Fallujah
Fallujah or Falluja (Al Fallujah) is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar (Umbar) and has an estimated population of 285,000. Within Iraq, it is known as the "city of mosques" for the more than two-hundred mosques in the city and surrounding villages. It has long been one of the most important centres of Sunni Islam in the region.
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2 History 3 Gulf War 4 Iraq War 5 Fatal protest incident 6 Insurgency 7 See also 8 External Links |
Fallujah is located roughly 69 kilometers (43 miles) west of Baghdad on the Euphrates River and is on the main road connecting Baghdad to Jordan. The region has been inhabited for many millennia and there is evidence that it was inhabited in Babylonian times. The origin of the town's name is in some doubt, but one theory is that its Assyrian name Pallugtha is derived from the word division. There is some evidence that millennia ago a branch of the Euphrates divided off at that point, and that this is the source of the name, but today that branch has disappeared.
Fallujah was a small and rather unimportant town for most of its history under the Persians and Arab Caliphates. It was overshadowed by the city of Al-Anbar to the north which served as a centre of learning in the region and under the Abbasid Caliphate for a time became the capital of the large empire. With the decline of the Abbassids the region declined and Al-Anbar was abandoned and is today only ruins.
Under the Ottoman Empire the town continued to play a secondary role and in 1947 the town had only about 10,000 inhabitants. The city grew after Iraqi independence with the influx of oil wealth into the country.
Under Saddam Hussein, who held control of Iraq from 1979 to 2003, Fallujah was a favoured area, along with the rest of the region that has come to be known as the Sunni Triangle. Many residents of the primarily Sunni city were employees and supporters of the government of Saddam Hussein, and many senior Ba'ath Party officials were natives from the city. The city also saw several large factories built — including one that may have been used to create chemical weapons, but it was shuttered by United Nations weapons inspectors.
During the First Gulf War, Fallujah was one of the cities in Iraq with the most civilian casualties. Two separate failed bombing attempts on the city's bridge across the river hit crowded markets, killing an estimated 200 civilians, and greatly angering the population.
Fallujah was one of the most peaceful areas of the country just after the fall of Saddam. There was very little looting and the new mayor of the city, Taha Bidaywi—selected by local tribal leaders, was staunchly pro-American. When the Alliance entered the town in April of 2003, they located themselves at the vacated Ba'ath Party headquarters—an action that erased some goodwill, especially when many in the city had been hoping the Alliance would stay outside of the relatively calm city.
On the evening of April 28, 2003 a crowd of 200 people celebrating the birthday of Saddam Hussein defied the Coalition curfew and gathered outside a school building to confront the Alliance forces within it.
Accounts of what happened next differ sharply. The United States said that 25 gunmen mingled with the protestors, and that shots were fired from within the crowd and from nearby buildings. Residents and other local observers say rather that the coalition "opened fire" on "unarmed civilians".
Fifteen Iraqis died from coalition gunfire. There were no coalition casualties.
While it is disagreed as to who fired first and whether some of the protesters were armed, the killings led to a public outcry and turned many in the city against the coalition.
According to Western conceptions of proper military conduct, it is a serious crime for troops to open fire on unarmed civilians. US military law allows fire to be returned, however.
Fallujah has been one of the most dangerous areas for coalition military troops during the Alliance occupation of Iraq. Since the occupation began, over sixty Americans have died in Fallujah — more than any city except Baghdad.
Approximately one year after the Alliance invasion, a rebel militia drove occupying forces out of Fallujah. This situation enabled a highly publicised attack on March 31, 2004, in which four private civilian security contractors from the U.S. were dragged from SUVs and killed.
Their bodies were then mutilatedd. A crowd of militants and townsfolk, estimated to number over a thousand, beat the corpses, dragged the corpses behind automobiles, and hanged the dismembered remains from the girders of a bridge over the Euphrates River. These acts were recorded on film by journalists and broadcast worldwide on television. In response, the Alliance military surrounded the city in the following days, attempting to round up the individuals responsible and any others in the region who may be involved in insurgency or terrorist activities. As of this writing, military action in Fallujah is still ongoing.
The attempt by coalition forces to regain control of Fallujah has led to about 40 Alliance deaths and over 400 Iraqi deaths in the beginning of April. Some commentators outraged at the mutilation of bodies have called for the use of nuclear weapons in Fallujah as an extreme form of collective punishment, though this has not been seriously considered by the military. Many people, both within Iraq and outside the country, still consider the conventional military action that has taken place to be collective punishment for city residents.
The occupying force on April 9 allowed about 70,000 women, children and elderly residents to leave the beseiged city, but forced all males of military age to remain.
On April 10, the US military declared a unilateral truce to allow for humanitarian supplies to enter Fallujah and pulled back to the outskirts of the city; local leaders reciprocated the ceasefire, although lower-level sporadic fighting on both sides continued. An Iraqi mediation team entered the city in an attempt to set up negotiations between the US and local leaders, but as of April 12 had not been successful.
The ceasefire followed a wave of resistance fighting across southern Iraq, which included the capture of two American soldiers, seven contract employees of Kellogg, Brown and Root, and more than 50 other foreigners in Iraq. At least 30 of the prisoners were released within days of their capture.
The US asserted that it hopes for a negotiated settlement but will restart its offensive to retake the city if one is not reached. Military commanders said their goal in the seige was to capture those responsible for the March 31 killings of Kellogg, Brown and Root security personnel. US forces were unable to determine in early April whether those shown in news images attacking the company's elite security team had remained in the city or fled.
As the siege continued, US Marines fired at anyone who they believed was a threat, and killed dogs whose barking they said threatened to reveal the location of gun emplacements. Contradicting international news reports that only women, children and elderly had been allowed to leave the city, Marine Lance Corporal Tom Browne said "We gave them a chance to leave." In an April 16 Associate Press report, Browne said all who remained in the city were "up to no good." The American officer and machine gunner said, "I really don't think of them as people any more."
Some have reported that foreign troops are involved in the insurgency. According to Rowan Scarborough of the Washington Times:
Location
History
Gulf War
Iraq War
Militant Iraqi insurgentss prepare to fire a mortar round at U.S forcess during a firefight in Fallujah, Iraq. (March 26, 2004 - )
Iraqis at the site of the killing of four contractors by rebel guerillas and their subsequent mutilation by a crowd of residents.
(March 31, 2004 - )
Fatal protest incident
Insurgency
See also
External Links