Fallujah

With Donkeys for Transport, All Is Well

Inter Press Service
By Ali al-Fadhily*

FALLUJAH, Sep 5 (IPS) - A brave new attempt is under way to project that all is well now with Fallujah. Residents know better -- or worse.

Former Iraqi minister of state for foreign affairs Rafi al-Issawi visited Fallujah, 60 km west of Baghdad, Aug. 22. Issawi, who resigned Aug. 1 when the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front withdrew from the government, visited the city with other members of the Sunni Accordance Bloc, al-Tawafuq.

The group toured the city and met with senior officials and community leaders in a show of conversion of the city from the most violent to the most peaceful in Iraq.

Curfew-Bound Fallujah On The Boil Again
FALLUJAH, Jun 27 (IPS)

Inter Press Service
By Ali al-Fadhily*
Visit the Dahr Jamail website
http://dahrjamailiraq.com

- Strict curfew and tight security measures have brought difficult living conditions and heightened tempers to residents of this besieged city.

The siege in this city located 60km west of Baghdad has entered its second month. There is little sign of any international attention to the plight of the city. Fallujah, which is largely sympathetic to the Iraqi resistance, was assaulted twice by the U.S. military in 2004.

Anger Builds in Fallujah Over Security Crackdown

Dahr Jamail website
http://dahrjamailiraq.com

Inter Press Service
Ali al-Fadhily*

FALLUJAH, Jun 4 (IPS) - The city that was mostly destroyed by the U.S. military operation Phantom Fury in November 2004 has been under curfew for over two weeks, with no signs of relief.

Located 70 kms west of Baghdad, the city made headlines when four Blackwater USA security mercenaries were killed and their bodies horrifically mutilated on Mar. 31, 2004.

That April the city was attacked by the U.S. military, but resistance fighters repelled occupation forces. That set the stage for the November siege which left approximately 70 percent of the city destroyed and turned a quarter of a million residents into refugees.