Fallujah during the Iraq War

Map showing the location of Fallujah in Iraq

The United States occupation of Fallujah began in April 2003, one month following the beginning of the invasion of Iraq. Fallujah was one of the most peaceful areas of the country just after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and the arrival of US soldiers was received peacefully. However, steps on both sides, starting with the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians by US forces, caused a spiral of violence, including a siege and two reinvasions of the city by US forces. The city is now largely ruined, with 60% of buildings damaged or destroyed, and the population at 30%-50% of pre-war levels. [1]

2003 Invasion of Iraq

File:Downtown fallujah.jpg

Downtown Fallujah, December 2003

Although the majority of the residents were Sunni and had supported Saddam Hussein's rule, Fallujah was one of the most peaceful areas of the country just after his fall. There was very little looting and the new mayor of the city — Taha Bidaywi Hamed, selected by local tribal leaders — was pro-United States.. When the US Army's 1st Battalion / 2nd Brigade 82nd Airborne entered the town on April 23, 2003, they positioned themselves at the vacated Ba'ath Party headquarters, a local school house, and the Ba'ath party resort just outside town (Dreamland)— the US bases inside the town erased some goodwill, especially when many in the city had been hoping the US Army would stay outside of the relatively calm city.

Instability, April 2003 - March 2004

On the evening of April 28, 2003, several hundred residents defied the US curfew and marched down the streets of Fallujah, past the soldiers positioned in the Ba'ath party headquarters, to protest the military presence outside a local school. A US Army Psychological Operations team attempted to make the crowd disperse with announcements, but failed. According to locals, at this point the US soldiers fired upon the unarmed crowd, killing 17 and wounding more than 70 of the protesters. The US suffered no casualties from the incident. According to the soldiers on the ground, the 82nd Airborne soldiers inside the school responded to "effective fire" from inside the protesting crowd. Two days later, on April 30, the 82d Airborne was replaced in the city by 2nd Troop (Fox) / U.S. 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment. The 3d Cavalry was significantly smaller in number and chose not to occupy the same schoolhouse where the shooting had occurred two days earlier. However, on the same day a daytime protest in front of the Ba'ath party headquarters and mayor's office (which are adjacent to one another) led to the death of three more unarmed protesters. At this point in time the 3d Cavalry was in control of the entire Al Anbar province, and it quickly became evident that a larger force was needed. The now battalion-sized element of the 3d Cavalry (2nd squadron) in Fallujah was replaced by the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division.

During the summer, the US army decided to close down its last remaining base inside the city (the Ba'ath party headquarters; FOB Laurie). At this point the 3d ACR had all of its forces stationed outside Fallujah in the former Baathist resort, Dreamland. After the May 11th surrender of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, the incoming 3d Infantry Division also began using the large MEK compound adjacent to Dreamland to accommodate its larger troop presence in Fallujah. Under its control, the 3d Infantry Division maintained no bases inside the city of Fallujah.

On the 30th of June a "huge explosion" occurred in a mosque in which the imam, Sheikh Laith Khalil, and eight other people were killed. Residents of the city claim the army fired a missile at the mosque while the army alleged that a terrorist bomb training class had gone wrong. Just a couple of days earlier things had been much quieter, although US troops had been confiscating motorbikes as a preventive measure against terrorist attacks.

Timeline showing the sequence of units in control of Fallujah in just the first year of the war

Just 2 months after the 3rd Infantry had taken control of Fallujah from the 3rd Cavalry, the entire 3rd Infantry Division was redeployed home. The 3d Cavalry was once again put in control of Fallujah, and again was only able to devote one squadron to Fallujah. In September 2003, the 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne was deployed to replace the 3d Cavalry in Ramadi and Fallujah. The 82nd AD policy was to leave Fallujah alone if possible (which had been the same policy of the 3rd ID and the 3rd ACR before them). The 3rd Cavalry was then left to control all of the al-Anbar province except for these two cities.

