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Fragile Cease-Fire Holds in Fallujah
| EFL to just the Fallujah story |
A fragile cease-fire held between Sunni insurgents and U.S. Marines on Sunday in the besieged city of Fallujah, where Iraqis said more than 600 civilians were killed in the past week. Sporadic battles in Fallujah wounded two Marines, and the bodies of 11 Iraqis were brought to a mosque being used as a clinic. A Marine spokesman said troops responding to Iraqi fire killed "a significant number" of fighters. A Cobra helicopter fired rockets and missiles after it came under ground fire, he said. But Fallujah was still the quietest it has been since the U.S. offensive began. Hundreds of Marine reinforcements moved in around Fallujah, joining 1,200 Marines and 900 Iraqis already there. The military has warned it may resume an all-out assault against Sunni insurgents if negotiations focused on extending the cease-fire and restoring police control of the city fall through.
The Washington Post on Monday reported that U.S. troops found evidence of suicide squads and foreign fighters at an abandoned factory in Fallujah. Among the items U.S. troops found Sunday were sacks full of chemical-coated rocks, leather belts stuffed with explosive putty, boxes of batteries with wires taped to them and bomb-making instructions. Islamic books, pamphlets, tapes and farewell letters in Arabic also found suggested that some of the men were not Iraqis, but foreign Sunni Muslims who came here to fight in a holy war. It quoted an unidentified U.S. Marine captain as saying a 16-member terror cell was operating from the site.
| Bet there's a few more of those cells within the city limits. |
Over a third of the city's 200,000 residents fled the city during the lull, Marines said. Fallujah hospital's al-Issawi said the number of Iraqi dead in the city was likely higher than the 600 recorded at the hospital and four main clinics in the city. "We have reports of an unknown number of dead being buried in people's homes without coming to the clinics," he said. Bodies were being buried at two soccer fields. At one of the fields, dubbed the "Graveyard of the Martyrs" by residents, an AP reporter saw rows of freshly dug graves with wooden planks for headstones over an area about 30 yards wide by more than 100 yards long. Asked about the report of 600 dead, Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said, "What I think you will find is 95 percent of those were military age males that were killed in the fighting. The Marines are trained to be precise in their firepower .... The fact that there are 600 goes back to the fact that the Marines are very good at what they do."
| As Fred noted yesterday, the women and kiddies in the cemetery very likely were used as shields. |
Posted by: Steve White 2004-04-12 |
