In November, 2004, US Marine Colonel Gareth Brandl justified the U.S. attack on Fallujah saying:
"The marines that I have had wounded over the past five months have been attacked by a faceless enemy. But the enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He lives in Fallujah. And we’re going to destroy him."
While "Satan" was not destroyed by the U.S. military, the city of Fallujah was. Independent journalists and NGOs have reported that over 65% of the homes in Fallujah are destroyed or so badly damaged as to be unlivable. Many children are at risk of malnutrition and water-borne diseases. Many of the inhabitants that left before the seige by the US military in November, 2004, now live in refugee camps.
Estimates of civilians remaining in Fallujah on 7 Nov. varied from 100,000 (US military, FT, 9 Nov., p. 10) to 60,000 (Sunni group, Independent, 10 Nov., p. 5). Estimates for the number of fighters left in Falluja before the assault varied ’from 600 to 6,000,’ meaning that the overwhelming majority of people in Fallujah were thought to be non-combatants. It was reported that ’Anyone still in the city will be regarded as a potential insurgent.’ (Observer, 7 Nov., p. 18) A threat to kill every human being in Fallujah.
Christian Peacemaker Teams took these photos in May, 2005. These are the Faces of Fallujah.
View the entire set — Faces of Fallujah
More Photo Essays
View Photo Essay — Fallujah: An Unnatural Disaster
View Shia Muslims Join Sunni in Fallujah Cleanup
View more photos from Fallujah, March 2005
Further information about Fallujah and beyond
Focus on Fallujah: CPT Iraq’s current assessment of conditions 28 May 2005 — Electronic Iraq, 28 May 2005
Focus on reconstruction in Fallujah — IRIN, 24 May 2005
Al Qa’im crisis: Towards a new Fallujah? — Italian Consortium of Solidarity, 13 May 2005
Fallujah 101: A history lesson about the town we are currently destroying — In These Times, 12 November 2004
Articles & eye-witness’s accounts from inside Iraq — The Brussels Tribunal Articles Page (continually updated)
VIDEO
An exclusive Diario video of Falluja.
FALLUJA - THE DAY AFTER 1 June 2005
A video was recorded in Falluja in early Janury, 2005, when the city was reopened to civilians after the American attack of November 8th, 2004 (“Operation Al-Fajr”, i. e. “the dawn”).
It’s an important document since the city was closed to reporters at that moment. This video was handed over to the Italian weekly magazine Diario by the Studies Center of Human Rights and Democracy of Falluja. Diario issued a broad enquire on Falluja battle on May 27th, 2005.
“Falluja-The day After” shows the total devastation of the Iraqi town, the corpses of the victims, the mass graves, the exhumation of many corpses by local rescue teams in order to try to recognize some of the victims. The last corpse shown in this video belongs to a 14 year old girl.
The video lasts 18 minutes and 20 seconds.
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