Survivors emerge on to shattered streets of Fallujah
OVER the rubble-strewn streets of Fallujah the voice from the loudspeaker on the minaret is no longer a call to jihad, destruction or death. As the fighting tapers off to isolated pockets in the southern fringes of the city, the broadcast is an offer of help by the Iraqi Army to the traumatised people of this former rebel bastion.
Few are heeding the call. Only a tiny number of people have ventured out of their houses since the massive air, artillery and ground assault was launched by the American military to wrest the city from insurgents a week ago. Without electricity, television or radio, some may not even know that the assault is almost over. Yesterday, however, a handful of dazed people did stumble out of their homes, where they have been running low on food and water, to see what the new order would bring. After seven months in guerrilla hands, the United States took back the city on the Euphrates in just seven days — but at a cost. Scores of houses have been bombed flat, the roads are churned up by tank tracks and most buildings show some evidence of the raging battle — bullet holes, smashed windows, walls ploughed down by armoured vehicles. Several mosques used by insurgents as bases or weapons stashes have been reduced to rubble.
| The cockels of my heart are all warm and toasty... |
Other areas have emerged relatively unscathed, although these, too, appear to be devoid of inhabitants. As stories of terrorist atrocities emerge, it is becoming clear that the people of Fallujah have long become accustomed to keeping their heads down. Never a particularly presentable city, it is sometimes hard to tell what has been damaged by war and what has simply fallen down. Yet it was always a bustling place, with a busy market, and a traffic hub, its main street forever choked with cars and lorries heading in from Jordan. Now the only traffic is the huge olive and khaki monsters of the US Marines and US Army, with the occasional white pick-up used by the Iraqi Army. The Iraqi soldiers are trying to lure out the residents to allow their medical staff to treat the sick and wounded. |