Approximately one year after the invasion, the city's Iraqi police and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps were unable to establish law and order. Insurgents launched attacks on police stations in the city, killing 20 police officers. Beginning in early March 2004, the Army's 82nd Airborne Division commanded by Major-General Charles H. Swannack Jr. gave a transfer of authority of the al-Anbar province to the I Marine Expeditionary Force commanded by Lt. General Conway. The 3rd Cavalry and the 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne were then sent home.

Attack on mercenaries

Main article: 31 March 2004 Fallujah ambush

On March 31, 2004 - Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah ambushed a convoy containing four US mercenaries employed by Blackwater USA, who were "conducting delivery for food caterers ESS"

The four armed contractors, Scott Helvenston, Jerko Zovko, Wesley Batalona and Michael Teague, were dragged from their cars, beaten, and set ablaze. Their burned corpses were then dragged through the streets before being hung over a bridge crossing the Euphrates.

Photos of the event were released to news agencies worldwide, causing a great deal of indignation and moral outrage in the United States, and prompting the announcement of an upcoming "pacification" of the city.

Siege, April 2004

In response to the killing of the four US citizens, and intense political pressure, the US Marines commenced Operation Vigilant Resolve. They surrounded the city and attempted to capture the individuals responsible as well as others in the region who might have been involved in insurgency or "terrorist" activities. The Iraqi National Guard was supposed to work alongside with the US Marines in the operation, but on the dawn of the invasion they discarded their uniforms and deserted. Under pressure from the Iraqi Governing Council, the US aborted its attempt to regain control of Fallujah. The US Marines suffered 40 deaths in the siege. Estimates of the number of Iraqi deaths (both insurgents and civilians) in the attack range from 271 (according to Iraqi Ministry of Health officials [2]) to 731 (according to Rafie al-Issawi, the head of the local hospital [3]).

The occupying force on April 9 allowed more than 70,000 women, children and elderly residents to leave the besieged city. On April 10, the US military declared a unilateral truce to allow for humanitarian supplies to enter Fallujah. US troops pulled back to the outskirts of the city. An Iraqi mediation team entered the city in an attempt to set up negotiations between US forces and local leaders, but as of April 12 had not been successful. Weapons were found hidden in some humanitarian supply trucks that were attempting to enter the city. [4] At least one US battalion had orders to shoot any male of military age on the streets after dark, armed or not. [5] There were numerous press reports of US snipers firing on - and killing - unarmed civilians, including children, as well as attacking clearly marked ambulances. [6] [7] In violation of the Geneva Convention, the city's main hospital was closed by Marines, negating its use, and a US sniper was placed on top of the hospital's water tower. [8]

There were also numerous reports of the use of cluster bombs by US forces in Fallujah during this time, including reports from al-Jazeerah on April 9th and 15th, which US State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher later described as "totally false."[9] Similar reports came from several other sources, including Associated Press, who reported on 26 April 2004: "A spokesman for an Iraqi delegation from the violence-gripped city of Fallujah on Monday accused U.S. troops of using internationally banned cluster bombs against the city and said they had asked the United Nations to mediate the conflict. Mohammed Tareq, a spokesman for the governing council of Fallujah and a member of the four-person delegation, said U.S. military snipers were also responsible for the deaths of many children, women and elderly people." And the Economic Press Review reported on 17 April 2004: "American F-16 warplanes are blitzing the Al-Julan residential area in Al Fallujah 50 kilometers west from Baghdad with cluster bombs."

The ceasefire followed a wave of insurgency activity across southern Iraq, which included the capture of two US soldiers, seven employees of US military contractor Kellogg, Brown and Root, and more than 50 other workers in Iraq. Several of the prisoners were released within days of their capture, while the majority were executed.

