[lit-ideas] NYTimes.com Article: Enraged Mob in Falluja Kills 4 American Contractors
- From: cskir@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 07:21:15 -0500 (EST)
The article below from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by cskir@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Article. This was reported on NPR also.
Carol
cskir@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Enraged Mob in Falluja Kills 4 American Contractors
March 31, 2004
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
FALLUJA, Iraq, March 31 - Four Americans working for a
security company were ambushed and killed Wednesday, and an
enraged mob then jubilantly dragged the burned bodies
through the streets of downtown Falluja, hanging at least
two corpses from a bridge over the Euphrates River.
Less than 15 miles away, in the same area of the
increasingly violent Sunni Triangle, five American soldiers
were killed when a roadside bomb ripped through their
armored personnel carrier.
The violence was one of the most brutal outbursts of
anti-American rage since the war in Iraq began more than a
year ago. And the steadily deteriorating situation in the
Falluja area, a center of anti-American hostility west of
Baghdad, has become so precarious that no American or Iraqi
forces responded to the attack against the civilians, who
worked for a North Carolina firm.
American officials said the civilians were traveling in two
sport utility vehicles although some witnesses in Falluja
said there were four. ``Two got away; two got trapped,''
said Muhammad Furhan, a taxi driver.
It is not clear what the four Americans were doing in
Falluja or where they were going. But just as they were
passing a strip of stationery stores and kebab shops around
10:30 a.m., masked gunmen jumped into the street and
blasted their vehicles with assault rifles. Witnesses said
the civilians did not shoot back.
There are a number of police stations in Falluja and a base
of more than 4,000 marines nearby, but even as the security
guards were being swarmed and their vehicles set on fire,
sending plumes of inky smoke over the closed shops of the
city, there were no ambulances, no fire engines and no
assistance.
Instead, Falluja's streets were thick with men and boys and
chaos.
Men with scarves over their faces hurled bricks into the
blazing vehicles. A group of boys yanked a smoldering body
into the street and ripped it apart. Someone then tied a
chunk of flesh to a rock and tossed it over a telephone
wire.
``Viva mujahedeen!'' shouted Said Khalaf, a taxi driver.
``Long live the resistance!''
Nearby, a boy no older than 10 ground his heel into a
burned head. ``Where is Bush?'' the boy yelled. ``Let him
come here and see this!''
Masked men gathered around him, punching their fists into
the air. The streets filled with hundreds of people.
``Falluja is the graveyard of Americans!'' they chanted.
Several news crews filmed the mayhem. The images of a
frenzied crowd mutilating bodies were reminiscent of the
scene from Somalia in 1993, when a mob dragged the body of
an American soldier through the streets of Mogadishu. That
moment shifted public opinion and eventually led to an
American pullout.
The White House blamed terrorists and remnants of Saddam
Hussein's former government for the attack. ``This is a
despicable attack,'' Scott McClellan, the White House
spokesman, told reporters, adding that ``there are some
that are doing everything they can to prevent'' a transfer
of sovereignty to an Iraqi government on June 30.
American military officials said the violence in Falluja,
however chilling, would not scare them away. ``The
insurgents in Falluja are testing us,'' said Capt. Chris
Logan, a marine. ``They're testing our resolve. But it's
not like we're going to leave. We just got here.''
Captain Logan, who is stationed at a large walled base on
the outskirts of the city, said Falluja was becoming ``an
area of greater concern.'' Last week, a contingent of
marines, who recently took over responsibility for Falluja
from the Army, fought gunmen in a battle in which one
marine, a television cameraman and several Iraqi civilians
were killed.
``This is one of those areas in Iraq that is definitely
squirrelly,'' Captain Logan said.
Many people in Falluja said they felt like they had won an
important victory on Wednesday. They insisted that the four
security guards, who were driving in unmarked sport utility
vehicles, were working for the Central Intelligence Agency.
``This is what these spies deserve,'' said Salam Aldulayme,
a 28-year-old Falluja resident.
Intelligence sources in Washington said the four were not
working for the C.I.A. They worked for Blackwater Security
Consulting of Moyock, N.C., providing security for food
delivery in the Falluja area, according to a statement from
the company. The occupation authorities have hired hundreds
of private security guards for a range of duties.
Witnesses in Falluja said several of the men had Defense
Department badges, though such identification is common for
contractors working for the occupation authorities. A
senior military officer said the four were all retired
Special Operations forces - three Navy Seals and one Army
Ranger. In the past three weeks, more than 10 foreign
civilians have been killed in Iraq though no attack
provoked the spasm of brutality that followed this one.
Since the war in Iraq began, Falluja has been a flash point
of violence. Of all the places in Iraq, it is where
anti-American hatred is the strongest. The area is
predominantly Sunni Muslim. Many families remain loyal to
the captured dictator, Mr. Hussein, who is also a Sunni
Muslim. Over the years, Mr. Hussein cultivated a network of
patronage and privilege among the tribes and elders of
Falluja. Many became top army officers. Some ran big
companies. When Mr. Hussein was ousted last April, the
people here lost their jobs, their businesses and their
power.
That set off a cycle of killing and responses, a bloody
feud between a clannish, traditional society and occupiers
from thousands of miles away. Last April, American soldiers
killed more than 15 civilians at a demonstration in
Falluja. In November, an American helicopter was shot down
outside the town, killing 16. Townspeople danced on the
wreckage.
In February, insurgents mounted a brazen daylight attack
against a convoy carrying Gen. John P. Abizaid, the
American commander in the Middle East. He escaped
unscathed. But two days later, gunmen blasted their way
into a Falluja jail, killing at least 15 police officers
and freeing dozens of prisoners.
Last week, the First Marine Expeditionary Force formally
took control of the city, population 300,000, which sits on
a desert shelf about 35 miles west of Baghdad. Marine
commanders said they were going to try a different approach
from the Army, which had basically pulled back to bases
ringing Falluja and left policing up to the locals.
``We're doing work outside the wire,'' Captain Logan said.
``We're running patrols. We're rebuilding things. We're
working with Iraqis.''
Most of the Sunni Triangle, north and west of Baghdad, has
become so unsafe that American forces stick to their bases,
their movement usually limited to heavily guarded convoys.
Around 7 a.m. on Wednesday, an Army convoy passing through
the town of Habbaniya, west of Falluja, rolled over an
I.E.D., or improvised explosive device.
The bomb was buried in the road and blew up under an
armored personnel carrier, killing five soldiers. Roadside
bombs are everyday occurrences in Iraq. But few have
claimed as many casualties.
``It was a very large I.E.D.,'' said Brig. Gen. Mark
Kimmitt, deputy operations director for the occupation
forces.
A few hours later the men from Blackwater Security drove
into downtown Falluja. After they were shot, the scene
turned grisly. A crowd of more than 300 people flooded into
the streets. Men swarmed around the riddled vehicles. Some
witnesses said the Americans were still alive when one boy
came running up with a jug of gasoline. Soon, both vehicles
were fireballs.
``Everybody here is happy with this,'' Mr. Furhan said.
``There is no question.''
After the fires cooled, a group of boys tore the corpses
out of the vehicles. The crowd cheered them on. The boys
dragged the blackened bodies to the iron bridge over the
Euphrates River, about a mile away. Some people said they
saw four bodies hanging over the water, some said only two.
At sunset, nurses from a nearby hospital tried to take the
bodies away.
Men with guns threatened to kill the nurses. The nurses
left. The bodies remained.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/international/worldspecial/31CND-IRAQ.html?ex=1081822075&ei=1&en=e3bd38d22ce5e984
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