FALLUJAH II-- RAMADI

[Zlatko Waterman]

note: I hope you are all passing a pleasant summer. But even if you aren't, imagine that what is described below is the scenario of your hometown--Ramadi-- in the immediate future and the present.

I find it interesting that the American major speaks of "criminal elements", a term used by many who did not buy the Bush administration's descriptions of 9/11.


(paste of LA TIMES and InterPress articles below)


Fear of Big Battle Panics Iraqi City
By Megan K. Stack and Louise Roug
The Los Angeles Times

Sunday 11 June 2006

Baghdad - Fears of an imminent offensive by the U.S. troops massed around the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi intensified Saturday, with residents pouring out of the city to escape what they describe as a mounting humanitarian crisis.

The image pieced together from interviews with tribal leaders and fleeing families in recent weeks is one of a desperate population of 400,000 people trapped in the crossfire between insurgents and U.S. forces. Food and medical supplies are running low, prices for gas have soared because of shortages and municipal services have ground to a stop.

U.S. and Iraqi forces had cordoned off the city by Saturday, residents and Iraqi officials said. Airstrikes on several residential areas picked up, and troops took to the streets with loudspeakers to warn civilians of a fierce impending attack, Ramadi police Capt. Tahseen Dulaimi said.

U.S. military officials refused to confirm or deny reports that a Ramadi offensive was underway.

Thousands of families remain trapped in the city, those who have fled say. Many can't afford to leave or lack transportation, whereas other families have decided to wait for their children to finish final examinations at school before escaping.

"The situation is catastrophic. No services, no electricity, no water," said Sheik Fassal Gaood, the former governor of Al Anbar province, whose capital is Ramadi.

"People in Ramadi are caught between two plagues: the vicious, armed insurgents and the American and Iraqi troops."

Residents have been particularly unnerved by the recent arrival of 1,500 U.S. troops sent to reinforce the forces already stationed at the city. Street battles between troops and insurgents have been raging for months, but the troops' deployment left residents bracing for a mass offensive to take the town back from insurgents.

"It is becoming hell up there," said Mohammed Fahdawi, a 42-year-old contractor who packed up his four children and fled to Baghdad two weeks ago. "It is unbelievable: The Americans seem to have brought all of their troops to Ramadi."

The fearful city is haunted by memories of the battles that raged in nearby Fallujah in 2004. Determined to purge that city of insurgents, U.S. Marine and Army units lined up to the north and pushed south through the heart of Fallujah. They cleared one neighborhood after another in intense, constant street fighting. By the time the sweep was over, the town was largely destroyed.

Military officials have insisted that the deployment of the additional troops did not presage a Fallujah-style offensive.

"Moving this force will allow tribal leaders and government officials to go about the very difficult task of taking back their towns from the criminal elements," said Army Maj. J. Todd Breasseale, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

A sprawling agricultural and smuggling hub on the banks of the Euphrates, Ramadi has long been one of the U.S. military's stickiest problems. The largest city in Sunni-dominated Al Anbar province, Ramadi has degenerated into a haven for insurgents. Even now, when U.S. forces are working to scale back their presence throughout Iraq, daily combat continues to roil the city.

The death last week of Jordanian-born terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi may have dealt a psychological blow to the Iraq insurgency. But it is not expected to dent the destabilizing power of anti-American guerrillas in Al Anbar.

The U.S. military said that, based on the number of fighters killed or captured by American troops, more foreign fighters crossed into Iraq in May than the previous month. At least 64 foreign guerrillas were killed or caught by U.S. troops last month; most of them made their way through Al Anbar province.

"In general, Anbar is controlled by terrorist groups," said Sheik Yaseen Gaood, deputy minister of the Interior overseeing the western provinces. "The Anbar government has no authority. The ministries of Interior and Defense have no influence there."

The U.S. military was bracing for an increase in attacks on civilians and American and Iraqi forces in the wake of Zarqawi's death, said Col. John L. Gronski, the commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard's 2nd Brigade, in charge of security in Ramadi.

"They go where we are not and they carry out very brutal attacks," Gronski said.

The governor of Al Anbar recently asked the U.S. military for help in taming the foreign fighters, Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the chief military spokesman in Iraq, said Saturday.

"We are doing very focused efforts," said Caldwell, who refused to elaborate.

After the Fallujah offensive, the Americans tried to quell the insurgency in Ramadi with a combination of political maneuvers and the cooperation of tribal leaders to root out foreign Islamist fighters.

