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Iraq-Jordan
Fragile Cease-Fire Holds in Fallujah
2004-04-12
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

#14   "I suppose that at some level, the elites believe that they are indispensible -- that if the commies or Islamists did win, they would still need the Western intellectual elites to run things. This attitude makes them quislings, eager to swap one power structure for another as long as it advances their own position" and sells papers and/or air time.

They think this way, absolutely, without a doubt. Actually, it's more like a religion for them. And they are the fanatics of that religion. Way to go, 11A5S!
Posted by: ex-lib   2004-04-12 5:08:32 PM  

#13  Among the items U.S. troops found Sunday were sacks full of chemical-coated rocks,

Head for the hills it's NORK Tech!
Posted by: Shipman   2004-04-12 2:02:33 PM  

#12  You are absolutely right, AC. The "established" press will become more and more shrill as their influence shrinks. Their descent into tabloidism would be amusing if so much wasn't at stake.

I think that so many members of the Western intellectual elite are Islamists in the sense that they are looking for someone or something to submit to. When the communists were bullying so much of the world, they wanted to submit to the USSR for the sake of "world peace." Now that Islamo-facism threatens, they would submit to it to "reduce violence and prevent senseless killing."

I suppose that at some level, the elites believe that they are indispensible -- that if the commies or Islamists did win, they would still need the Western intellectual elites to run things. This attitude makes them quislings, eager to swap one power structure for another as long as it advances their own position. I hope that the Internet will make all of this more and more apparent to the voters.
Posted by: 11A5S   2004-04-12 12:49:24 PM  

#11  Chemical coated rocks...well what we have here is CLEAR evidence that Dear Leader's boys are involved. There is not a group out there that knows more about rocks. Heck, I'm betting that DL's team is going to give the Fallujah Jihadis the secret to surviving on grass to extend the siege. Rocks, grass, Islamo-nutcases...throw in a little juche and the Marines are really going to be up against it!
Posted by: remote man   2004-04-12 12:24:51 PM  

#10  Evert-
What I'm thinking on the 'chemical coated rocks' is that the Paleos had a habit of dipping nails and other goodies in rat poison and sticking them in the belts for shrapnel. I'm wondering if the Fallujah Finks were trying a variation on that...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2004-04-12 10:19:06 AM  

#9  sacks full of chemical-coated rocks

Someone painted some rocks?
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-04-12 10:10:19 AM  

#8  "sacks full of chemical-coated rocks"

Hmmm, a new chemical delivery system for Palestinian jihadis?
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2004-04-12 5:09:51 AM  

#7  Many thanks, .com and others. I was feeling a little miffed today after watching all the variations on the defeatist Tet2 theme from the fifth column media. They are trying to follow in the footsteps of Walter Cronkite and other revered authorities from the high-water mark of institutional media: the aftermath of the 1968 Tet offensive when they turned the Communists' tremendous defeat into a decisive victory.

I think they will fail, this isn't 1968, the idea of a journalist being the "most trusted man in America" is laughable, and there are many many alternate sources of information. The decisive factor may well be the public's ability to make daily direct contact with eyewitnesses in Iraq, Israel, and Afghanistan and anywhere else in the world.

It is no exaggeration to say that 10 people controlled the flow of information in the US in 1968.
Today, that kind of monopoly is impossible and the media-lords are really feeling the heat.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2004-04-12 5:07:43 AM  

#6  "sacks full of chemical-coated rocks" does anyone here have a clue to what is that about?
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL   2004-04-12 3:31:56 AM  

#5  Atomic Conspiracy: "Putting the rant back into Rantburg"

As a side note, I'm really liking Lt. Col. Byrne. He appears to be stating that 600 dead is a small fraction of what would have been seen had the Marines not been so discriminating in their application of firepower.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal   2004-04-12 2:27:12 AM  

#4  "We have reports of an unknown number of dead being buried in people's homes without coming to the clinics," he said.

As someone pointed out earlier, "an unknown number" could also include ZERO. (or ONE, for those of you who don't include zero as a number).
Posted by: Rafael   2004-04-12 2:02:18 AM  

#3  Women and children either used or went willingly.

Just because one is a woman or a child - depending on the age, does not mean one is innocent.
Posted by: Anonymous2U   2004-04-12 1:52:54 AM  

#2  Spot-on analysis / rant, AC. Dead solid perfect.
Posted by: .com   2004-04-12 1:52:15 AM  

#1  I am more convinced than ever that this is a ruse engineered by Sunni sympathizers on the Iraqi Council to save the Sunni forces from complete destruction.
All over the world, the lying prostitutes of the Islamo media are crowing about the triumph of the jihadi forces in Fallujah for holding the world's most powerful military at bay for a week. Never mind that hundreds jihadis have been killed, and the pace of the attack was deliberately slowed to minimize damage and casualties. Never mind that the cease-fire was called for humanitarian reasons. It is still a victory for the jihad cannon-fodder and their allies. These people are devils, lying devils, and their media whores are probably the most evil and morally bankrupt large group of people in all of history.

Worse than the SS? Probably, they just don't have the power of Hitler's minions, unless you count the media-devils' power of incitement, which trumps all previous instumentalities of murder and violence in its ability to spread chaos and death in the service of mentally diseased elitist
gloating. I hate these sons of bitches, they are worse than the terrorists, for the terrorists are nothing without media rationalizations and defeatist propaganda.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2004-04-12 1:47:12 AM  

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