FALLUJAH
- BAGHDAD -- The U.S.
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."
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- 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.
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- "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."
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- 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.
- Macabre accounts of killing of
civilians are emerging through the cordon U.S.
forces are still maintaining around Fallujah.
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- Kassem Mohammed Ahmed who escaped
from Fallujah a little over a week ago told IPS
he witnessed many atrocities committed by U.S.
soldiers in the city.
GAFFER TAPE USED
TO BIND PRISONERS WILL TEAR EYELIDS, LIPS, SKIN
WHEN REMOVED
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- "I watched them roll over
wounded people in the street with tanks," he
said. "This happened so many times."
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- 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."
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- 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.."
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- Hammad said he had seen elderly
women carrying white flags shot by U.S. 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."
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- 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."
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- 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.
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- "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.
(Agencies)
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- http://www.keralanext.com/news/?id=68749
11-26-4 Rense.com
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Here follow statements by
Fallujah's citizens collated by Dhar Jamail
USA Arrest Doctors and staff in Hospital
Mehdi Abdullah:"Doctors from
Fallujah are reporting there are patients in the hospital
here 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." He
looks at the ground, then away to the distance.
Puppet Iraqi ministry
of health orders Baghdad hospitals not to
admit wounded patients from al-Fallujah. Nov.25th
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. http://www.albasrah.net/
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Um Mohammed, Doctor:"How can I take a new desk when there are
patients dying because we don't have medicine for
them," she asked while holding her hands in the air,
"They should build a lift so patients who can't walk
can be taken to surgery, and instead we have these new
desks!" Her eyes were piercing with fire, while yet
another layer of frustration is folded into her
work."And there are still a few Iraqis who think the
Americans came to liberate them," she added while
looking out the broken window. The glass lay about
outside-shattered from a car bomb that had detonated in
front of the hospital. "These people will change
their minds about the liberators when they, too, have had
a family member killed by them."
Abu Hammad: telling
us what he experienced, barely breathes while doing so
because he is so enraged. "The American warplanes
came continuously through the night and bombed everywhere
in Fallujah! It did not stop even for a moment! If the
American forces did not find a target to bomb, they used
sound bombs just to terrorize the people and children.
The city stayed in fear; I cannot give a picture of how
panicked everyone was." He is shaking with grief and
anger. "In the mornings I found Fallujah empty, as
if nobody lives in it. Even poisonous gases have been
used in Fallujah-they used everything-tanks, artillery,
infantry, poison gas. Fallujah has been bombed to the
ground. Nothing is left."........."Most of the
innocent people there stayed in mosques to be closer to
God for safety. Even the wounded people were killed. Old
ladies with white flags were killed by the Americans! The
Americans announced for people to come to a certain
mosque if they wanted to leave Fallujah, and even the
people who went there carrying white flags were
killed!"................He
continues on, "There are bodies the Americans threw
in the river. I saw them do this! And anyone who stayed
thought they would be killed by the Americans, so they
tried to swim across the river. Even then the Americans
shot them with rifles from the shore! 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! Even people who couldn't swim tried to cross the
river! They drowned rather than staying to be killed by
the Americans."
Mohammad Ali:"I
would like to ask the whole world-why is this? I tell the
presidents of the Arab and Muslim countries to wake up!
Wake up please! We are being killed, we are refugees from
our houses, our children have nothing-not even shoes to
wear! Wake up! Wake up! Stop being traitors! Be human
beings and not the dummies of the Americans!"He is
weeping even more when he adds, "I left Fallujah
yesterday and I am handicapped."
Khalil is
raging : His sadness is being covered with anger.
"If we have a government-the government should solve
the suffering of the people. Our government does not do
this-instead they are always attacking us, our government
is a dummy government. They are not here to help
us...."Eid is over. Ramadan is over-and the kids are
remaining without even a smile. They have nothing and
nowhere to go. We used to take them to parks to amuse
them, but now we don't even have a house for
them."He said those who left Fallujah did not think
they would be gone so long, so they brought only their
summer clothes. Now it is quite cold at night, down to 10
degrees C at night and windy much of the time. Khalil
adds, "We need more clothes. It's a disaster we are
living in here at this camp. We are living like dogs and
the kids do not have enough clothes."
- I shall never forget how
the people left behind in the city helped
each other.
- I became very close to
those I shared the house with.
- Each of us knew that if
death came, it would probably come to all
of us - at any instant, we could all be
finished off by the same bomb.
- Falluja was not a poor
city, compared to many others in Iraq.
- But many of its homes are
now dust.
Hardly a single one among those still
standing is unscarred by war.
Wherever you look,
there are bullet-holes, fire damage and
massive holes missing from the walls.
Many people used to
cultivate flowers in their gardens. The
roses have wilted, the backyards are
graveyards.
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More than 50 US marines died and more than 400 were
wounded in the assault.
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