Bloodbath set to begin at Fallujah

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Fri, 05 Nov 2004 18:35:18 -0800

Subject:Bloodbath set to begin at Fallujah

 

 

 

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1345049,00.html>

US ready for Falluja assault

 

Ewen MacAskill, and Michael Howard in Sulaymaniya

Saturday November 6, 2004

The Guardian

 

US forces were last night awaiting final orders to storm Falluja, the

resistance stronghold, in what is expected to be the bloodiest assault

since the invasion of Iraq last year.

 

As the US stepped up air raids, blocked roads into the city, and issued

loudspeaker warnings to the population to leave, the interim Iraqi

prime

minister, Ayad Allawi, indicated that time had almost run out.

 

Speaking in Brussels after a European Union meeting, he said: " We

intend

to liberate the people and to bring the rule of law to Falluja. The

window really is closing for a peaceful settlement. "

 

But concern is growing that a bombardment of Falluja from the air and

ground will result in a high civilian death toll. Although most of the

population has already fled, there are estimated to be still tens of

thousands of civilians left.

 

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, expressed reservations in a

leaked

letter dated Sunday, saying that the assault could create a Sunni

Muslim

backlash that will delay Iraqi elections now scheduled for January 27.

 

The expected Falluja onslaught also threatened to put transatlantic

ties

under further strain at a time when European leaders are taking stock

of

President Bush's re-election. Tony Blair has urged Europe to open up to

Mr Bush, but the French president, Jacques Chirac, called instead for a

broad front to counter US domination.

 

Mr Chirac also pointedly snubbed the visiting Iraqi prime minister at a

Brussels EU summit, further polarising positions around the central

issue of Iraq.

 

The looming battle for Falluja promises to be a decisive moment for

post-Saddam Iraq, a litmus test for whether US troops and the new Iraq

forces can overwhelm insurgents in time for the January polls without

the kind of civil ian casualties that will alienate broad swathes of

the

population.

 

The Americans, whose marines withdrew from Falluja earlier this year

after international protests about a heavy civilian death toll, are

determined this time round to pacify the city and about 20 other

centres

of unrest ahead of the election.

 

Warplanes attacked the city last night in what residents said was some

of the heaviest bombardment for months. At least one US soldier died in

a rocket attack. As many as 10,000 are massed at the edge of the city,

together with Iraqi forces braced for the operation against an

estimated

5,000 insurgents.

 

Evidence that the US is readying itself for a heavy fight came with the

disclosure that it has doubled the size of its medical team with the

force outside Falluja. Fifty extra beds have been brought in, along

with

more blood supplies and a mortuary services unit.

 

The US military source said marines were braced for all kinds of

defensive tricks such as booby traps and mines.The source said: " It

will

not be easy, but there is a job to do and we'll see it to the end if

that's what the Iraqi government want. "

 

There are few, if any, independent journalists in Falluja to bear

witness to the assault.

 

Loyalists of the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other foreign

militants thought to be holed up in the city have said they will fight

until US and other foreign forces leave Iraq.

 

Religious and community leaders in the brooding cities north and west

of

Baghdad have warned that an all-out attack could backfire, provoking a

general uprising among Iraq's once all-powerful Sunni Arab minority and

threatening the elections.

 

Sheikh Mohammed Bashar al-Faidhi, of the Association of Muslim Clerics,

one of the most prominent Sunni Arab organisations to have emerged

since

the war, said: " If the US invades the city of Falluja or any other city

in Iraq, all the [sunni Arab] clerics in Iraq will call for a boycott

of

the election. "

 

It is such a scenario that Mr Annan fears. In his letter, the UN chief

told American, British and Iraqi leaders that he wanted the UN to help

prepare for the elections in January, but feared that a rise in

violence

could disrupt the process.

 

Mr Annan said: " I have in mind not only the risk of increased insurgent

violence, but also reports of major military offensives being planned

by

the multinational force in key localities such as Falluja. "

 

Europe also betrayed signs of queasiness at the Falluja onslaught.

 

Mr Chirac chose to avoid an EU summit lunch with Mr Allawi, and

brusquely rejected Mr Blair's calls for greater rapprochement with the

re-elected US president.

 

" It is clear that Europe, now more than ever, has the need, the

necessity, to strengthen its dynamism and unity when faced with this

great world power, " he said.

 

Other European leaders, such as Gerhard Schröder of Germany and José

Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain, were more conciliatory, both offering

congratulations to the victorious Republican and offers to start

afresh.

 

But they were less happy at comments by the Iraqi prime minister, who

had referred to those who opposed the Iraq war as " spectator states " .

 

Mr Allawi was contrite yes terday at his meeting with EU leaders.

 

" Today my government is trying to build a new Iraq and we need your

help, " he said.

 

He said the two sides, including opponents of the war, had turned the

page.

 

Mr Allawi thanked the EU for €330m (£230.4m) in aid over the past two

years and urged it to use its influence in Iran and Syria to stop

fuelling violence in his country.

 

· Mr Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq group called last night for the release

of the charity worker Margaret Hassan, and promised to free her if she

fell into their hands.

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