But that plan has spectacularly fallen apart: The men who dared to ally themselves with the Americans and speak out against Zarqawi and his supporters quickly learned that the U.S. military couldn't protect them. Insurgents killed 70 of Ramadi's police recruits in January, and at least half a dozen high-profile tribal leaders have been assassinated since then.

Ramadi has become a town where anti-American guerrillas operate openly and city bureaucrats are afraid to acknowledge their job titles for fear of being killed. Masked members of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the organization led by Zarqawi, perhaps borrowing from the American hearts-and-minds campaign, drop by elementary schools to pass out pens, books and toys, U.S. intelligence officers say.

The government center in downtown Ramadi, a fortified complex where the governor holds meetings with U.S. officials and tribal leaders, comes under gunfire or mortar attacks daily.

While Marine snipers huddle under camouflage nets on the rooftop, men whose faces are swathed in ski masks pop up in the windows across the street to fire AK-47s at the troops.

"As chieftains, we have been helpless," said Sheik Ali Abed Alaa, a tribal leader in Al Anbar. "The most we can do is condemn and denounce, but who is there to listen to us?"

Information is trickling out of the besieged city. Ramadi is cordoned off, its streets impassable for foreign journalists. And the U.S. military has been reluctant to allow journalists to travel with troops in Ramadi.

For many people in Ramadi, the writing is on the wall.

"We know for sure now that Americans and Iraqi commanders have decided to launch a broad offensive anytime now," said Gaood, the former governor. "But they should have consulted with us."

Ramadi wouldn't prove an easy city to contain. The meltdown of bureaucracy means that no one is sure how many people are still in the city.

When the U.S. invaded the smaller city of Fallujah, it gave the townspeople warning to clear out months in advance. Until this weekend, no such call had gone out in Ramadi.

"Still the government does not have a clear picture about the events in Ramadi," said Hassan Zaidan Lahaibi, a Sunni member of the Council of Representatives, the Iraqi parliament. "So there is plenty of confusion."

Hundreds of families have tried to flee to Baghdad, only to be stopped at a checkpoint on the western outskirts of the capital. Turned away from Baghdad but afraid to go home, they've sought refuge in Fallujah.

The Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration has tried repeatedly to send medical and food aid into Ramadi, but it has been thwarted by insurgent attacks, an official there said. In recent weeks, the government has managed to get only one shipment of aid into the city.

"If things continue, we will have a humanitarian crisis," Lahaibi said. "People are getting killed or wounded, and the rest are just migrating aimlessly."

Times staff writers Julian E. Barnes in Washington and Caesar Ahmed and Raheem Salman in Baghdad contributed to this report.




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Ramadi Becomes Another Fallujah

By Brian Conley
Inter Press Service

Monday 05 June 2006

Amman - These days, Ramadi is nearly impossible to enter. Against the backdrop of the Haditha massacre, IPS has received reports of civilians killed by snipers, and homes occupied with American snipers on their roof, while families were detained downstairs.

One man, who wishes to be known simply as 'an Iraqi friend,' met with IPS in Amman to describe the situation in Ramadi and detail recent events there as he saw them.

"To enter Ramadi (about 100 km west of Baghdad) you have to pass the bridge on the Euphrates and the electrical station for Ramadi. This is occupied by the U.S. troops. The checkpoint is there, the glass factory nearby is occupied by American snipers. Here they inspect cars and you will need more than four hours just to pass the bridge."

Reports from Ramadi have been few and far between in recent months, and always filed by reporters embedded with U.S. troops working in the area.

Witnesses interviewed by IPS in Amman provided a nuanced picture of the situation, one that is very different from the military focus of embedded journalists.

Their stories describe death happening any moment, without signals or warning.

"On the side of the main street you will find destroyed buildings, and military tents on the buildings for snipers. Be careful, if you hear any sound of fighting, hide in the side roads, park your car there and get in any house and hide, because snipers will kill anyone who moves, even if the fighting is in another area."

Sheikh Majeed al-Ga'oud is from Wahaj al-Iraq village just outside Ramadi, and visits the city regularly. He also described snipers killing without discretion.

"The American snipers don't make any distinction between civilians or fighters, anything that moves, he shoots immediately. This is a very dirty thing, they are killing lots of civilians who are not fighters."

According to the Iraqi friend, many people have been killed in Ramadi because they simply do not know which parts of the city are now no-go zones.

