MUKTAR: Fallujah Afire

raqi police and National Guardsmen, who should have been controlling the area after the American checkpoint or patrolling the streets, were nowhere to be found. A dusty pile of canvas 100 yards away provided the only reminder of the Falluja Brigade, the now-disbanded Iraqi security force that was supposed to restore order here. The canvas had been one of the brigade's tents. It was gunned down after several members took potshots at American forces. "We are receiving a ceaseless flow of injured or dead people every hour and sometime almost every half hour," Amjad told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Despite American claims that the military offensive is targeting hideouts of Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian Islamist militant believed to be the mastermind of dozens of suicide attacks, Amjad disclosed that large numbers of the victims were women and children who had nothing whatsoever to do with Al-Zarqawi and his followers. "We had whole families killed while many others were buried under the rubble," Amjad said.

In the past few weeks, the military operations have forced many of the city's residents to flee to safe areas in the Anbar province.

Doctors complained about the increasing lack of medical supplies and that ambulances have been targeted by the US attacks. Amjad cited the incident on 13 September when an ambulance was hit by US airplanes killing the driver and seven injured on the way to hospital.

US forces conducted numerous air strikes against what they described as targets associated with Al-Zarqawi's network in and around the city. Among them was Zouba, a housing compound in an agricultural area about 15 miles south of Falluja where the US military said as many as 90 foreign fighters were holding meetings. The military said the strike, which occurred on Thursday evening, killed about 60 foreign fighters. Witnesses and hospital officials disputed the account, saying that about 30 men were killed, many of them Iraqi. They said 15 children and 11 women also died in the attack. Neither versions of the strike could be independently verified.

Falluja residents refer to the militants as mujahidin, and they never associate them with either Al-Qaeda or Al- Zarqawi. Mohamed Gharib, 25 years and resident of Falluja believes that "the Americans made up the bogeyman to kill the religious people of Falluja." His view was shared by Muath Khalid, a 27-year-old history student. "Falluja people were defending their dignity and Islam", he said. "They don't need the assistance of Al-Zarqawi that is if he existed at all."

Five months after US Marines called off their attack on Falluja, citizens of the town live under the often capricious rule of different groups of mujahidin -- ranging from Islamists and ultra-Islamists to Baathists and outlaws. The Mujahidin Shura Council, an 18-member group of clerics, tribal leaders or sheikhs and former Baath Party members now effectively run the city.

Divided ideologically, the various religious groups argue over issues ranging from the proper way to finance their respective movements to the treatment of foreign and Iraqi captives.

Nonetheless, residents say the groups are united on the battlefield and would fight side by side if US or Iraqi government troops were to launch a new push into Falluja -- a move that some believe likely because of the recent round of air and artillery strikes and especially after the large assault against Samaraa, 60kms north of Baghdad, another Sunni rebel town.

A third force, which is loyal to Majed Abu Dirah, a former Baghdad district security chief under Saddam Hussein who was famous for torturing and oppressing Shia people, has little street presence. These men are mostly former members of the Republican Guard, and are said to come out only to fight off Coalition incursions.

Falluja's senior mujahidin leader and Head of the Consultative Council is Abdullah Al-Janabi, a white-bearded preacher from the puritanical Salafi movement. Ahmed Naami, the group's spokesperson, said Al-Janabi's group does not have foreign funding, but survives on "our personal finances and the spoils of war" -- including "cargo, money, cars, and ransom" both from Coalition forces and from Iraqis caught "collaborating" with them. There were reports about disagreements between the different Iraqi groups over the controversial issue of the treatment of hostages.

One of the groups, called The Black Banners, has a reputation for killing any foreigner or accused collaborator who falls into their hands, while Naami claims that Al- Janabi's group only seeks ransom and "does not kill any spy or hostage".

In a possible indication of internal debate over the issue, another Iraqi group put forward a request via an Arab satellite station, urging the Muslim Scholars' Association -- a gathering of Sunni religious scholars which many insurgents take as their ideological reference-point -- to issue a fatwa or a ruling defining hostage-taking.

Naami dismissed that the town was divided over the role of the Islamic groups there. He insisted that the town is united because "all the people are mujahidin".

However, the residents expressed their willingness to bridge the gap with Iraqi government, scuttling all attempt to isolate the city from Iraq. Some residents shared the belief of having an end to the hostilities and opening the city for US-funded reconstruction projects. "If they entered Falluja now, it will be better," Khamis Al- Hasnawi, a tribal chief, said. "Everyday passes, we lose opportunity for peace and re-building and the violent option increases."

A delegation from the Shura Council, had already travelled to Baghdad a week before for discussions with Iraqi government officials aimed at a negotiated settlement that would allow Iraqi security forces to enter the city, council members said. But two demands of the council -- that non-Iraqi fighters loyal to the council be allowed to stay in Falluja and that US forces remain outside the city. Iraqi government officials, however, had expressed an unwillingness to permit foreign fighters or create exclusion zones for US forces.

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