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Al Jazeera (English)
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Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

Operation "Steel Curtain"
(Dahr Jamail, Iraq Dispatches, November 07, 2005)
There is a huge US military operation once again targeting the Al-Qa’im area of Iraq, this one named "Steel Curtain." . . . As tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of the beginning of the massacre in Fallujah, the US military pushes on with house to house fighting in the small down of Husaybah, near Al-Qaim. . . . According to Al-Jazeera: "Falih Abd al-Karim, an Iraqi journalist, told Aljazeera that US and Iraqi forces were positioned in al-Sikak neighbourhood and north and south of 12 Rabia al-Awal neighbourhood in central Husaybah." . . . This came after US warplanes on Sunday evening targeted al-Jamahir, al-Risala and other neighbourhoods in the town, destroying houses, and killing and injuring dozens of people, he said. . . . The bodies remained under the debris of the houses because US forces do not allow burials or transfer of the injured to hospitals, Abd al-Karim added. . . . The US shelling has demolished government buildings, including al-Jamahir primary school, al-Qaim preparatory school for boys, the educational supervision building, al-Qaim post office and communication centre, al-Qaim education directorate and two mosques in the city, he said. . . . Once again, the effects of this on the civilian population are either under-reported or not reported at all in most mainstream outlets in the US. . . .
A young mother of six children, Ida Thiyab, was changing her baby’s diapers; she left her home when he was only one day old. Now he is two months. A third was looking for clean water to feed her baby. Soriya, a mother and grandmother of a big family, suffers from asthma, and in the refugee camp the doctor did not know how to help her. . . . "Is not it dangerous to go back home now, while the situation is still not safe?" (One of the biggest attacks eventually began on Nov 5, 2005 named Steel Curtain, 3,500 American and Iraqi troops participated in it) . . . "What else can we do?" replied Ida. "It is getting too cold especially at night in the wilderness; we were living in a (tent) that we made of flour sacks for two months." . . . In one of the cars a woman became very angry, she did not obey, began shouting at the soldiers: "I am a doctor, I am supposed to be at work now, while I spent the day here in these queues, why do not you respect our time, can not you see that we are civilians, how many times do you have to search us." . . . Traces of the last attack could be seen everywhere on the buildings, the faces, and the suspicious eyes. . . . We heard the same scenario. Water, electricity, phones, roads were all cut. The city was besieged before the bombing began on October 5, 2005 and went on for 18 days. Many houses were demolished; many families left to the refugee camps, many people were arrested, including the Moslem Scholars Association secretary in Haditha and his son. The general hospital was occupied for 10 days; the hospital director and one of the doctors were brutally beaten and then arrested for a week inside the hospital. Many schools and offices were still occupied. All houses were raided, some twice a day. All weapons were confiscated including the personal. There is no government, no offices, no schools, no work, no markets . . . nothing. "Haditha is a fallen city" was sarcastically repeated by residents. . . . Dr. Walid Al-Obeidi, the director of Haditha General Hospital and Dr. Jamil Abdul Jabbar, the only surgeon in the Haditha area were arrested for a week, very badly beaten and threatened to face the same treatment in the future by the American troops. . . . Dr. Jamil, a surgeon for 20 years, was also arrested and very brutally beaten. When we met him, 22 days later, his face was still bluish. His nose was broken, and a big opening in his head. He said: "They beat me on my eyes and nose, kicked me with boots under my chin. One of them threatened me if I do not talk after he counts to three, he would shoot me. He began counting, after three he turned the gun upside down and hit me on the back of my head by the gun. For days I could not move or see. They threatened us of abusing our families. For some reason they took my picture while I was bleeding, I could hear the camera click." . . . Both doctors were threatened if they do not talk, they would receive the same treatment in the future. They were warned of passing any information of the arrest to the media. They were asked who wrote the hostile slogans against the American on the opposite wall of the hospital (there were different slogans on that wall from opposite sides, the American soldiers –the F word- and the insurgents). "What are the names of the insurgents they treated," they asked, "And what are the pictures of the bodies in the hospital computer?" . . . Dr.Walid said he does not know who wrote on the wall outside the hospital, what the names of the insurgents are, because they were masked. He explained that the dead bodies' pictures were of unknown people whose bodies were found after the fighting. . . . He explained, "We can not keep these bodies forever; we do not have enough cold boxes. So, after two months, we take their pictures and bury them, so that whenever some one from their families comes to ask we show the pictures of the dead bodies." . . . An American officer asked Dr.Walid what he thinks of the Americans, and he replied "You are occupation troops. I wish that you were friends, but this way, things do not work." . . . "Is not it better that we are here," the officer asked again. . . . "No," Dr. Walid replied, "Look at you, heavily armed in your military clothes, you frighten children. You create tension." Dr. Walid was offered $30 as an apology compensation for beating and humiliating him. "I did not know what to do, I did not want to reject them and create more problems, and I could not accept them, so I gave them to the cleaning workers." One of the American soldiers whispered to Dr.Walid, that the compensation they should pay if such an aggression happen in the US, would buy the whole city of Haditha. . . . The troops are every where (in the hospital, the assistant room became the investigation room.) They occupy any house for 2 or 3 hours. You find them in the house garden or on the roofs at any time. They are occupying 8 schools now, the Education Office, the water project, the municipality, the court. . . . filling the windows with sand sacs, and turned them into headquarters. Many people whose belongings, money, documents . . . etc. were confiscated during the house raids, were given small sheets of paper saying that they can collect them in this or that school.

posted by LoZo 4:33 PM