One such area is the main street through Ramadi. After the first traffic light you are not allowed to proceed forward, only to the right or left.

"The way is blocked, not by concrete, but by snipers. Anyone who goes ahead in the street will be killed. There's no sign that it's not allowed, but it's known to the local people. Many people came to visit us from Baghdad. They didn't know this and they went ahead a few metres and were killed."

Sheikh Majeed was in Ramadi just a few days before speaking to IPS in Amman. He described a city where the fighters are very much in control.

"They are controlling the ground and they are very self-confident. They don't cover their faces with masks, and the Americans are running away from them. The Americans cannot win an infantry war with them, so they began using massive airpower to bomb them.."

While in Ramadi, he saw many damaged homes, and said there were no civil services functioning.

"You will see that they bombed the power stations, water treatment facilities, and water pipes. This house is destroyed, that house is destroyed. You will see poverty everywhere. The things that the simplest human in the world must have, you won't have it there."

The Iraqi friend described a similar situation. "I saw four houses until now, but I didn't see all of Ramadi, it's a big town. There are also houses destroyed in the farms, I saw some, but most of them I couldn't see it because they are huge farms."

Ramadi is at present cut off from the rest of Iraq. Within, sometimes the electricity works, and some homes have generators, but the local phone service has been completely destroyed.

"The phone station was attacked by U.S. troops, and now even the building is completely destroyed. And the train station also, one hundred percent destroyed, day after day F16s bomb it."

Life in Ramadi has not always been this difficult. When Baghdad fell, Ramadi had not yet been entered. When Baghdad was wracked by lawlessness and theft, Ramadi remained relatively calm.

"It was a very quiet city, there was order," Sheikh Majeed said. "Though there are many different tribes there, and there is tension between the tribes, there was order. They respected each other, they respected the law."

The Iraqi friend suggested why Ramadi remained calm and, unlike Baghdad, was not entered in the first days of the occupation.

"They made a deal with the tribes to not enter the city. But the political parties spoiled this agreement. They wanted to control Ramadi, so they gave wrong information to Americans. There was a small demonstration but not by Saddam loyalists; it was a peaceful demonstration against the occupation."

After this demonstration of just 30 people, the agreement was broken and the military invaded Ramadi. Iraqis were killed, and following tribal policies of revenge, a cycle of violence began.

Qasem Dulaimi, who lives in Ramadi, told IPS his home was occupied by American and Iraqi troops in May.

"They crushed the main doors and entered the house. I got out of my room and said some words in English, 'we are a peaceful family, ok its ok'." But the family members were locked up in a small room downstairs.

"From time to time we heard shooting from our roof. They used our house as a killing tool, they used the roof as a killing tool."

Eventually his family was released and the American troops moved on.

The Iraqi friend witnessed the killing of a young boy. "He was going to his school at about eight in the morning, carrying his books and crossing the street. Suddenly he fell down. I thought he just had a problem in his leg and fell, but he stayed for a long time like this. I knew or I felt there was a sniper who shot him."

Stories such as this one are common amongst Ramadi's residents.

"Haithem, one of the brothers of this kid, tried to find a way and took two steps to take the boy away. Snipers shot and missed him. So he didn't try again. The boy remained there four hours, bleeding. He had been shot in the head."

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[stilltrucking]

Say Norman would you mind posting a link to that

gracias
j

[stilltrucking]

please

tank you

[Zlatko Waterman]

Here's the link, Jack:



http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061106A.shtml


--NM

[stilltrucking]

Muchos gracias Herr Professor. Much easier on these old eyeballs. Almost had too much fun here the last four days. My eyes must look like a Georgia road map.

"The situation is catastrophic. No services, no electricity, no water," said Sheik Fassal Gaood, the former governor of Al Anbar province, whose capital is Ramadi.

Is he sure about that? I just watched a PowerPoint presentation on DOD.biz and the bottom line was looking good

"Moving this force will allow tribal leaders and government officials to go about the very difficult task of taking back their towns from the criminal elements," said Army Maj. J. Todd Breasseale, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

I see plenty of criminals, I wonder which ones he was talking about?

Zarqawi's death

I suppose they are learning from their mistakes. I heard a sound byte on NPR that they are not giving themselves pats on the back. “The White House is taking a cautious approach.” That will change. Where the hell is Baghdad Bob when we need him?

http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/freedomline/ ... ad_bob.htm

Thanks for the news I could use. I was aware they called up 1,500 reserve troops but I had lost track of the story.