The US forces ostensibly sought to negotiate a settlement but promised to restart its offensive to retake the city if one was not reached. Military commanders said their goal in the siege was to capture those responsible for the numerous deaths of US and Iraqi security personnel. As the siege continued, insurgents conducted hit-and-run attacks on US Marine positions. The Marines had announced a unilateral ceasefire.

Truce, May 2004

At the beginning of May 2004, the US Marine Corps announced a ceasefire due to intense political pressure. Most of the fighting was limited to the southern industrial district, which, though occupying a large area, has the lowest population density inside the city limits and the northwest corner of the city in the Jolan district. There were also Marine battalions in the northeast and southern portion of the city. While both sides began preparations to resume offensives, General Conway took a risk and handed control of the city to a former Iraqi general with roughly 1,000 men who then formed the Fallujah Brigade, while acknowledging that many of the people under control of the general were probably insurgents themselves. The general, Major General Muhammed Latif, replaced a US choice, Jasim Mohammed Saleh, who was alleged to have been involved in the earlier atrocities against Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war [10]. The ceasefire terms were to give control of Fallujah to General Latif on condition that Fallujah becomes a secure region for coalition forces and halt incoming mortar and rocket attacks on the nearby US bases. Latif's militia wore Iraqi military uniforms from the Hussein era. Another tenet of the cease-fire was the establishment of a Traffic Control Point (TCP) on the eastern side of the city just west of the "cloverleaf". This TCP was constantly manned by a platoon of Marines and a platoon from the Iraqi National Guard and saw almost daily firefights for the rest of the summer.

Inside the city, mosques proclaimed the victory of the insurgents over the United States. Celebratory banners appeared around the city, and the fighters paraded through the town on trucks. Iraqi governing council member Ahmed Chalabi, after a bombing that killed fellow IGC member Izzadine Saleem, blamed the US military's decisions in Fallujah for the attack, stating "The garage is open and car bombs are coming repeatedly." [11]

Fallujah, according to reporters who have visited in mid-summer, had since become a sort of Islamist mini-state, with Sharia law enforced by mujahedin. Owners of shops that sold US-style magazine and barbers who offered "Western-style" haircuts were beaten and publicly humiliated. Inter-faction fighting was also rampant. [12]. The Fallujah Brigade was soon marginalized and ceased to be more than another faction in what had effectively become a no-go area for coalition troops.

Counter-insurgency, May - November 2004

Throughout the summer and fall of 2004, the U.S. military conducted sporadic airstrikes on Fallujah, often on residential areas. U.S. forces claimed that these were targeted, intelligence-based strikes against houses used by the group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an insurgency leader linked to al-Qaida.

In October and early November, 2004, the U.S. military prepared for a major offensive against the rebel stronghold with stepped up daily aerial attacks using precision-guided munitions [13] against alleged militant "safe houses," restaurants and meeting places in the city. U.S. Marines also engaged in firefights on a daily and nightly basis along the perimeter of the city. There were again conflicting reports of civilian casualties.

CNN incorrectly reported on October 14, 2004, that the US offensive assault on Fallujah had begun and broadcast a report from a young Marine outside Fallujah, 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert, who announced that "troops have crossed the line of departure." Hours later, CNN reported their Pentagon reporters had determined that the assault had not, in fact, begun. The Los Angeles Times reported on December 1, 2004, that, according to several unnamed Pentagon officials, the Marine's announcement was a feint--part of an elaborate "psychological operation" (PSYOP) to determine the Fallujah rebels' reactions if they believed attack was imminent.

On November 7, 2004, the U.S.-appointed Iraq interim government declared a 60 day state of emergency in preparation for the assault, as insurgents carried out several car bomb attacks in the Fallujah area which killed Iraqi army and police, U.S. Marines and Iraqi civilians. The next day Prime Minister Iyad Allawi publicly authorized an offensive in Fallujah and Ramadi to "liberate the people" and "clean Fallujah from the terrorists". Marines, U.S. Army soldiers and allied Iraqi soldiers stormed into Fallujah's western outskirts, secured two bridges across the Euphrates, seized a hospital on the outskirts of the city and arrested about 50 men in the hospital. About half the arrested men were later released. A hospital doctor reported that 15 Iraqis were killed and 20 wounded during the overnight incursions. The US armed forces have designated the offensive as Operation Phantom Fury.

