Meanwhile the Iraqi resistance in Fallujah warned that clashes with the US occupation forces would resume if US snipers controlling some points around the city were not withdrawn. These snipers have killed and wounded scores of Iraqis.

A source close to the Iraqi Resistance in Fallujah said that the resistance will resume fighting if the US snipers deployed around the town are not withdrawn. The source told Quds Press that the "Iraqi resistance will resume fighting if the snipers are not withdrawn by 2200 today."

The source stressed that "the Iraqi resistance continued to adhere to the cease-fire despite violations by the US forces yesterday and today. We adhered to the cease-fire in response to a call by the Muslim Scholars Authority, which asked us not to respond to deprive the Americans of any excuse and refute their allegations." The source added: "We -- like all the people of Fallujah -- reject the entry of Iraqi army and police into to the city. If this happens, it is ok if they are from the people of Fallujah and who (according to the source) are already present in the city."

"These cowards, the Americans, they are killing families. They did not come here to liberate us from the (Saddam) regime, they came to kill women and children," said one guerrilla.

"We will teach them a lesson, we will turn this city into a graveyard for them."

Since the United Nations withdrew from Iraq in October 2003, the Non-Governmental Coordinating Committee in Iraq (NCCI) has become the primary mechanism to coordinate the work of some 80�100 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have remained in Iraq.

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The Working Group condemns military operations conducted against civilians and the attempts to prevent protection and relief of injured people.

In particular, the NCCI - Emergency Response Working Group is appalled by the witnessed:

   * Use of health facilities as bases for military operations

   * Occupation by coalition forces of hospitals - the main teaching hospital of Najaf and the general hospital of Fallujah (patients expelled � hospital closed)

   * Obstruction of access of wounded to health care facilities

   * Shooting at ambulances carrying patients

   * Arrest of wounded patients inside hospitals

   * Posting of snipers shooting at civilians

   * Prevented evacuation for 18 to 40 year old males from Fallujah

   * Lack of respect and the destruction of religious buildings

The working group also reminds all belligerent parties that the use of unconventional weapons is prohibited by international laws

We speak with author and antiwar activist Rahul Mahajan in Baghdad who was one of the only western reporters in Fallujah during the U.S. siege. He says: "The United States has completely lost control, and even the mildest of people are now absolutely enraged at what is being done in Fallujah, and want the United States out...anyone that didn't have a gun today could pick up a gun tomorrow."

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I can tell you from whatever I have seen, there's a big controversy now with the Arab press, Al-Jazeera, in particular reporting U.S. atrocities and war crimes in Fallujah, and the U.S. press tamely reporting Brigadier General Mark Kim's claims no such thing is happening. I can tell you from what I have seen with my own eyes that Al-Jazeera is much closer to the truth.

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AMY GOODMAN: In your blog at empirenotes.org, you quote "Time" magazine "in some neighborhoods, the marines say anyone they spot in the streets is considered a bad guy." says Marine Major, Larry Kafish, "It's hard to differentiate between people who are insurgent or civilians. You just have to go with your gut feeling." Your response.

RAHUL MAHAJAN: Well, it's absolutely true. It is true that some of the young men in Fallujah have not picked up their kalasnikovs yet, but the resistance, the Mujahadin, they are the people of the town.

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It's true that anyone that doesn't have a gun today could pick up a gun tomorrow. That says, to me, not that they're justified in killing any military age male or making sure they remain there in besieged Fallujah. Which is their policy. They're not letting military age men out in general. They made an exception for us. We brought some wounded out. But it says, to me, that rather than saying that what they're doing is justified, it says they're in the wrong town in the wrong country, executing the wrong policy. If anyone could be the enemy, then you have no justification for being there. It is in fact the exact logic they used in large areas of Vietnam, in any of the three fire zones. For example, military aged males, if they were moving at all, they were targets, and they could be shot at indiscriminately.

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AMY GOODMAN: What about the U.S. government saying that it is calm now in Fallujah, that there is a cease-fire?

RAHUL MAHAJAN: Well, they were saying that when I was there, and there was no cease-fire. I mean, I think what they did was they spent a few days without dropping the 500-pound bombs, which is what they were using, 500-pound bombs on residential areas is a terrifying thing. They were not using those, so they called it a "cease-fire".

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So I think the claim of a cease-fire was a joke and I see no reason to believe it now, either.

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AMY GOODMAN: Would you say that there is tremendous fear among the Iraqis?

