truck to work in a hotel," he said when asked why he had been fighting the Americans.
"The mujahadin asked me what I was doing here. They forced me to fight. They wouldn't let me call anyone for help. I wanted to go back Jordan." He said a "man from Tunis" had been in charge of him. "I was paid $100 a month and given food and supplies."
Asked about Omar Hadid, an alleged leader of foreign fighters in the city, he at first said that he was dead, then changed his story. "What do you want? I can help you. I will tell you everything you want. I can get you any information you want."
Prisoner 14/5's story was equally incoherent. Suffering from a gun shot wound to the shoulder, he said he was Mohammed Khalid, a Sudanese who had been living in Saudi Arabia.
"I know nothing about Iraq," he shouted as a medic pressed a dressing on his arm. He came to work in a petrol station, he insisted. Between moans he said he was in Fallujah to find work but had been stranded when his money and passport had been stolen. "They're all liars," said the military intelligence NCO.
Lt Gregory McCrum, the Task Force 2-2 medical officer, said treating prisoners showed US forces had "a higher moral compass" than the insurgents. In addition, fighters could provide valuable intelligence if captured rather than killed.
"I have a sense of animosity against these individuals due to the fact they've taken up arms against us. But by the same token it's important to get them better so they can contribute information that might be able to save the life of an American."
Beside the aid station, battle-weary Task Force 2-2 soldiers debated whether prisoners should be helped. "They made a mistake not shooting those guys," said one.
"We can't do that, dude," another said angrily. "That would make us barbarians. We're Americans. They'll go to Guantanamo and have a nice stay at our facility there."
•The Black Watch could be returning home earlier than expected as the American assault on Fallujah winds down.
The 850-man battle group will take a week to withdraw to before they can be flown back to their headquarters in Warminister, Wilts.
The Black Watch weren't scheduled to leave until Dec 3 when a 30-day mission to secure the rear of the US advance comes to an end.
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“We were happy you did what you did because Fallujah had been suffocated by the Mujahidin,” he said, recalling arbitrary killings of anyone who failed to adhere to the strict doctrine of the Wahhabi hardliners. “Anyone considered suspicious would be slaughtered. We would see unknown corpses around the city all the time.”
Survivors emerge on to shattered streets of Fallujah
From James Hider in Fallujah
OVER the rubble-strewn streets of Fallujah the voice from the loudspeaker on the minaret is no longer a call to jihad, destruction or death.
As the fighting tapers off to isolated pockets in the southern fringes of the city, the broadcast is an offer of help by the Iraqi Army to the traumatised people of this former rebel bastion.
Few are heeding the call. Only a tiny number of people have ventured out of their houses since the massive air, artillery and ground assault was launched by the American military to wrest the city from insurgents a week ago. Without electricity, television or radio, some may not even know that the assault is almost over.
Yesterday, however, a handful of dazed people did stumble out of their homes, where they have been running low on food and water, to see what the new order would bring. After seven months in guerrilla hands, the United States took back the city on the Euphrates in just seven days — but at a cost. Scores of houses have been bombed flat, the roads are churned up by tank tracks and most buildings show some evidence of the raging battle — bullet holes, smashed windows, walls ploughed down by armoured vehicles. Several mosques used by insurgents as bases or weapons stashes have been reduced to rubble.
Other areas have emerged relatively unscathed, although these, too, appear to be devoid of inhabitants. As stories of terrorist atrocities emerge, it is becoming clear that the people of Fallujah have long become accustomed to keeping their heads down.
Never a particularly presentable city, it is sometimes hard to tell what has been damaged by war and what has simply fallen down. Yet it was always a bustling place, with a busy market, and a traffic hub, its main street forever choked with cars and lorries heading in from Jordan.
Now the only traffic is the huge olive and khaki monsters of the US Marines and US Army, with the occasional white pick-up used by the Iraqi Army. The Iraqi soldiers are trying to lure out the residents to allow their medical staff to treat the sick and wounded.
Most of the civilians who stayed behind were the city’s heads of families, trying to prevent their homes from being looted. Under the strict rules of the military, all men of fighting age are being detained and vetted. Some Iraqi army units have picked up as many as 500 men, some of whom recount how guerrilla snipers shot any people who tried to leave their home once the fight was on.
Even those who had been hurt in the attack appeared to be happy to see the American troops. One half-naked elderly man in underwear stained with blood from wounds inflicted by a US shell cursed the insurgents as he greeted advancing Marines. “I wish the Americans had come here the very first day and not waited eight months,” he said.
