One of the fighters
stepped forward. He was dressed in blue jeans and a black shirt, a
red-and-white keffiyeh scarf covering the whole of his face. He was
young and as he spoke he rested a loaded rocket-propelled grenade launcher
awkwardly on his right shoulder.
"The Americans are accusing the people of Falluja
of being terrorists," he said. "While they themselves are harassing
our women and girls, attacking our families and terrifying the civilians.
We told them it was forbidden for Americans to enter Falluja but they
are not respecting our words."
Encounters with Iraq's self-styled resistance, the "muqawama",
are rare, but their message is always the same. For the past year they
have been fighting to force US soldiers out of the Sunni towns north
and north-west of Baghdad and ultimately out of Iraq itself, whatever
chaos that may bring.
...
"It is hard to move around, either driving or walking," Zorbaie said.
One of his Iraqi colleagues, a cameraman, was shot and injured in the
leg yesterday by an American soldier.
Falluja's main hospital is outside the city, on
the western side of the broad Euphrates river. Doctors have now moved
to a small public health clinic in the city centre but there are severe
shortages of bandages and medicine, anaesthetics in particular. "There
are no medicines and now there is no water. There hasn't been any electricity
for a few days," the journalist said.
Since few people can leave their homes, most of
the dead are being buried either in gardens, near the street or at
local mosques.
...
"We all feel in danger, whether we are on the street or in our houses," Zorbaie
said.
...
"At the beginning we thought the Americans came for humanitarian reasons
but now we see they came for destruction," said Khairullah Ibrahim
Abbas.
"The Americans are civilised with values, morals
and manners, isn't that right?" said Mr Yusuf. "If they are doing this
because of the four Americans who were killed, why are they killing
so many women and children and bombing the civilian districts?"
|
