War crime underway in Falluja?
US-led attack on the Iraqi Sunni-stronghold will breach the Geneva conventions, writes Tony Kevin.
If this attack goes ahead as appears inevitable, it will obviously breach the laws of war and the Geneva conventions. First, it will grossly exceed proportionality in terms of ends and means. What intended political or military objective could justify so much death, the creation of so many new refugees, and wholesale destruction of homes?
What threat does the city of Falluja pose to the Iraqi state at this point? Allawi has claimed that free elections cannot take place unless Falluja is subdued. What a spurious argument.
The truth is that this city, which has become a symbol of Sunni-Iraqi political resistance to the occupiers, is to be made an example of, to deter others. The message the siege of Falluja sends is brutally simple: resist us and we will destroy you. It is the same message that the Wehrmacht sent in Warsaw in 1944, and the Russian Army in Grozny in 1999.
This attack will also violate the rules of war and the Geneva conventions in having grossly indiscriminate effects on civilians and civilian homes and infrastructure. America's largely untrained in battle but over-armed forces will start their attack "humanely", but as they inevitably take numbers of lethal casualties, their tactics will quickly escalate to indiscriminate bombing and shelling of the city using their WMD armouries.
Eventually, the attackers will flatten the city and kill everyone that still resists in it. Falluja will be the Iraqi people's Masada, and it will sow seeds of deep anti-Western hatred in the Middle East for decades to come.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...781320025.html
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Saudi scholars: Support Iraqi fighters
November 2004,
Prominent Saudi religious scholars have called on Iraqis to support fighters battling US-led forces, saying fighting the presence of foreign troops is a duty and a right.
In an open letter addressed to the Iraqi people and posted on the internet on Saturday, 26 Saudi scholars and religious preachers stressed that armed attacks launched by Iraqi groups on US troops and their allies in Iraq were "legitimate" resistance.
The statement came as US troops, backed by air and artillery power, were gearing up for a major assault on Falluja.
The scholars - some of whom have been criticised in the past for their views - issued a fatwa, or religious edict, prohibiting Iraqis from offering any support for military operations carried out by US forces against anti-US fighter strongholds.
"Fighting the occupiers is a duty for all those who are able. It is a jihad (holy war) to push back the assailants ...," said the letter dated 5 November.
"Resistance is a legitimate right. A Muslim must not inflict harm on any resistance man or inform about them. Instead, they should be supported and protected," it said.
'Extraordinary situation'
Among the 26 scholars who signed the letter are influential Sunni Muslim clerics Shaikh Safar al-Hawali, Shaikh Nassir al-Umar, Shaikh Salman al-Awdah, Shaikh Sharif Hatim al-Auni and Shaikh Awad al-Qarni.
Al-Hawali - jailed in the 1990s for five years without trial because of his criticism of US involvement in the 1991 Gulf War - is known for his radical views and was once close to Usama bin Ladin.
Like many Islamic activists, al-Hawali also opposed the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia. His name appeared this month on a list issued by a group of Arab intellectuals who seek prosecution of prominent clerics for encouraging what they say is terrorism.
The religious scholars said their appeal was prompted by "the extraordinary situation through which the Iraqis are passing which calls for unity and exchange of views."
Stressing the need for national unity, the scholars said inter-Iraqi fighting would cause "great damage to the Iraqis and give a free service to the Jews who are infiltrating into Iraq and to the coalition forces which exploit differences to consolidate their domination".
Muslims must be spared
The scholars also urged Iraqis fighting US-led forces in Iraq to spare the lives of Iraqi Muslims and not to target citizens of countries that refused to join the US-led force that invaded Iraq last year.
'Resistance is a legitimate right'
Open letter from Saudi scholars
The invasion angered many in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and home to its two holiest cities.
The Saudi government has launched a military campaign against anti-government fighters that started after al-Qaida-affiliated operatives attacked three residential compounds in Riyadh in May 2003. Several more attacks followed and a number of Westerners have been killed.
The government also began an anti-extremism campaign, reining in clerics who espoused radical views.
Aljazeera
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Iraqi Resistance says captured 35 coalition troops
35 US soldiers captured in Fallujah: mosques
FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Mosques in Iraq's restive city of Fallujah announced on Monday that the fighters inside the city have captured 35 US soldiers.
Loud speakers of the mosques blared out the news as US forces were trying to penetrate the rebel-held city, but the news could not be independently confirmed.
US troops and Iraqi special forces stormed into the western districts of Fallujah early Monday and seized the main city hospital and two key bridges over the Euphrates River.
US officials said there may be more fierce fighting to come if US forces try to enter downtown Fallujah on the east bank of the river. Enditem
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US religious fundamentalism & violence: Marine officer says "Satan is in Falluja"
Colonel Gary Brandl of the United States Marine Corps commented:
"The enemy has a face. It is Satan's. He is in Fallujah, and we are going to destroy him."
seems like some segments of the USA military are resorting to violence for religious reasons? a rather worrying evolution, imho..
American Marines attack Fallujah
American troops have begun attacking the Iraqi city of Fallujah, the operation which required the Black Watch to be redeployed.
On Thursday, just days after the regiment moved from its base in Basra, three soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing. The operation came on the day Prince Charles visited troops' families in Wiltshire.
During the night American Marines, backed up by troops of the Iraqi Army, began their operation.
The city of Fallujah is said to be the home of the insurgents behind the recent wave of kidnappings, beheadings and suicide bombings.
Colonel Gary Brandl of the United States Marine Corps commented:
"The enemy has a face. It is Satan's. He is in Fallujah, and we are going to destroy him."
The Americans needed to free up hundreds of troops for this operation and the Black Watch was moved from the relatively benign Basra area to allow that to happen.
On Thursday, three soldiers died in only their second day in the area - Sergeant Stuart Gray and Privates Paul Lowe and Scott McArdle, all of whom were from Fife.
Speaking at an anti war rally in Glasgow today, an Iraqi and an American whose soldier brother was killed in Baghdad, says the Fallujah operation will solve nothing.
Dante Zappala, a soldier's brother, said: "Violence breeds more violence, like the Black Watch saw this week. This will result in more tragic deaths."
Mahmood Al-Sabbagh, an Iraqi Refugee commented: "Fallujah will be like Glasgow if there were invaders here, as if Hitler had come here in World War II. It is exactly the same."
The Fallujah operation started on the day Prince Charles visited the Black Watch's base in Warminster, where he met families of the men serving in Iraq.
His visit was planned long before the tragic events of this week.
General Sir Alistair Irwin of The Black Watch commented on the families' reactions:
"They are worried about what has happened, they are experiencing normal, human reactions."
And as the Black Watch continues its difficult and dangerous mission, support for it and criticism of the insurgents, has come from an unusual source.
Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury said: "Terrorists are using young boys as suicide bombers. I fear for the Black Watch and I hope we get out of there as soon as possible."
After coming under severe criticism for their part, Tony Blair and his ministers say they are deeply sorry for the soldiers who lost their lives and the families who mourn them.
But they say they died trying to make Iraq a better place and a major part of that is free and fair elections scheduled for early in the New Year.
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