Another old man, who had been imprisoned by the rebels and was then petrified by the US assault, praised the American troops for driving out the gunmen. “We were happy you did what you did because Fallujah had been suffocated by the Mujahidin,” he said, recalling arbitrary killings of anyone who failed to adhere to the strict doctrine of the Wahhabi hardliners. “Anyone considered suspicious would be slaughtered. We would see unknown corpses around the city all the time.” |
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JB Stone
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| Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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Mail Call, Stress Break:
A Marine of the 1st Division takes a nap as his unit gets mail delivered to the frontline in Fallujah, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004.
Marines of the 1st Division gather as their unit gets mail delivered to the frontline in Fallujah, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004.
| Quote: | 
An Iraqi man carries a casket in a funeral procession in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004, for victims killed in an insurgent mortar strike in the Dora section of the capital on Monday. The attack killed seven Iraqis and wounded seven others, including women and children, hospital officials and residents said.
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U.S. Army personnel receive an American soldier with shrapnel wounds to the head at the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq Monday, Nov. 15, 2004.
| Quote: | Al-Jazeera 'Won't Broadcast Hostage Murder Video'
"PA"
Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera said today that it had received a videotape showing the slaying of a woman believed to be British hostage Margaret Hassan but would not broadcast the footage.
“We don’t show acts of killing,” said Jihad Ballout, Al-Jazeera spokesman. “We’ve never done it before, outside war.”
He said the station received the tape a few days ago but was not sure of its authenticity until recently.
He had initially said the station would broadcast parts of the video.
Ballout said the video showed a hooded person firing a pistol into the head of a blindfolded woman, wearing an orange jumpsuit.
“She was presumed to be Mrs Hassan,” he told The Associated Press.
He said the station had shown the tape to British officials at the station’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar, to help identify the woman.
In London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said experts had examined the video.
“As a result of our analysis we have today had to inform Margaret Hassan’s family that, sadly, we now believe that she has probably been murdered, although we cannot conclude this with complete certainty.”
He expressed his sympathy to Hassan’s family and strongly condemned the killing.
“To kidnap and kill anyone is inexcusable. But it is repugnant to commit such a crime against a woman who has spent most of her life working for the good of the people of Iraq,” Straw said in a statement.
Hassan, an Irish-British-Iraqi citizen who headed CARE International in Iraq, was abducted on October 19 from her car in Baghdad. No group has claimed responsibility for her kidnapping.
In an emotional appeal on Al-Jazeera, Hassan’s husband said he had heard of the video but did not know whether it was authentic. He asked the kidnappers to return his wife to him.
“I appeal to those who took my wife (to tell me) what they did with her. They can contact me or the Iraqi Peace Organisation. I want my wife, dead or alive. If she is dead, please let me know of her whereabouts so I can bury her in peace,” he said, his voice choked with tears.
Her four brothers and sisters said they believe Hassan is dead.
“Our hearts are broken,” they said in a statement. “We have kept hoping for as long as we could, but we now have to accept that Margaret has probably gone and at last her suffering has ended.”
“Those who are guilty of this atrocious act, and those who support them, have no excuses.”
CARE said in a statement: “It is with profound sadness that we have learned of the existence of a video in which it appears that our colleague Margaret Hassan has been killed. ... The whole of CARE is in mourning.”
On Sunday, US Marines found the mutilated body of what they believe was a Western woman on a street in a Fallujah during the US assault on the insurgent stronghold. Besides Hassan, the only Western woman known held was Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born longtime resident of Iraq who was seized last month.
On November 2, Al-Jazeera reported that Hassan’s kidnappers had threatened to turn her over to al Qaida-linked militants notorious for beheading hostages unless Britain agreed within 48 hours to pull its troops from Iraq.
But three days later, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s al Qaida in Iraq group called for Hassan’s release and promised to free her if she fell into their hands.
In a message posted on the Internet, al-Zarqawi’s group said it wanted the world to know “if (the kidnappers of Hassan) handed us this captive, we will release her immediately unless it is proven she was conspiring against Muslims.”
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, but it was signed “al Qaida in Iraq” and it appeared on a website known for publishing messages from Islamic militant groups.
Born in Ireland, Hassan also held British and Iraqi citizenship. She lived in Iraq for 30 years and married an Iraqi.
In its statement, her family said: “Nobody can justify this. Margaret was against sanctions and the war. To commit such a crime against anyone is unforgivable. But we cannot believe how anybody could do this to our kind, compassionate sister.
