U.S. Forces Fire At Aid Convoys To Fallujah (update to my earlier thread)

U.S. Forces Fire At Aid Convoys To Fallujah
Additional Reporting By Aws Al-Sharqy & Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondents

BAGHDAD, April 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The U.S. soldiers opened fire on aid convoys taking relief supplies to Fallujah, sealed off by occupation forces for the fourth consecutive day, eyewitnesses said.

The convoys, carrying foodstuffs and medicine, were forced to stop in Ramadi to the west of Baghdad, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.

Troops in armored vehicles attempted to stop the convoy of cars and pedestrians from reaching the western town where U.S. marines have met ferocious resistance in a two-day-old offensive.

But the U.S. contingents were overwhelmed as residents of villages west of the capital came to the convoy's assistance, hurling insults and stones at the beleaguered troops, Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Two U.S. Humvees attempted to stop the marchers but were forced to drive off as residents joined the marchers.

U.S. troops armed with machine guns and backed up by armor again blocked the highway further west, but were forced to let the Iraqis past as they came under a hail of stones.

The cross-community demonstration of support for Fallujah had been organized by Baghdad Sunni and Shiite scholars amid reports that the death toll in the town had reached 105 since Tuesday evening.

“No Sunnis, no Shiites, yes for Islamic unity,” the marchers chanted. “We are Sunni and Shiite brothers and will never sell our country”.

--snip--

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-04/08/article04.shtml

unfortunately

I was just listening to a local program on NPR -- an interview with a Middle East expert -- he was saying Iraq will not turn into a democracy, it will end up like Iran. And that the ME experts tried to tell the neocons that Iraq would be messy!

At least that's what I understood while I was trying to work and listen at the same time.

If Iraq turns into an Iran-style theocracy, we simply march back in, reinstall Saddam, give him a lot of weapons, and tell him to use them against his own people and not us.

And if he's unwise enough to forget our advice, we just start the whole process all over again.

I don't. Global demonstrations are why I am convinced that humanity has had quite enough of that crap. The apparent unification of the Sunnis and Shiites also indicate that, humanity has had enough of all forms of tyranny, whether religious or corporate or otherwise.

An Iraqi militant with a rocket launcher, left, fires at US forces in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in this image made from television Thursday, April 8, 2004. The US assault on Fallujah began early on Monday, April 5 when Marines surrounded the city of some 200,000 people. (AP Photo/LBC via APTN)

is INDEED a "uniter, not a divider". :eyes:

Iraqi Sunni Muslim insurgents celebrate in front of a burning US convoy they had attacked earlier in Abu Gharib, on the outskirts of the flashpoint town of Fallujah.(AFP/Karim Sahib)

you are getting the pictures from, please. Michael is right there.

What is the point of these strategies? The US responses in the last 4 days seemed designed to make things worse... ughhh At least we've got the world's best press here in the US to keep us
informed :eyes:
Scott

of the Iraqi resistance. The object of the aid caravan is opposite:
to demonstrate the unity and legitimacy of the resistance movement.
It puts the occupation in a difficult spot, can't be representing
the aspirations of the Iraqi people while shooting large quantities
as they try to help each other.

“No Sunnis, no Shiites, yes for Islamic unity,” the marchers chanted. “We are Sunni and Shiite brothers and will never sell our country”.

WOW.

So much is happening.. but we are only getting snippettes.. mainly from other countries. Also, the mainstream news here is really, really derelict in giving us CURRENT numbers of our military who have been killed in the past week.. Where are the tallies? And.. when the hell will they EVER tell us the REAL count of injured?

This is where their reports were so essential during the war.

Check it in the morning, US time. I can't usually get into iraqwar.ru after 2 pm.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON! THEY HAD PERMISSION TO GO THERE!

<snip>
"No Sunnis, no Shiites, yes for Islamic unity," the marchers chanted. "We are Sunni and Shiite brothers and will never sell our country".

Sunni mosques in Baghdad called for donations of blood and humanitarian aid to the Fallujah inhabitants, drawing response form thousands of people – all sharing fury over continued U.S.military occupation of the country.

The incident came one day after International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged U.S. troops to allow unfettered access to the city's hospital.
<snip>

This event is another black mark in our little book of misdeeds.

But that's what I'd expect from the Bush mafia.

...but then again nothing about the Iraqi fiasco has been smart.

So now it 'tis a matter of time before the rest of the tribes help the Sunnis and the Shi’ites, like the Wahhabis and the Kurdish and the Bat’this.

"But the U.S. contingents were overwhelmed as residents of villages west of the capital came to the convoy's assistance, hurling insults and stones at the beleaguered troops, Agence France-Presse (AFP)."

Troops with guns are overwhelmed by insults ???????

I wasn't there

You ROCK, saigon68!!!!

:bounce:

Of course anyone daring to accuse the US of war crimes such as attacking aid convoys and hospitals are obviously making false accusations for political reasons.

the ones they're always talking about?

Doctors in Falluja want the siege on the town lifted for shifting patients with serious injuries even as brutal street battles rage.

Two hundred and eighty people have been killed since the start of the siege and 400 more injured, said Tahr al-Issawi, the director of Falluja's hospital on Thursday.

"We also know of dead and wounded in various places buried under rubble, but we cannot reach them because of the fighting," he said.

Clinics in the town, 65km west of Baghdad, are struggling to treat victims of the US attacks, said Aljazeera's correspondent Ahmad Mansur.

Aljazeera

,...against those who inflict unjust punishment and oppression.

280 dead & 400 injured for the lives of 4 occupiers. Where is the justice in that?

It seems that the sectarian evils are falling away. Iraq must be united, and this fight seems to be doing just that.

I would not be surprised if the troops are afraid of starting a revolt since there are no reinforcements, and the iraqis were being joined by residents throwing rocks. Numbers do matter, irrespective of who has the guns. I am sure the Iraqis were not lacking their own kalashnikovs if needed. Would you want to fire on the crowds knowing that they will outnumber you?

If so, can someone provide me with a link? So far I have only read about it in the European press.


So much for Rumsfield's claim that this revolt involved only a few hundred militants. No wonder the American press is loathe to report it.

I'm sure the decision to hold back was on the local level. The American higher ups don't have a clue and would probably have ordered engagement. Just goes to show that the soldier whose neck's on the line will usually make the smart move, not the general who is smoking cigars in his air conditioned bunker.

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