Falluja Siege, April 2004: A News Analysis

The IBC Falluja-April 2004 News Analysis presents excerpts from nearly three hundred news stories on the April 2004 siege of Falluja,* with an emphasis on its humanitarian impact. It organises extracts reporting specific deaths or injuries of civilians and combatants, cumulative death tallies as collated by various authorities within and outside Falluja, as well as additional on-the-ground and background reportage on the siege, and how the US military and goverment explained or presented their actions. To enter the archive and access the news reported on a particular day, click on any dated link below.

For a more detailed user guide, see below.

*Common alternative spellings are Fallujah, Fallouja, Falloujah.

(Iraq Body Count Press Release on the Falluja News Analysis archive and IBC database entry)

Tables with IBC-extracted news, by date:

Apr 03 - Apr 04 - Apr 05 - Apr 06 - Apr 07 - Apr 08 - Apr 09 - Apr 10 - Apr 11 - Apr 12 - Apr 13 - Apr 14 - Apr 15 - Apr 16 - Apr 17 - Apr 18 - Apr 19 - Apr 20 - Apr 21 - Apr 22 - Apr 23 - Apr 24 - Apr 25 - Apr 26 - Apr 27 - Apr 28 - Apr 29 - Apr 30 - May 01 - May 02 - May 03 - May 04 - May 05 - May 06 - May 07 - May 08 - May 09 - May 10 - May 11 - May 14 - May 21 - Jun 03 - Jun 25 - Jul 19 - Return to Index page

User Guide to Tables:

The essential quotes from the news stories - of specific reported deaths, and reported cumulative totals - have been extracted and presented in table format. The tables also contain data extractions from these news quotes. All the news stories published on a particular day share a single web page.

Example Table

Below is an example IBC Falluja table and single news source's entry.The heading gives the publication date of all stories on that page. The first row gives the source, time of publication (where available), author, and title.

Row 2 contains extracted quotes from the story which provide information on specific reported deaths, and the next three columns contain the following data extracted from these quotes: date of death, total killed, civilian/fighter status of the killed.

The next four rows are similarly organized, and refer to cumulative deaths. These necessarily refer to a date range, not a single date.

The final two rows in each table go beyond IBC casualty data extraction to provide information that can be used to perform other kinds of analyses. Quotes in the rows headed "Selected info.." contain related and background information, testimony, commentary and analysis; quotes in "US/military viewpoint" provide insights into the US and its military's thinking, in both higher and lower echelons, as expressed in press conferences and often more germanely, on the ground. All non-contiguous quotes from news articles are indicated with an ellipsis.

IBC Extracted Falluja News - April 12 [sample table]

News Source - Author - Title	Associated Press - 10:46 PM (UK) - LEE KEATH - SHIITE CLERIC PULLS BACK IRAQI MILITIAS
Specific incidents / deaths	Marine commanders said insurgents were trying to smuggle weapons into the city in aid convoys and move them around in ambulances. Marines shot and killed two gunmen setting up a machine gun near their position, then saw an ambulance pull up and try to take the gun, said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne. Marines shot an insurgent in the ambulance. ... Iraqis in Fallujah complained that civilians were coming under fire by U.S. snipers. Sheik Dhafir al-Obaidi told Al-Arabiya television that dozens of people had been killed "because they thought it was a cease-fire and left their homes for supplies, and they were surprised by snipers."
Date killed?	11th?
Total	2 'gunmen setting up a machine gun' + 1 'insurgent in the ambulance' + 24 ('dozens'... who left their homes for supplies')
Civilian / Fighter	24 ('dozens') /3
Cumulative deaths [and injuries]	With quiet on both fronts, the scale of Iraq's worst fighting since the fall of Saddam Hussein became clearer: The military reported about 70 coalition troops and 700 Iraqi insurgents killed so far this month. It was the biggest loss of life on both sides since the end of major combat a year ago. A hospital official said over 600 Iraqis were killed in Fallujah alone - mostly women, children and the elderly. ... More than 600 Iraqis have been killed in the city since the siege began, said the head of Fallujah's hospital, Rafie al-Issawi. Most of the dead registered at hospitals and clinics were women, children and elderly, he said. He refused to give figures, saying that doing so would suggest the remaining dead - young, military-aged men - were all insurgents, which he said was not the case.
Date range?	5th-11th?
Total	600+
Civilian / Fighter	'mostly women, children and the elderly'
Selected info, comment, analysis	In Fallujah, Sunni insurgents and Marines largely held to a truce for a second day while Iraqi Governing Council members negotiated with city officials to find a way to halt the violence. ... Aysar al-Baghdadi, an assistant to Governing Council member Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said that in the Fallujah talks, the United States demands the surrender of the killers of four American contractors on March 31, the handover of foreign militants and an end to attacks on U.S. troops in and around the city. Al-Rubaie on Monday called on "Fallujah's good people ... to hand over these criminals and finish the bloodshed."
US/military viewpoint	"We have to be careful because ambulances are being used for legitimate purposes, but we are also treating them with suspicion," Byrne said. ... Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt on Monday released the military's first full casualty estimates since widespread fighting erupted on April 4, saying around 70 coalition personnel have been killed and "about 10 times that amount" of Iraqi insurgents. He said there was no "authoritative number" of civilians killed and said figures seen so far came through the "filter of propaganda." Abizaid also complained of propaganda, accusing two Arab television stations - Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya - of broadcasting false reports that American troops were targeting civilians in Fallujah.

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