[News] Fierce fighting in Falluja

News at freedomarchives.org News at freedomarchives.org
Wed Apr 7 11:28:41 EDT 2004


Fierce fighting in Falluja
by
Wednesday 07 April 2004 7:51 AM GMT

98898c.jpg

Fierce street battles are raging in Falluja between resistance fighters 
defending the town and US occupation forces, who are launching missile 
attacks in and around residential areas.

Hospital sources said at least 52 Iraqis were killed and 90 injured in 
attacks on the besieged town of Falluja on Wednesday, said Aljazeera 
correspondent in Falluja, Ahmad Mansur.

"Iraqi medic Rafi al-Isawai said the number of casualities is expected to 
double," he added.

Another 53 Iraqis died in attacks overnight in the besieged town which 
American forces sealed off on Sunday. "More than 200 Iraqis, including 
women children, were injured in the past 24 hours," said Mansur.

Twenty-five of those killed were from one family.

'Getting worse'

"The situation is getting worse," said Mansur. "An ambulance carrying 
casualties was attacked on its way to the medical centre. The American 
forces closed the road leading to the city's hospital and everybody walking 
in the streets of Falluja is now becoming a target."

The US forces have evacuated the factories in the industrial area of the 
city and asked the workers to leave and not come back until a day or two, 
he added.

The correspondent also confirmed that Abd al-Aziz al-Samari mosque, where 
the office of the Association of Muslim Clerics is, was attacked and among 
the casualties were a family  sitting in a car parked behind the mosque.

9889be.jpg

A number of children were among
the casualties in Falluja
"The American troops are still in the outside section of Falluja and they 
have not reached the centre of the city yet," said Mansur.

Earlier, speaking live from a rooftop in the tense town, Mansur said the 
hospital is struggling to cope with the rising casualties.

"They are attacking residential neighbourhoods," he said as US warplanes 
swooped over the area and fired rockets. Intense gunfire could be heard 
from the streets.

"The residents of Falluja are asking where is the (US-appointed) Iraqi 
Governing Council," said an obviously shaken Mansur. "They are asking why 
the Iraqis are not protecting them."

Plea for help

"Residents of Falluja call on the Arab world to intervene and lift the 
siege on this town of 300,000. They ask where are the Arab leaders in this 
time?" he said before throwing himself to the ground as a plane flew overhead.

Falluja has come under fierce US attack in the past three days as 
occupation forces sealed off the town, a centre for anti-occupation 
activity, in an effort to crush the resistance.

US marines tried for a third time to take control of the town but were 
forced to retreat.

The Aljazeera crew, including cameramen Layf Muftaq and Hasan Walid, sound 
engineer Sayf al-Din and correspondent Hamid Hadid, are the only media 
personnel inside the town.

US forces besieged the town after last week's ambush in which four security 
guards were killed and their bodies mutilated and dragged through the 
streets by Iraqi mobs.

Aljazeera
By

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A73529F1-1554-4C68-8774-BA478D565B02.htm 



The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20040407/8316b19a/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 98898c.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 633 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20040407/8316b19a/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 9889be.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 633 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20040407/8316b19a/attachment-0001.jpg>


More information about the News mailing list