- Allegations of widespread abuse by US forces in Fallujah,
including the killing of unarmed civilians and the targeting of a hospital
in an attack, have been made by people who have escaped from the city.
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- They said, in interviews with The Independent, that as
well as deaths from bombs and artillery shells, a large number of people
including children were killed by American snipers. US forces refused repeated
calls for medical aid for injured civilians, they said.
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- Some of the killings took place in the build-up to the
assault on the rebel stronghold, and at least in one case - that of the
death of a family of seven, including a three-month baby - the American
authorities have admitted responsibility and offered compensation.
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- The refugees from Fallujah describe a situation of extreme
violence in which remaining civilians in the city, who have been told by
the Americans to leave, appeared to have been seen as complicit in the
insurgency. Men of military age were particularly vulnerable. But there
are accounts of children as young as four, and women and old men being
killed.
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- The American authorities have accused militant sympathisers
of spreading disinformation, and have also claimed that people in Fallujah
have exaggerated the number of casualties and the level of damage in the
air campaign that preceded the assault.
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- The US military, which is inquiring into last week's
shooting of an injured Iraqi fighter in Fallujah by a US marine, has said
that any claims of abuse will be investigated. They also maintain that
the dead and injured civilians may have been victims of insurgents.
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- The claims of abuse and killings, from different sources,
appear, however, to follow a consistent pattern. Dr Ali Abbas, who arrived
in Baghdad from Fallujah four days ago, worked at a clinic in the city
which was bombed by the Americans. He said that at least five patients
were killed.
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- The doctor said that the attack took place despite assurances
from American officers that they were aware of its location and would ensure
that it was spared military action.
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- Dr Abbas, 28, said: "We had five people under treatment
and they were killed. We do not know why the clinic was hit. Our colleagues
from the Fallujah General Hospital, which was further out in the city,
had talked to the Americans and had told us that they would avoid attacking
us.
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- "Afterwards myself and other members of staff went
from house to house when we could to help people who had been hurt. Many
of them died in front of us because we did not have the medicine or the
facilities to carry out operations. We contacted the doctors at the Fallujah
hospital and said how bad the situation was. We wanted them to evacuate
the more badly injured and send drugs and more doctors. They tried to do
that, but they said the Americans stopped them.
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- "One of things we noticed the most were the numbers
of people killed by American snipers. They were not just men but women
and some children as well. The youngest one I saw was a four-year-old boy.
Almost all these people had been shot in the head, chest or neck."
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- The family of Aziz Radhi Tellaib were killed before the
battle for Fallujah began. He had been driving them to Ramadi to visit
relations when the car was hit by fire from an American Humvee and careered
into a tributary of the Euphrates.
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- Mr Tellaib freed himself but could not save the rest
of the family. Those who died included Mr Tellaib's wife Ahlam, 26; his
sons Omar, seven, and Barat, three, and his daughter Zainab. Also killed
were his niece Rokyab, 26, her three-year-old son Fadhi, and three-month-old
daughter Farah.
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- Mr Tellaib, 33, a merchant, said: "We were stopped,
in a line of cars, by some Humvees which had overtaken us. One soldier
waved us forward, but as I drove up there was firing from another Humvee.
I was shot in the side of the head, and my wife and elder son were shot
in the chest. I think they must have died then. There was blood all over
my eyes. I lost control of the car which fell into the river. I managed
to get out, and then tried to get the others out, but I could not and the
car sank.
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- "The Americans told the police that it was all a
mistake, and I could get compensation. But what about my family? My life
has gone. They might as well have killed me as well."
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- Rahim Abdullah, 46, a teacher, said that anyone in the
street was regarded by the Americans as the enemy. "I was trying to
get to my uncle's house, waving a piece of white cloth as we had been advised
when they started shooting at me. I saw two men being shot. They were just
ordinary people. The only way to stay alive was to stay inside and hope
your house did not get hit by a shell."
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=586045
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