“The gap she leaves will never be filled.” |
U.S. doctor: Armor, evacuations save lives
By TONY CZUCZKA, Associated Press Writer
(Updated Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 11:00 AM)
AP Photo/MICHAEL PROBST
From left: U.S. Col. Rhonda Cornum, Commander of Landstuhl Medical Regional Center, Colonel Todd Hess, deputy manager of clinical services and Maj. Kendra Whyatt, head nurse, are seen during a press conference in Landstuhl, southern Germany, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. More than 70 U.S. soldiers from Iraq were flown Saturday to a military hospital in Germany, most of them wounded in the battle for Fallujah, officials said. The 73 new patients at the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center pushed the number of arrivals this week to 412, nearly all of whom were injured in Fallujah, a hospital spokeswoman said. Bed capacity at the hospital in rural western Germany has been increased to handle the influx.
AP Photo/MICHAEL PROBST
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LANDSTUHL, Germany (AP) - The commander of the biggest U.S. military hospital abroad said Tuesday that American troops' body armor and speedy evacuations appear to be helping save lives in the Fallujah offensive, where house-to-house fighting has brought a fresh stream of casualties.
"A lot of it has to do with the fact that we have very good personal protective equipment," Col. Rhonda Cornum, the head of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, told The Associated Press. "I think the body armor has worked very well for many things."
Landstuhl doctors often see injuries to troops' hands, arms or feet "but nothing with the trunk and the back" because the body armor protects those parts, Cornum said.
But "obviously plenty of people are still getting badly hurt," she said.
Protective gear can make the difference between injury and death, influencing how many troops survive with wounds for every soldier killed in battle. Landstuhl keeps no such comparisons, but Cornum said she believes steady improvements in airborne evacuations for injured troops and field hospital technology have shifted the balance toward survival, including in Iraq.
"I suspect we are saving a much higher percentage than we have in the past," she said in a telephone interview.
Landstuhl, a hub for seriously wounded U.S. soldiers from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, has gotten 465 patients in the past week, at least 233 of them with combat injuries.
The flow of injured to the hilltop hospital in western Germany has jumped to about twice the normal rate since the U.S.-led assault on Fallujah began early last week, and most of the combat casualties have come from there, military officials have said.
Troops fighting in the insurgent stronghold have generally suffered the same kinds of wounds as their comrades in other combat in Iraq, Cornum said. That includes wounds from bombs the military calls improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. "What we've seen is the same mix of gunshots, IED blasts and a small number of burns," she said.
"We just obviously saw a surge in the number of them" because of the intensity of the fighting in Fallujah, she said.
Cornum, 50, draws on her own Iraq experiences in running the hospital, which has a medical staff of 400.
During the 1990-91 Gulf war, she was shot down aboard a Black Hawk helicopter on a mission to recover a downed U.S. Air Force pilot. Iraqis held her prisoner for eight days.
"I understand in some reasonable measure what a military guy who's been wounded in battle is feeling and concerned with," she said. "That helps me take care of those needs."
Landstuhl has gotten used to treating victims of war and terrorism, including those from two U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa in 1998, the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and, more recently, Afghanistan and Iraq.
But Cornum, in charge since mid-2003, said emotions still come into play.
"For me, the hardest thing is very young people," she said. "I've been happy to find the outstanding attitude of most of them."
| Quote: | WESLEY THE WEENIE CRITICIZES IRAQ WAR, FALLUJAH VICTORY...
Military 'victory' won't be enough in Fallujah
BY WESLEY K. CLARK
Gen. Wesley K. Clark, supreme Allied commander in Europe during the war in Kosovo, was a candidate for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. This is from The Washington Post.
November 16, 2004
Americans scouring news reports of the U.S.-led assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah can be forgiven if they are experiencing a degree of confusion and uncertainty.
Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assures us that U.S. and Iraqi government forces advanced steadily through the insurgent stronghold and that the assault has been "very, very successful."
Yet, even as troops move street by street through the Sunni city, the measure of their success is elusive. There's no uniformed enemy force, no headquarters, no central command complex for U.S. troops to occupy and win. At the end, there will be no surrender.
Instead, the outcome of the battle must be judged by a less clear-cut standard: not by the seizure and occupation of ground, but by the impact it has on the political and diplomatic process in Iraq.
Its chances for success in that area are highly uncertain. Will Fallujah, like the famous Vietnam village, be the place we destroyed in order to save it? Will the bulk of the insurgents simply scatter to other Iraqi cities? Will we win a tactical victory only to fail in our strategic goal of convincing Iraqis that we are making their country safe for democracy - and specifically for elections at the end of January? An attack on Fallujah has been inevitable for many months.
