Fallujah as a "no go zone"
article is from The Independent (London) and was written by Patrick Coburn in Baghdad dated April 13, 2004.
“Do we look like fighters?” ask Fallujah families with their disabled, their old, and their children
In an abandoned air-raid shelter in west Baghdad, people from Fallujah crouch in semi-darkness. Their voices tremble as they recall how they survived the week-long siege.
Not all did. In a tent outside relatives were mourning for Mushref Mohi, aged 70, who died of exhaustion during the eight hours that his family was kept waiting at U.S. checkpoints as they fled the city.
“There was nothing much wrong with him and he usually liked to walk everywhere instead of driving,” said his brother, Rabbia Mohi Maloud al-Daraji. “But they kept us waiting from 10 am to 6.20 pm because they searched every car for half an hour, and he could not take the strain.”
By yesterday morning 88 people from Fallujah had crowded into Shelter No. 24, a disused bunker painted green and white in an attempt at camouflage in the Amariyah district of Baghdad. Beds lined both sides of the dark entrance corridor, dimly illuminated by a few bulbs that flicker out during the frequent electricity cuts.
“Do we look like fighters?” asked Milouq Abbas, a middle-aged woman in a black robe, pointing to her three children. Like other survivors, she was outraged by the claim by the U.S. Marines that the 600 dead and 1,200 wounded in Fallujah were mostly armed insurgents.
Although the families in Shelter No. 24 are very poor, they had scraped together enough money to hire a mourning tent, traditional in Iraq, for Mushref Mohi, so that his relatives could be comforted over his death.
In one corner of the tent, wearing a white hat and staring sightlessly in front of him, was Abdul Salaam, aged about 20 and blind since birth. “I heard the roar of the bombing and I was frightened,” he said. “I cannot read but I know a lot of the Koran by heart and I started reciting it to myself.”
We were taken to the families in the shelter by Dr Abed al-Illah, a specialist in internal medicine who is also a representative of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which is part of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. He had just visited Fallujah hospital. He said: “About 350 out of the 600 dead were women and children. One was only eight months old. Many died from simple wounds and could have been saved if they had medical attention.”
The anger and bitterness of Iraqis such as Dr Illah, a veteran opponent of Saddam Hussein, over the slaughter of civilians in Fallujah shows how few friends the U.S. has left in Iraq. He said: “The Americans claim that all the wounded are fighters and will not let us take them away. Families cannot escape because of their snipers.”
(when an area is "no go" EVERYONE can be called a "fighter")
Free fire zone...same thing. |
