The beginning of the end. May 1, 2003 - Fallujah

[dutchdemocrat]

Future historians may very well look back at this day in Fallujah at being the trigger of the Iraqi resistance to occupation. For it was this incident that led to the retaliatory and equally as despicable lynching of the four American contractors.

1 May 2003
TWO KILLED IN NEW IRAQ DEMO SHOOTING
From Chris Hughes In Al-Fallujah.
Pictures by Julian Andrews



It started when a young boy hurled a sandal at a US jeep - it ended with two Iraqis dead and 16 seriously injured.

I watched in horror as American troops opened fire on a crowd of 1,000 unarmed people here yesterday. Many, including children, were cut down by a 20-second burst of automatic gunfire during a demonstration against the killing of 13 protesters at the Al-Kaahd school on Monday. They had been whipped into a frenzy by religious leaders. The crowd were facing down a military compound of tanks and machine-gun posts.

The youngster had apparently lobbed his shoe at the jeep - with a M2 heavy machine gun post on the back - as it drove past in a convoy of other vehicles. A soldier operating the weapon suddenly ducked, raised it on its pivot then pressed his thumb on the trigger. Mirror photographer Julian Andrews and I were standing about six feet from the vehicle when the first shots rang out, without warning.

We dived for cover under the compound wall as troops within the crowd opened fire. The convoy accelerated away from the scene. Iraqis in the line of fire dived for cover, hugging the dust to escape being hit. We could hear the bullets screaming over our heads. Explosions of sand erupted from the ground - if the rounds failed to hit a demonstrator first. Seconds later the shooting stopped and the screaming and wailing began.

One of the dead, a young man, lay face up, half his head missing, first black blood, then red spilling into the dirt.

SNIP

The crowd waved their fists at the gunships angrily and shouted: "Go home America, go home America."

SNIP

Tribal leaders struggled to contain the mob which was reaching a frenzy.

SNIP

Some of the stones just reached the compound walls. Many threw sandals - a popular Iraqi insult.

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Then came the gunfire - and the death and the agony.

SNIP

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12908278&method=full&siteid=50143

Fallujah
Siege by Jo Wilding - April 14 2004>
I’m sorry it’s so long, but please, please read and forward widely. The truth of what’s happening in Falluja has to get out.

Fallujah 1920: A history lesson about the town they have destroyed

[Tom Bombadil]

1. I think for many in Iraq

the resistance began the moment US troops set foot on Iraqi soil. All so sadly predictable.