Fallujah: US commits war crimes

Amnesty International expresses concern that war crimes were committed

Amnesty International published a report today, in which this London-based organization claimed that it was "deeply concerned" that war crimes had been committed by US troops in Fallujah.

Following our report on this question last week, in which we presented evidence that war crimes were being committed long before this final onslaught, PRAVDA.Ru now has first-hand reports which begin to emerge from this nightmare. Yes, war crimes were committed and here is the evidence. And what did the US gain from this?

To begin with, the "insurgent leaders" the US was looking for had left Fallujah long before this attack was set in motion. The US claims it has killed 1.200 "insurgents", who had decided to stay on and fight to the death and admits to 38 US and 6 Iraqis killed with around 275 US troops injured, 60 of whom returned to duty.

Whether these figures are accurate or not (a basic equation in such circumstances is usually to divide the reported enemy casualties and to multiply the number of dead admitted by three), what about the civilians?

When we examine the first horrific reports coming out of Fallujah, it is not surprising that the US authorities are avoiding this question at all costs, because if war crimes were committed, someone has to be responsible.

The evidence is as shocking as it is numerous. We have eye-witness reports to creditable news sources of wanton killing, a total lack of regard for the safety of the civilian population, cruelty, and a wholesale absence of regard for the Geneva Convention, yet again.

Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein declared to AP reporter Katarina Kratovac that the artillery and strafing attacks were performed without any care having been taken as to who was being attacked. "Destruction was everywhere," he said, adding that "US soldiers began to open fire on the houses".

He spoke of "seeing US helicopters firing on, and killing, people who tried to cross the river", for example a family of two adults and three children.

Another woman told the press that her sister had been murdered by a US pilot who fired rockets into her house, ripping her seven-month foetus out of her body. Eight members of this family were slaughtered in this act of terrorism. Enforced abortion, Bush-style.

Eye-witnesses tell of "the stench of decaying bodies in the city". One US marine was caught on camera kicking injured men in the street, another was caught by a British TV crew (Channel 4) murdering a wounded man behind a wall. Winning hearts and minds, perhaps?

Rockets were fired into buildings without anyone bothering to find out who was inside - an "insurgent" or a baby. Spreading Freedom and Democracy?

A precision attack with a missile against a hospital on November 9th murdered 20 Iraqi medical staff and "scores of cizilians". A nine-year-old boy was seen bleeding to death, wounded in the stomach by shrapnel from a bomb dropped by an American pilot. Was he "liberating" the boy?

The Iraqi Red Crescent was prohibited from providing humanitarian aid to the citizens of Fallujah by the US military command. Nice counter-insurgency operation, taking great care to minimize civilian casualties.

Unsurprising, a blatant example of the Bush regime's hamfisted tactics in dealing with a problem entirely of its own creation. These horrific war crimes will only incentivate scores more angry young men to step forward and fight what is rightly seen as a terrorist invasion force which commits war crimes and murder on a massive scale.

Who is responsible, and who is to be held accountable? Nobody is not an
answer.