- BAGHDAD, Nov. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Twelve days after
losing contact with a correspondent based in Fallujah, Xinhua reporters
were relieved to see him report back for work in deplorable shape on Saturday.
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- Abdul Rahman, a 30-year-old Fallujah resident working
for Xinhua, made a phone call to the Xinhua office in Baghdad with his
Iraqna mobile on Nov. 9, which became the last message Xinhua received
from him.
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- He reported on that day that Fallujah had been ripped
into two parts controlled by US-Iraqi forces and fighters respectively.With
his words still resonating, Xinhua reporters were happy to see Rahman safe
and sound.
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- Relaxing on a sofa for the first time after 10 days
in hell,Rahman calmed down and recounted his experience as a correspondent
and eyewitness of the bloody fighting in the past two weeks, aswell as
his tale of escaping alive.
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- "I could either escape for life or stay to cover
the truth. Ichose the latter," he said.
-
- "At the beginning, the resistance in the Jolan
district was strong and the American troops backed up. After rounds of
airbombings, the area became relatively silent and the Americans pushed
into the city with limited resistance," he recalled.Rahman could not
confirm if the US forces used any chemical weapons as some newspapers claimed.
-
- But he told Xinhua that some doctors in Fallujah
were shocked tosee that many bodies were charred without apparent injuries.
With fierce clashes on the ground and bombardment by USaircraft, many houses
were leveled or people were killed."My friend and I heard the groaning
of some injured people underruins of some destroyed houses, but we could
do nothing for them.
-
- "He was the witness of a scene where six injured
Iraqis - dragged by several US soldiers to a street - were rolled over
by a tank.He also saw an Iraqi cameraman gunned down by a sniper whileshooting
in face of US vehicles.
-
- "I don't know how long it will take me to get
over this," said Rahman, still reeling from what he saw.
-
- During the hardest period, helpless Rahman ran and
crawledaround, looking for shelters and food.
-
- In the last days, Rahman was pushed to the Shuhada
district,where US Marines said they trapped most insurgents and geared
up for a duel.
-
- Weighing the dangerous situation, Rahman decided
to leave thecity with the help of a friend whose shop was destroyed in
the US raids.
-
- "I thought Abdul Rahman was killed before he
came to my house aweek ago and asked me to escape with him," said
Qahtan Mohamed Jawad, an agricultural engineer.
-
- "We stayed together, ran here and there and
looked for food and drinks," said the Samaritan.
-
- Rahman said in the city he had ever met a woman whose
husband and two sons were shot dead in front of her eyes when the family
went to US soldiers to turn themselves in.
-
- Hearing her story, Rahman decided not to go to a
mosque in the north which US forces said receives civilians.
-
- The duo also avoided the routes in the west, where
helicopters and snipers were taking full positions.
-
- "South is the only chance," he said, "but
the roads were full of dangers and we had to crawl with bare hands in darkness
and hide in houses in daytime for fear of being shot by American snipers.""We
had only one bottle of water and drank little each time. As for food, we
only had dates," said Rahman.
-
- "On the way, we saw groups of insurgents and
some spotted us.They let us go after we told them we were reporters,"
he said.For consecutive nights, Rahman and Jawad crawled on unpaved roads
and rough fields for about 3 kms before they reached the Euphrates river
and were ferried to the southwest bank.On Nov. 19, they were saved by the
hospitable locals in the rural area and driven to make shift refugee camps
outside Fallujah.In Amriahat, a small town near Fallujah, Rahman was reunited
with his brothers who were Islamic humanitarian workers and other family
members who fled the city ahead of the massive offensive."The moment
when we reached the other side of the Euphrates, Irealized that we were
safe," recalled Rahman, whose left arm was wrapped with gauze, a reminder
of the arduous journey.The US-Iraqi forces mounted the major attack against
Fallujah onNov. 8 to retake the city from fighters loyal to Jordanian-bornmilitant
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as they claimed.
-
- A senior US commander said last Thursday that about
1,200 insurgents had been killed in the all-out assault, and 1,025 prisoners
were held.
-
- Neither the Iraqi government nor the US military
released any figure about civilian casualties.
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- http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-11/22/content_2244359.htm
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