If we are to succeed in the democratization of Iraq, the interim government and its U.S. and coalition allies must have a "monopoly" on the use of force within the country's borders. There can be no sanctuaries for insurgents and terrorists, no fiefdoms run by private armies. Fallujah could not continue to be a base for those waging war on the Iraqi government and a no-go place for those organizing elections.
Now that we have engaged, there cannot be any doubt about the outcome. It, too, is inevitable. U.S. forces don't "lose" on the battlefield these days. We haven't lost once in Iraq. Nor in Afghanistan. Not in the Balkans, or in the first Gulf War. Nor in Panama. We fight where we are told and win where we fight. We are well-trained, disciplined and, when we prepare adequately, exceedingly well equipped. We will take the city, and with relatively few U.S. casualties. And we will have killed a lot of people who were armed and resisting us.
But in what sense is this "winning?" To win means not just to occupy the city, but to do so in a way that knocks the local opponent permanently out of the fight, demoralizes broader resistance and builds legitimacy for U.S. aims, methods and allies. Seen this way, the battle for Fallujah is not just a matter of shooting. It is part of a larger bargaining process that has included negotiations, threats and staged preparations to pressure insurgent groups into preemptive surrender, to deprive them of popular tolerance and support, and to demonstrate to the Iraqi people and to others that force was used only as a last resort in order to gain increased legitimacy for the interim Iraqi government.
Even the use of force required a further calculus. Had we relentlessly destroyed the city and killed large numbers of innocent civilians, or suffered crippling losses in the fighting, we most certainly would have been judged "losers." And if we can't hold on and prevent the insurgents from infiltrating back in - as has now occurred in the recently "liberated" city of Samarra - we also shall have lost.
We should be under no illusions: This is not so much a war as it is an effort to birth a nation. It is past time for the administration to undertake diplomatic efforts in the region and political efforts inside Iraq that are worthy of the risks and burdens born by our men and women in uniform.
No one knows better than they do: You cannot win in Iraq simply by killing the opponent. Much as we honor our troops and pray for their well-being, if diplomacy fails, their sacrifices and even their successes in Fallujah won't be enough. |
AS IT SHOULD BE...
U.S. MARINES RALLY ROUND IRAQ PROBE COMRADE
Reuters ^ | 11/16/04
Posted on 11/16/2004 7:01:14 AM PST by areafiftyone
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Marines rallied round a comrade under investigation for killing a wounded Iraqi during the offensive in Falluja, saying he was probably under combat stress in unpredictable, hair-trigger circumstances.
Marines interviewed on Tuesday said they didn't see the shooting as a scandal, rather the act of a comrade who faced intense pressure during the effort to quell the insurgency in the city.
"I can see why he would do it. He was probably running around being shot at for days on end in Falluja. There should be an investigation but they should look into the circumstances," said Lance Corporal Christopher Hanson.
"I would have shot the insurgent too. Two shots to the head," said Sergeant Nicholas Graham, 24, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "You can't trust these people. He should not be investigated. He did nothing wrong."
The military command launched an investigation after video footage showed a U.S. Marine shooting a wounded and unarmed man in a mosque in the city on Saturday. The man was one of five wounded and left in the mosque after Marines fought their way through the area.
A pool report by NBC correspondent Kevin Sites said the mosque had been used by insurgents to attack U.S. forces, who stormed it, killing 10 militants and wounding the five. Sites said the wounded had been left for others to pick up.
A second group of Marines entered the mosque on Saturday after reports it had been reoccupied. Footage from the embedded television crew showed the five still in the mosque, although several appeared to be close to death, Sites said.
He said a Marine noticed one prisoner was still breathing.
A Marine can be heard saying on the pool footage provided to Reuters Television: "He's ******* faking he's dead."
"The Marine then raises his rifle and fires into the man's head," Sites said.
NBC said the Marine, who had reportedly been shot in the face himself the previous day, said immediately after the shooting: "Well, he's dead now."
THOROUGH PROBE PROMISED
The Marine commander in Falluja, Lieutenant General John Sattler, said his men followed the law of conflict and held themselves to a high standard of accountability.
"The facts of this case will be thoroughly pursued to make an informed decision and to protect the rights of all persons involved," he said.
Marines have repeatedly described the rebels they fought against in Falluja as ruthless fighters who didn't play by the rules. They say the investigation is politically motivated.
"It's all political. This Marine has been under attack for days. It has nothing to do with what he did," said Corporal Keith Hoy, 23.
Rights group Amnesty International said on Monday both sides in the Falluja fighting had broken the rules of war governing the protection of civilians and wounded combatants.
Gunnery Sergeant Christopher Garza, 30, favored an investigation but like other Marines said the Pentagon should weigh its decision carefully.
