|
|
IRAQ: Fallujah Fears a 'Genocidal Strategy'
By Ali al-Fadhily*
FALLUJAH, Mar 30 (IPS) - Iraqis in the volatile al-Anbar province west of
Baghdad are reporting regular killings carried
out by U.S. forces that many believe are part of a 'genocidal' strategy.
Since the mysterious explosion at the Shia al-Askari shrine in Samara in
February last year,
more than 100 Iraqis have been killed daily on average, without any
forceful action by the
Iraqi government and the U.S. military to stop the killings.
U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces working with them are also executing
people seized
during home raids and other operations, residents say.
"Seventeen young men were found executed after they were arrested by U.S.
troops and
Fallujah police," 40-year-old Yassen of Fallujah told IPS. "My two sons
have been detained
by police, and I am terrified that they will have the same fate. They are
only 17 and 18
years old."
Residents of Fallujah say the local police detention centre holds hundreds
of men, who
have had no legal representation.
Others are killed by random fire that has long become routine for U.S. and
Iraqi soldiers.
Sa'ad, a 25-year-old from the al-Thubbat area of western Fallujah was
killed in such
firing.
"The poor guy kept running home every time he saw U.S. soldiers," a man
from his
neighbourhood, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "He used to
say: Go inside
or the Americans will kill you." Sa'ad is said by neighbours to have
developed a mental
disability.
He was recently shot and killed by U.S. soldiers when they opened fire
after their patrol
was struck by a roadside bomb.
Last week, U.S. military fire severely damaged the highest minaret in
Fallujah after three
soldiers were killed in an attack. What was seen as reprisal fire on the
minaret has angered
residents.
"They hate us because we are Muslims, and no one can argue with that any
more," 65-
year-old Abu Fayssal who witnessed the event told IPS. "They say they are
fighting al-
Qeada but they are only capable of killing our sons with their genocidal
campaign and
destroying our mosques."
Others believe occupation forces have another sinister strategy.
"It is our people killing each other now as planned by the Americans,"
Abdul Sattar, a 45-
year-old lawyer and human rights activist in Fallujah told IPS. "They
recruited Saddam's
security men to control the situation by well-known methods like hanging
people by their
legs and electrifying them in order to get information. Now they are
executing them
without trial."
IPS has obtained photographs of an elderly man who residents say was
executed last
month by U.S. soldiers.
"Last month was full of horrifying events," a retired police officer from
Fallujah told IPS.
"Three men were executed by American soldiers in the al-Bu Issa tribal
area just outside
Fallujah. One of them was 70 years old and known as a very good man, and
the others
were his relatives. They were asleep when the raid was conducted."
Another three men from the same tribe were executed similarly in ar-Rutba
town near the
Jordanian border. Their tribe did not carry out the usual burial ceremony
for fear that more
people would be killed. Instead, a cousin performed a religious ceremony
in Amman in
Jordan.
"Seven people were executed in al-Qa'im recently, at the Syrian border,"
Khalid Haleem
told IPS on telephone from al-Qa'im. "They were gathering at a friend's
place for dinner
when Americans surrounded the house, with armoured vehicles with
helicopters covering
them from the air. Those killed were good men and we believe the Americans
were
misinformed."
Adding to the violence are U.S.-backed Shia militias which regularly raid
Sunni areas under
the eyes of the U.S. and Iraqi army. Residents of Fallujah, Ramadi, and
especially Baghdad
have regularly reported to IPS over the last two years that Shia
militiamen are allowed
through U.S. military cordons into Sunni neighbourhoods to conduct raids.
Last month, residents report, more than 100 men aged 20 to 40 were
executed by Shia
militias in Iskandariya 40 km south of Baghdad and Tal Afar 350 km
northwest of the
capital. Another 50 were detained by the Iraqi Army's fifth division, that
many believe is
the biggest death squad in the country.
A U.S. military spokesperson in Baghdad told IPS that their troops "use
caution and care
when conducting home raids" and "in no way support Shi'ite death squads
and militias."
In the face of the U.S.-backed violence, most Iraqis now openly support
attacks against
occupation forces.
"The genocidal Americans are paying for all that," a young man from
Fallujah told IPS.
"They seem to be in need of another lesson by the lions of Fallujah and
Anbar." He was
referring to the intensive resistance attacks in and around Fallujah that
have killed dozens
of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers this month.
According to the U.S. military, at least 1,194 U.S. soldiers have died in
al-Anbar province
since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The number is far
higher than in any
other province in Iraq.
(*Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with
Dahr Jamail, our
U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who travels extensively in the
region) (END/2007)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
What is RSS?
