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History
Gulf War, 1991 During the Gulf War, Fallujah was one of the cities in Iraq with the most civilian casualties. Two separate failed bombing attempts on Fallujah's bridge across the Euphrates River hit crowded markets, killing an estimated 200 civilians, enraging city residents. The first bombing occurred early in the Gulf War when a British jet intending to bomb the bridge dropped two laser guided bombs on city's crowded main market. Between 50 and 150 civilians died and many more were injured. In the second incident, Coalition forces attacked Fallujah's bridge over the Euphrates River with four laser-guided bombs. At least one struck the bridge while one or two bombs fell short in the river. The fourth bomb hit another market elsewhere in the city, reportedly due to failure of its laser guidance system. Iraq War, 2003 See main article, United States occupation of Fallujah Fallujah was one of the least affected areas of Iraq immediately after the 2003 invasion by the U.S. led Coalition. It had not witnessed any major fighting as Iraqi Army units stationed in the area abandoned their positions, blending themselves into the local population and leaving a lot of unsecured military equipment to the hands of whoever wanted it. Al Fallujah was also the site of a Ba'athist resort facility called 'Dreamland', located only a few kilometers outside the city proper. The Iraqi military's desertion of the Ba'athist compound and the dissolution of nearby military units dispersed a large number of military and para-military personnel into the local Fallujah-area population. The damage the city had avoided during the initial invasion, was negated by damage from looters, who took advantage of the collapse of Saddam's regime to help themselves. The looters targeted former government sites, the 'Dreamland' compound and the nearby military bases, who stripped buildings of anything of value including floor tiles, window frames, and door frames. Aggravating this situation was the proximity of Fallujah to the infamous Abu G'raib prison, where Saddam, in one of his last acts, had released all prisoners. While many prisoners of the Ba'athist regime may have been political opponents, this act freed both political prisoners and criminal prisoners alike. Citizens of Al Fallujah had to defend their own homes and property from these looters and criminals in the absence of peace-keeping authorities. The new mayor of the city—Taha Bidaywi Hamed, selected by local tribal leaders—was staunchly pro-American. When the U.S. Army entered the town in April 2003, they positioned themselves at the vacated Ba'ath Party headquarters—an action that erased some goodwill, especially when many in the city had been hoping the U.S. Army would stay outside of the relatively calm city. A Fallujah Protection Force composed of local Iraqis was set up by the U.S.-led occupants to help fight the rising resistance. On the evening of April 28, 2003, a crowd of 200 people defied a curfew imposed by the Americans and gathered outside a secondary school used as a military HQ to demand its reopening. Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne stationed on the roof of the building opened fire on the crowd resulting in the deaths of 15 civilians and the wounding of 53. *. The events leading up to the event are disputed, with American forces claiming they were responding to gunfire from the crowd, while the Iraqis deny this version, although conceding rocks were thrown at the troops. A protest against the killings two days later was also fired upon by US troops resulting in two more deaths. Up to this point, Fallujah was not considered a hotbed of anti-American sentiment * but the shootings created widespread anger against the occupation. Over the next year, tensions simmered and various Sunni rebel groups, as well as foreign terrorists entrenched themselves in the city, using it as a command base and a symbol of defiance against the occupation. In a highly publicized attack on March 31, 2004, four private military contractors from the U.S. company Blackwater USA were dragged from their vehicle and killed. Their bodies were then mutilated and burned. A crowd of militants and townsfolk, estimated to number over a thousand, beat and dragged the burnt corpses behind automobiles, then hanged the dismembered remains from the girders of one of Fallujah's two bridges over the Euphrates River (known previously as "the old bridge", but now as "the Blackwater bridge" and to the Marines as "the Brooklyn Bridge"). These acts were videotaped by journalists and broadcast worldwide. This led to an abortive US operation to recapture control of the city in Operation Vigilant Resolve, a siege of the city called Operation Plymouth Rock, and a successful recapture of the city in November 2004 called Operation Phantom Fury which resulted in the reputed death of over 5,000 insurgent fighters and the loss of 92 American Marines KIA and over 500 wounded. According to local sources, hundreds of civilians were among those killed. One Marine, Sgt. Peralta killed during the battle has been nominated for the Medal of Honor after being killed protecting fellow Marines by covering a grenade with his body just before it exploded. In November, 2004, the U.S military launched a massive assault on the city. Estimates by one Iraqi N.G.O puts the number of deaths in the assault at 4000-6000. There were reports that cluster bombs and white phosphorous, a controversial incendiary weapon, were used on the city. Initially the Pentagon denied the use of the latter weapon but later, after testimony by U.S soldiers, admitted using it.* A State Department official had called earlier reports of cluster bomb use "totally false," but there was no official statement on the events of November, which had been reported in several sources (for details, see US occupation of Fallujah). Current situation Residents were allowed to return to the city in mid-December after undergoing biometric identification, provided they wear 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" while 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 *. According to the NBC *, 9,000 homes were destroyed, thousands more were damaged and of the 32,000 compensation claims only 2,500 have been paid as of April 14, 2005. According to Mike Marqusee of Iraq Occupation Focus writing in the Guardian *, "Fallujah'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 *. Pre-offensive inhabitant figures are unreliable; the nominal population was assumed to have been 250,000-350,000. Thus, over 150,000 individuals are still living as IDPs in harsh conditions in tent cities or with relatives outside Fallujah or elsewhere in Iraq. In the aftermath of the offensive calm was restored to Fallujah. However, the number of insurgent attacks has gradually increased in and around the city, and although news reports are often few and far between, several reports of IED attacks on Iraqi and U.S. troops have been reported in the press. The most vivid of these was in late 2005 when ten U.S. Marines on foot patrol were killed by a mine. By the end of 2005 several Marines had been killed by snipers and roadside bombs in and around Fallujah. Throughout 2004, the US base located outside Fallujah came under mortar fire at least weekly, and in January 2006 came under mortar fire again. By Summer 2006, the city that had once been used as a staging point for insurrection has become something of a island of peace, by contrast to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the rest of the volatile Al-Anbar province. The invasive security measures which had been emplaced to prevent mass re-infiltration by Sunni rebels or Al-Qaeda elements had proven effective, though it is largely due to the massive population loss experienced by Fallujah as a result of the destruction of its infrastructure during Operation Vigilant Resolve and Phantom Fury.*** See also | ||||||||||||
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