In the first week of Operation Phantom Fury, government spokesman Thair al-Naqeeb said that many of the remaining fighters have asked to surrender and that Iraqi authorities "will extend amnesty" to those who have not committed major crimes. [14] At the same time, US forces prevented male refugees from leaving the combat zone, and the city was placed under a strict night-time shoot-to-kill curfew with anyone spotted in the Marines' night vision sights shot. [15] [16] Refugees from the city claimed that a large number of people, including children, were killed by American snipers. [17]

U.S.-Iraqi offensive of Nov 7 2004

See Operation Phantom Fury

Journalists embedded with U.S. military units, although limited in what they may report, have reported the following:

• On November 7, 2004, a force of over 2,000+\- U.S. and 600+\- Iraqi troops began a concentrated assault on Fallujah with air strikes, artillery, armor, and infantry. They seized the rail yards North of the city, and pushed into the city simultaneously from the North and West taking control of the volatile Jolan and Askari districts. Rebel resistance was as strong as expected, rebels fought very hard as they fell back. By nightfall on November 9, 2004, the U.S. troops had almost reached the heart of the city. U.S. military officials stated that 1,000 to 6,000 insurgents were believed to be in the city, they appear to be organized, and fought in small groups, of three to 25. Many insurgents were believed to have slipped away amid widespread reports that the U.S. offensive was coming. During the assault, Marines and Iraqi soldiers endured sniper fire and destroyed booby traps, much more than anticipated. Ten U.S. troops were killed in the fighting and 22 wounded in the first two days of fighting. Insurgent casualty numbers were estimated at 85 to 90 killed or wounded. Several more days of fighting were anticipated as U.S. and Iraqi troops conducted house-to-house searches for weapons, booby traps, and insurgents.
• On 9 November, CNN Correspondent Karl Penhaul reported the use of cluster bombs in the offensive: "The sky over Falluja seems to explode as U.S. Marines launch their much-trumpeted ground assault. War planes drop cluster bombs on insurgent positions and artillery batteries fire smoke rounds to conceal a Marine advance."[18]
• November 10, 2004 reports by the Washington Post suggest that U.S. armed forces used white phosphorus grenades and/or artillery shells, creating walls of fire in the city. Doctors working inside Fallujah report seeing melted corpses of suspected insurgents.[19] The use of WP ammunition was confirmed from various independent sources, including U.S. troops who had suffered WP burns due to 'friendly fire'. On November 16, 2005 The Independent reported that Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable "disclosed that (white phosphorus) had been used to dislodge enemy fighters from entrenched positions in the city"..."We use them primarily as obscurants, for smokescreens or target marking in some cases. However it is an incendiary weapon and may be used against enemy combatants." [20] But a day before, Robert Tuttle, the U.S. ambassador to London, denied that white phosphorus was deployed as a weapon: "US forces do not use napalm or white phosphorus as weapons." [21] [22]
• On November 13 2004 a Red Crescent convoy containing humanitarian aid was delayed from entering Fallujah by the U.S. army, under the suspicion that the convoy was carrying weapons to the insurgents, as other humanitarian convoys had attempted earlier. [23] [24]
• On November 13 2004, a U.S. Marine with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines was videotaped shooting a wounded, unarmed prisoner to death in a mosque. The incident, which came under investigation, created controversy throughout the world. The man was shot at close range after he and several other badly wounded Iraqi prisoners had previously been left behind overnight in the mosque by the U.S. Marines. The Marine shooting the man had been mildly injured by insurgents in the same mosque the day before, and was later acquitted of the charge of manslaughter in May 2005 on grounds that he had reason to believe the man was armed. [25][26]
• On November 16, 2004, a Red Cross official told Inter Press Service that "at least 800 civilians" had been killed in Fallujah and indicated that "they had received several reports from refugees that the military had dropped cluster bombs in Fallujah, and used a phosphorus weapon that caused severe burns."[27]
• As of November 18 2004, the U.S. military reported 1200 insurgents killed and 1000 captured. U.S. casualties were 51 killed and 425 wounded, and the Iraqi forces lost 8 killed and 43 wounded. [28]
• On December 2 2004, the U.S. death toll in Fallujah operation reached 71 killed. [29]
• Some of the tactics said to be used by the insurgents included playing dead and attacking, surrendering and attacking, and rigging dead or wounded with bombs. In the November 13th incident mentioned above, the U.S. Marine alleged the insurgent was playing dead [30].
• Of the 100 mosques in the city, about 60 were used as fighting positions by the insurgents. The U.S. and Iraqi military swept through all mosques used as fighting positions, destroying them, leading to great resentment from local residents.