"He should have captured him. Maybe the insurgent had some valuable information. There may have been mitigating circumstances. Maybe his two buddies died in Falluja," he said.
Sites said: "I have witnessed the Marines behaving as a disciplined and professional force throughout this offensive. In this particular case, it certainly was a confusing situation to say the least."
| Quote: | Uncut Video Of Fallujah Marine Incident In Question
Northeast Intelligence Network | 11/16/04
A copy of the video showing a US soldier shooting an injured Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque has been posted by jihadis on the Ansar message board.
In the video you can see the soldier yelling "He's [expletive] faking it, he's [expletive] faking it", then he shoots the soldier.
It is important to keep in perspective that there have been other incidents in Fallujah in recent days where terrorists have faked injuries and then attacked coalition soldiers.
http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/Video%202.rm |
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GiveMeFreedom
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Paul R.
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| Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:43 am Post subject: "Drones pick off 'rats' of Fallujah" |
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"Drones pick off 'rats' of Fallujah"
This says "The Times" at the end, but I found it in a really interesting Australian online newspaper "The Australian". Many interesting articles besides this/ lots of good info. you don't see much of here in the good 'ol USA.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11398924%255E2703,00.html
| Quote: | Drones pick off 'rats' of Fallujah
James Hider, Fallujah
November 16, 2004
THE last hours of the mujaheddin are terrifying. With the city they once ruled with the absolute authority of medieval caliphs now overrun by US and Iraqi troops, they have to keep moving. To pause even for a few minutes can mean instant death from an unseen enemy.
A group of 15 fighters dressed in black and carrying an array of weapons ducked into a two-storey house in war-torn southern Fallujah. Their movement was picked up by an unmanned spy plane that beamed back live footage to a control centre on the edge of the city. Within minutes, an airstrike was called and the house disappeared in a giant plume of grey smoke.
From a house across the road, the explosion flushed out another group of guerillas. Deafened by the blast, they stumbled out into the street, formed a ragged line and started off on the marathon to postpone their deaths, the drone dogging their every step.
"The rats are trying to move about," said Major Tim Karcher, of the Second Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, as the figures flitted from street to street, seeking cover close to walls.
Sometimes they can throw off the drone, ducking out of sight of the men with the power to summon FA18 fighter-bombers or 155mm artillery strikes. But they have no way of knowing. And, increasingly, as they run they come into the crosshairs of American snipers, crack shots such as Sergeant Marc Veen and his long-barrelled rifle, Lucille.
Yesterday morning he spotted a black-clad man with an AK47 assault rifle peering round a corner 450m from the villa where Cougar Company of the Seventh Cavalry has set up a forward base. He shot the man in the stomach: he fell, but kept crawling, so Sergeant Veen shot him again in the shoulder. Still the man tried to move away, so the sergeant blasted him with his 50 calibre machinegun.
"There's pretty much no feeling," explained the 24-year-old from Chicago, perched on the parapet of the house, the shell of the killer bullet tucked as a trophy into his flak jacket. "If I didn't get that guy, that guy would get one of my buddies sometime later down the line."
The battle for Fallujah is all but over. The main north-south road in the once-dreaded Jolan district is a US military highway, smothered in dust kicked up by troop carriers and giant bulldozers.
Almost every building is cracked, chipped or holed by the fighting. Any guerilla who could make his way back up from the last pockets of resistance in the south would see the mujaheddin graffiti – "Jihad, jihad jihad, God is Greatest and Islam will win" – replaced by slogans daubed by the US-backed Iraqi Army, posted along the length of the route. Standing on a street reeking of decomposed bodies, the ruins of a five-floor building silhouetted behind him, Lieutenant Fares Ahmed Hassan said the destroyed city would send a strong message to a nation where force has long been the lingua franca of government.
"When the people of Fallujah come back and see their houses, they will kick out any terrorists. This will be an example to all Iraqi cities," the Kurdish officer said.
Apart from a handful of women and children, the only civilians he had encountered were men of fighting age, about 500, detained for vetting. He said that some civilians had said insurgent snipers had shot anyone trying to leave their homes. As US troops sweep through the houses, they are unearthing the insurgents' horrifying secrets – more akin to the handiwork of psychotic serial killers than guerillas or even terrorists – that have shocked the world and explain why this devastating offensive has met with so little opposition from the Arab world. This included the disembowelled and limbless body of a blonde woman, possibly Pole Teresa Borcz, who was married to an Iraqi and abducted two weeks ago.
As the guerillas run their last sprint from death, sympathy for their cause among Iraqis is just as rapidly running out.
The Times
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