Massacre updates

The punitive massacres in and around Fallujah have received surprisingly little coverage in the United States media. The Guardian reports that U.S. commanders insist that the 600 dead consist primarily of rebels. One wonders what intel could separate insurgents from civilians in a city known for an act of mob violence.

For further insight, check out this Democracy Now interview with Aaron Glantz, reporting from Iraq. Glantz, in turn, relays this message from Aljazeera reporter Samir Khader:


Anybody who served in the army knows what the job of an army. It is to wage war. The images that we received from our crew in Fallujah live on Al-Jazeera were the images of a true war, a war between two armies, but the problem here is that there were no armies, only the American army, and no Iraqi army to fight. Only civilians, civilians and some insurgents. A limited number of insurgents. And what the Americans contend is that this is a tiny minority in Fallujah, fighting the Americans, but what we have seen and heard of these pictures is that the whole population of Fallujah was against the Americans. Therefore, what we have seen F-16's, Blackhawk helicopters pounding the city indiscriminately, killing a huge number of children and women. The latest information that we got from the city is that the last amount of insurgents is very low, very, very low, which means that the Americans targeted the city, as I said, indiscriminately pounding the civilian areas and killing children and women, and this is no war.


A UPI report quotes one resident of the city:


"There is no place in Fallujah without a fight," he says. "The Americans have snuck snipers all over Fallujah and everyone can be hit anytime. We only can work at night, but during the day, they kill the civilians. I saw them shoot a family just for trying to run to a car to leave part of the fighting."

"Once they blocked the roads, they began throwing bombs anywhere in the city," the mother interrupts. "They came from the towns outside (Fallujah, which is surrounded by small farming towns populated by staunchly anti-American residents) where they had taken one after another, killing all of the towns."

While the coalition military statements deny any targeting of noncombatants, this family and virtually every person that has come out of the city during the siege says that the Americans were treating every resident as an insurgent out of revenge for the killings of the contractors.

"I have seen their snipers kill women and children," Ahmed says.


If the situation worsens -- and it will -- the raids against Fallujah will be filed alongside historical accounts of the Third Reich's retaliatory measures after the assassination of Reinhold Heydrich.