Aftermath

Up to 6000 civilians were killed throughout the operation. Residents were allowed to return to the city in mid-December after undergoing biometric identification, provided they carry their ID cards all the time. US officials report that "more than half of Fallujah's 39,000 homes were damaged, and about 10,000 of those were destroyed." Compensation amounts to 20 percent of the value of damaged houses, with an estimated 32,000 homeowners eligible, according to Marine Lt. Col. William Brown [31]. According to the NBC [32], 9,000 homes were destroyed, thousands more were damaged and of the 32,000 compensation claims only 2,500 had been paid as of April 14, 2005. According to Mike Marqusee of Iraq Occupation Focus writing in the Guardian [33], "Falluja's compensation commissioner has reported that 36,000 of the city's 50,000 homes were destroyed, along with 60 schools and 65 mosques and shrines". Reconstruction is only progressing slowly and mainly consists of clearing rubble from heavily-damaged areas and reestablishing basic utility services. This is also due to the fact that only 10% of the pre-offensive inhabitants had returned as of mid-January, and only 30% as of the end of March 2005 [34].

Pre-offensive inhabitant figures are unreliable; the nominal population was assumed to have been 200-350,000. Thus, over 150,000 individuals are still living as IDPs in harsh conditions in tent cities outside Fallujah or elsewhere in Iraq.

Insurgent control over the city was effectively destroyed by the operation. As the civilian population began to settle back into the city several reports of IED attacks on Iraqi and U.S. troops have begun to be reported in the press. Most notable of these attacks, was a suicide car bomb attack on June 23 2005 on a convoy that killed six Marines. Thirteen other Marines were injured in the attack. However, the amount of attacks are much lower than before the offensive. Many insurgents fled Fallujah and dispersed to cities like Mosul, where heavy fighting broke out. The controversial use of white phosphorus by US forces has resulted in a large increase in birth deformities in the city. [35], [36], [37]

References

See also

• Human rights in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq
• Mark 77 bomb, also controversial in its usage in Fallujah by US forces
• White phosphorus use in Iraq
• Iraqi insurgency
• Mujahedin-e-Khalq Surrender (2003)

U.S. Operations in Fallujah

United States Army led operations in Fallujah

• Operation Spartan Scorpion June 15-16, 2003
• Operation Market Sweep January 13, 2004
  

U.S. Marine led operations in Fallujah

• Operation Vigilant Resolve April 04–April 09, 2004
• Operation Phantom Fury November 07–December 23, 2004

Films

• Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre, a controversial documentary detailing the use of white phosphorus and Mk-77 by the U.S. Army against civilians in the city. (Google Video)
• No True Glory, a Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah based on the book by Bing West scheduled for release in 2008, starring Harrison Ford as General Mattis. [38]
• Occupation: Dreamland Documentary film (2005) [39]
• Delta Farce Comedy (2007) about Army reservists deployed to Fallujah, but who are accidentally airdropped elsewhere.

