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US marines in Fallujah quick to show they are not a soft touch
BEFORE the US marines arrived just over a week ago, many in Fallujah had been led to believe that their new occupiers were planning to use a "softer touch" than the US army forces that preceded them. Unlike the soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division, the marines had received cultural training before arriving in Iraq. Some had taken intensive Arabic language courses. But on 26 March, two days after they arrived, the marines were caught in an intense firefight with armed militants that set a much different tone. One marine was killed and seven were injured. Five Iraqis, including a freelance ABC News cameraman, were killed. The battle led to a show of force by the marines that many residents say was unlike any in nearly a year of occupation by the United States. At least eight marines have been killed in the area in a two-week period. On Tuesday, the marines deployed tanks and armoured vehicles to block the main exits and entrances to Fallujah for the fourth day. The deployment forced thousands of motorists off the motorway and on to dirt tracks, where traffic moved slowly under the watchful eyes of soldiers [sic]crouching in the sand behind their guns or atop military vehicles. The guns of tanks on the motorway were trained on the al-Askari district. On Monday night, according to residents, the marines patrolled the neighbourhood using an Arabic speaker to warn residents through a bullhorn against harbouring insurgents. The area would become a battlefield unless the "terrorists" left, the voice added. Residents also reported door-to-door house raids by the marines looking for weapons and suspected insurgents on Monday and Tuesday. "If they find more than one adult male in any house, they arrest one of them," claimed a resident, Khaled Jamaili, 26. "Those marines are destroying us. They are leaning very hard on Fallujah."
Senior US military commanders say the insurgents and their supporters in Fallujah are a tiny minority and most city residents are tired of the violence. But support for the insurgency appears to still be strong in sections of the city. Fighters in the working-class area of al-Askari are routinely referred to as mujahideen, or holy fighters. Americans are referred to as "Zionists" or "Jews", words many Arabs use to refer to Israelis. "We are all suffering from what the Americans are doing to us, but that doesnât take away anything from our pride in the resistance," said Saadi Hamadi, 24, a graduate of Arabic studies from Baghdadâs al-Mustansiriyah University. "To us, the Americans are just like the Israelis," he added.
Posted by: tipper 2004-04-01 |
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