NEWS: Terrorists Brutalized Fallujah

Mutilated bodies dumped on Fallujah's bombed out streets today painted a harrowing picture of eight months of rebel rule.



As US and Iraqi troops mopped up the last vestiges of resistance in the city after a week of bombardment and fighting, residents who stayed on through last week's offensive were emerging and telling harrowing tales of the brutality they endured.



Flyposters still litter the walls bearing all manner of decrees from insurgent commanders, to be heeded on pain of death. Amid the rubble of the main shopping street, one decree bearing the insurgents' insignia - two Kalashnikovs propped together - and dated November 1 gives vendors three days to remove nine market stalls from outside the city's library or face execution.



The pretext given is that the rebels wanted to convert the building into a headquarters for the "Mujahidin Advisory Council" through which they ran the city.



Another poster in the ruins of the souk bears testament to the strict brand of Sunni Islam imposed by the council, fronted by hardline cleric Abdullah Junabi. The decree warns all women that they must cover up from head to toe outdoors, or face execution by the armed militants who controlled the streets.



Two female bodies found yesterday suggest such threats were far from idle. An Arab woman, in a violet nightdress, lay in a post-mortem embrace with a male corpse in the middle of the street. Both bodies had died from bullets to the head.



Just six metres away on the same street lay the decomposing corpse of a blonde-haired white woman, too disfigured for swift identification but presumed to be the body of one of the many foreign hostages kidnapped by the rebels.



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Such is the fear that the heavily armed militants held over Fallujah that many of the residents who emerged from the ruins welcomed the US marines, despite the massive destruction their firepower had inflicted on their city.



A man in his sixties, half-naked and his underwear stained with blood from shrapnel wounds from a US munition, cursed the insurgents as he greeted the advancing marines on Saturday night.



"I wish the Americans had come here the very first day and not waited eight months," he said, trembling. Nearby, a mosque courtyard had been used as a weapons store by the militants.



Another elderly man, who did not want his name used for fear the rebels would one day return and restore their draconian rule, said he was detained by the militants last Tuesday and held for four days before being freed. He described how he had then sought refuge in a friend's house where they had huddled together clutching Korans in silent prayer for their lives as the massive US bombardment put the insurgents to flight.



"It was horrible," he told an AFP reporter."We suffered from the bombings. Innocent people died or were wounded by the bombings.



"But we were happy you did what you did because Fallujah had been suffocated by the Mujahidin. Anyone considered suspicious would be slaughtered. We would see unknown corpses around the city all the time."

Michael_J_Totten said:
The battle to retake Fallujah was hell, as war always is. But the residents of Fallujah lived in a Taliban-like hell before we even got there.

Kbear said:

I'm confused. What do you mean by "before we even got there." Was Fallujah a Taliban-like hell before the war? Or were the insurgents only able to take control after the chaos following the war?

In any case, this article is very depressing.

socalsk1nhead said:

Because polytheistic societies were paradise until monotheism moved in.

lamdalamdalamda said:

yes, this article was depressing. and the people of fallujah may have got many of the perks of being baathist loyalists before we actually GOT THERE, iraq was hell. they suffered under a hellish regime backed by crappy u.s. foreign policy. the evil did not begin with the war. no noe was innocent. that is most depressing about this article. evil was replaced by evil replacing evil.

Kbear said:
Following up on my previous post.. I'm trying to find some descriptions of everyday life in Fallujah before March 2003. Does anyone know of any web-based personal accounts of the city before the U.S.-led invasion?

Kbear said:
I'm confused. What do you mean by "before we even got there." Was Fallujah a Taliban-like hell before the war? Or were the insurgents only able to take control after the chaos following the war?

Kbear said:
Following up on my previous post.. I'm trying to find some descriptions of everyday life in Fallujah before March 2003. Does anyone know of any web-based personal accounts of the city before the U.S.-led invasion?

Michael_J_Totten said:

I mean before we got there last week.

Michael_J_Totten said:

It was under the bootheel of the Baathist totalitarian police state: secret police, rape rooms, mass graves, the whole works.

Michael_J_Totten said:

It was under the bootheel of the Baathist totalitarian police state: secret police, rape rooms, mass graves, the whole works.

googuse said:

This could have been done MONTHS ago, but Bush was too worried about getting elected and let most of the high level insurgents slip out. That place should have been locked down and swarming with troops from the get-go. Another example of his amazing lack of abilty to lead.

googuse said:

This could have been done MONTHS ago, but Bush was too worried about getting elected and let most of the high level insurgents slip out. That place should have been locked down and swarming with troops from the get-go. Another example of his amazing lack of abilty to lead.

louys said:

Not first hand, but there's some background here.

lamdalamdalamda said:
i don't know how helpful this may be, but there were reports from u.s. soldiers about refugees from the city all summer long...

socalsk1nhead said:

Maybe there was a balance within specific societies, but there was definitely issues between rival settlements. Just because the was order within a small populous, doesn't mean all was easy peasy. Especially if seperate settlements had seperate main dieties. A port city with an ocean diety, or an agricutural society with a rain or sun diety. Wars between these types of people broke out all the time. Kind of like present day situations but on a smaller scale.