Books

• No True Glory : A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah by Bing West (2005).
• We Were One : Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah by Patrick O'Donnell (2006) (ISBN 9780306814693)
• Fighting for Fallujah : A New Dawn for Iraq by John R. Ballard (2006) (ISBN 0-275-99055-9)
• Among Warriors in Iraq: True Grit, Special Ops, and Raiding in Mosul and Fallujah by Mike Tucker (2005) (ISBN 1-59228-732-8)
• Fallujah, with Honor; First Battalion, Eighth Marine's Role in Operation Phantom Fury by Gary Livingston (2006)
• House to House by David Bellavia and John Bruning (2007) (ISBN 978-1416574712)

Songs

• Lions of Fallujah (Asad Al-Fallujah; Idrib ya Asad Al-Fallujah) is a popular Jihadi nasheed glorifying the resistance to the U.S. occupation of Fallujah.

Plays

• Fallujah is a multimedia play and performance about the U.S. occupation of Fallujah staged in London in May 2007, written and directed by Jonathan Holmes, starring Harriet Walter and Imogen Stubbs, with an installation/set designed by Lucy and Jorge Orta, and music by Nitin Sawhney.

External links

• US forces 'used chemical weapons' during assault on city of Fallujah - The Independent, (8 November, 2005)
• Fallujah - The Day After: Video of devastation of Fallujah from Diario (27 May, 2005)
• From Guernica to Fallujah - by Pepe Escobar, Asia Times (2 December, 2004)
• Iraq Through the Eyes of Unemebedded, Independent Journalist Dahr Jamail interview with Dahr Jamail - Democracy Now! (28 April, 2005)
• This is our Guernica - by Jonathan Steele and Dahr Jamail, The Guardian (27 April, 2005)
• Remembering the First Siege of Fallujah by Omar Khan, DahrJamailIraq.com (15 February, 2005)
• Falluja in 2004 - Al Jazeera (6 February, 2005)
• Fallujah: The Real Fall special report on Fallujah since November 2004 - Channel 4 (11 January, 2005)
• Falluja: City with history of rebellion - BBC News (23 December, 2004)
• Raw Video Footage of U.S. Offensive in Fallujah large archive of news network footage and unofficial footage collected by Geoffrey Huntley - fallujah.us
• Zarqawi's city of death - Washington Times (29 November, 2004)
• Two locals were core of Fallujah insurgency - Associated Press (24 November, 2004)
• Fallujah's real boss: Omar the electrician - by Hannah Allam, Knight Ridder (22 November, 2004)
• Telling the Fallujah Story to the World - Military.com (20 November, 2004)
• Fallujah yields up weapons, videos - Christian Science Monitor (19 November, 2004)
• Secret Iraqi prisons found - edited by Andrea Botha, Agence France-Presse (17 November, 2004)
• Letter from Fallujah to Kofi Annan signed by Al-Fallujah Shura Council, a council of insurgent organizations; and by others
• The 2004 Siege of Fallujah - An interactive guide - The Guardian
• Mujahidin terrorised Fallujah, residents say - The Times (15 November, 2004)
• First-hand narrative accounts on April 11 and April 17, 2004 from Fallujah - by Jo Wilding, a British peace activist, wildfirejo.org.uk (April, 2004)
• Archive of the Iraq Dispatches (by Dahr Jamail, an unembedded and independent journalist) - DahrJamailIraq.com
• Fallujah - City in chaos - CBC News (2 April, 2004)
• Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1 (Blog entry by Kevin Sites - the reporter who filmed the November 13 killing in the Mosque.)
• An Iraq Interrogator's Nightmare, Washington Post 9 Feb 2007
• Fallujah Official website of the play 'Fallujah'