RAHUL MAHAJAN: There was fear. There was a great deal of fear. But I see -- I actually see Iraqis losing their fear, and seeing it translated into anger. The same people that have said, you know, "Al Sadr's people are thugs", well, some of them still say it, but now they say it, in a sense, "they're our thugs and they're protecting us against the brutal occupiers". People of Fallujah say that the Mujahadin, they're our boys and our people and, you know, we support them. So, I don't think that the Iraqi people feel -- I think that they do feel that there will be consequences. There are women in Baghdad who go around with uncovered heads who know that in Fallujah, if they do that, they're very likely to be the subject of violence, but they still support the Mujahadin because they're so much against the brutal occupation. So I see much less fear and much more anger.

AMY GOODMAN: And have you gotten an chance to talk to U.S. soldiers?

RAHUL MAHAJAN: Initially I did, when I was in Sadr city, a couple of days after the outbreak of violence there, and I talked to some young men who were posted there. They had only been in Iraq three weeks, so they were more friendly and easier to approach. There was one we tried to talk to who simply kind of waved at us in the way that most troops will do if they've been in the country a long time, they get extremely wary and nervous. But these guys talked to us. They were perfectly nice. They were very, very ignorant of what was going on in Iraq. They were there in Sadr city because of clashes with Al Sadr's Madi army. So, I asked them, "What do you think about the stuff with Al Sadr. What do you think about the Madi army?" They said, "What? Who is that? Who are they? In fact one of them was very curious and came up and asked us several questions trying to figure out who these people were. They were thrown in here. They don't know any Arabic. They don't even know how to say, "please get away from the tank" in a respectful way, and they're sent over here to kill people and die. And it is a shame. I haven't been able to talk to any in more recent days.

"Come," says Maki and ushers me alone into a room where an old woman has just had an abdominal bullet wound stitched up. Another in her leg is being dressed, the bed under her foot soaked with blood, a white flag still clutched in her hand and the same story: I was leaving my home to go to Baghdad when I was hit by a US sniper. Some of the town is held by US marines, other parts by the local fighters. Their homes are in the US controlled area and they are adamant that the snipers were US marines.

Snipers are causing not just carnage but also the paralysis of the ambulance and evacuation services. The biggest hospital after the main one was bombed is in US territory and cut off from the clinic by snipers. The ambulance has been repaired four times after bullet damage. Bodies are lying in the streets because no one can go to collect them without being shot.

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Another man is pulled from the car onto a stretcher. Cluster bombs, they say, although it's not clear whether they mean one or both of them.

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We go again, Dave, Rana and me, this time in a pick up. There are some sick people close to the marines' line who need evacuating. No one dares come out of their house because the marines are on top of the buildings shooting at anything that moves. Saad fetches us a white flag and tells us not to worry, he's checked and secured the road, no Mujahedin will fire at us, that peace is upon us, this eleven year old child, his face covered with a keffiyeh, but for is bright brown eyes, his AK47 almost as tall as he is.

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The people seem to pour out of the houses now in the hope we can escort them safely out of the line of fire, kids, women, men, anxiously asking us whether they can all go, or only the women and children. We go to ask.

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And the satellite news says the cease-fire is holding and George Bush says to the troops on Easter Sunday that, "I know what we're doing in Iraq is right." Shooting unarmed men in the back outside their family home is right. Shooting grandmothers with white flags is right? Shooting at women and children who are fleeing their homes is right? Firing at ambulances is right?

Well George, I know too now. I know what it looks like when you brutalise people so much that they've nothing left to lose. I know what it looks like when an operation is being done without anaesthetic because the hospitals are destroyed or under sniper fire and the city's under siege and aid isn't getting in properly. I know what it sounds like too. I know what it looks like when tracer bullets are passing your head, even though you're in an ambulance. I know what it looks like when a man's chest is no longer inside him and what it smells like and I know what it looks like when his wife and children pour out of his house.

It's a crime and it's a disgrace to us all.

"We buried many in the stadium for football until it became full. When you are burying you cannot stay long because they (US Marines) will just shoot you. So we use the shovel. Just dig a big hole and put a whole family in the hole and leave as soon as possible so we are not shot."

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The doctor says his ambulance was attacked multiple times as it sought to bring aid to residents stranded in their homes. Once when it was trying to retrieve dead bodies for burial and a second time when it was attempting to bring food aid to homes cut off by American snipers

"I see people carrying a white flag and yelling for us saying 'We are here' just try to save us but we cannot save them because whenever we open the ambulance they will shoot us. We try to carry food or water by constrainers. As soon as you carry food or water, the snipers shot the containers of food.