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Al Jazeera (English)
    Baghdad Burning Blog (by Riverbend, an Iraqi civilian girl)
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Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

US troops 'in centre of Falluja'
(The Guardian, November 9, 2004)
Troops 'control third of city' . . . Heavy street fighting . . . Clerics urge election boycott
There were conflicting reports about the strength of resistance troops faced in a push through the city's northern quarters. The Jolan district, a suspected rebel stronghold, provided less opposition than military planners expected but heavy battles raged elsewhere. . . . The fighting appeared to be easing towards the end of the day. Quil Lawrence, a BBC correspondent embedded with troops in Falluja, said: " You can see fierce fighting, though it has quietened down a little with the coming of darkness. The dark gives an advantage to the Americans because of their night vision equipment. . . . "I imagine there must be many casualties considering the amount of gunfire I've seen. The Americans launch about 500 rounds to the insurgents' one, pelleting the insurgent area." . . . Elsewhere in Iraq, insurgents attacked police stations around Baquba, north-east of Baghdad. . . . A group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is thought to be based in Falluja, said it carried out the attack. In another incident around 50 gunmen attacked a police station in Baghdad. In northern Iraq, a car bomb exploded at the entrance to an Iraqi national guard base close to an oil pumping station near the city of Kirkuk, killing three people. . . . Falluja is ringed by US forces, with British Black Watch soldiers guarding the roads to its south. Iraqi troops are following US forces into the city and securing captured ground. . . . US military officials said three troops had been killed and another 14 wounded in and around Falluja in the past 12 hours. There was no immediate information about civilian casualties. . . . Residents said a US air strike had destroyed a clinic that had been receiving casualties after US and Iraqi forces seized Falluja's main hospital yesterday. . . . Sami al-Jumaili, a doctor at the hospital who escaped arrest when it was taken by US troops, said the city was running out of medical supplies and only a few clinics remained open. . . . "There is not a single surgeon in Falluja. We had one ambulance hit by US fire and a doctor wounded," he told Reuters. "There are scores of injured civilians in their homes whom we can't move. A 13-year-old child just died in my hands." . . . Aid workers also expressed grave concern over the plight of tens of thousands of people fleeing the fighting. . . . An influential group of Sunni Muslim clerics called for a boycott of Iraq's national election in protest against the US-led attack on Falluja. The Association of Muslim Scholars said the vote for a new, permanent government - scheduled for January 27 - was being held "over the corpses of those killed in Falluja and the blood of the wounded". . . . The group said it held Mr Allawi's interim government fully responsible for "the war of annihilation that Falluja is being subjected to today at the hands of the occupation forces and the militias of some of the parties that are participating in the interim government". . . . The development will come as a blow to US and Iraqi officials, who have expressed concern that a lack of Sunni participation would raise question about the legitimacy of the vote. . . . The Muslim Council of Britain added its condemnation, saying it was "utterly appalled" by the attack on Falluja. A spokesman said: "We have long stated that the only solution in Iraq is for all foreign armies to leave and allow the Iraqis to determine their own affairs and regain control of their own territory and resources.

posted by Lorenzo 11:10 AM