Fallujah residents flee to avoid expected = attack on=20 militants
About 80% in city of 250,000 have quit insurgent=20 stronghold

Borzou = Daragahi,=20 Chronicle Foreign Service

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

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Email=20 This Article

Abu Ghraib, Iraq -- As truck driver Hamid = Taleb Shal=20 al-Zubavi and his wife drove their pregnant daughter to a midwife = in=20 Fallujah several weeks ago, the family came under fire from = snipers.=20

A bullet struck his wife in the hip, and he was forced to leave = his=20 daughter at a relative's house while he rushed his wife to Yarmouk = Hospital in Baghdad. Since then, the 53-year-old has been = shuttling back=20 and forth between Fallujah and Baghdad, braving checkpoints, = military=20 convoys and cross fire between U.S. troops and insurgents as many = as four=20 times a day to tend to his wife, daughter and newborn grandson.=20

"We are merely trying to live," he said. "What sin have we = committed to=20 deserve this?"=20

Al-Zubavi's family is one of thousands caught in the middle as = U.S.=20 forces prepare for an all-out offensive to wrest control of = Fallujah from=20 insurgents in the rebellious city 40 miles west of Baghdad, using=20 overwhelming force if necessary. The militants, who took over the = city=20 more than six months ago, are promising not only resistance but = also=20 violent retribution.=20

As the battle looms, Fallujah already resembles a ghost town, = according=20 to residents who have fled the city and other eyewitnesses. About = 80=20 percent of Fallujah's estimated 250,000 residents already have = fled, they=20 say, moving in with relatives in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.=20

"There are no families," said a Fallujah-based Iraqi journalist = who=20 reports for Western and Arab media. "There are hooded men walking = around=20 the streets. They've set some checkpoints around the streets.''=20

The U.S. military and the interim government of Prime Minister = Ayad=20 Allawi are demanding that townspeople turn over the foreign = insurgents and=20 their heavy weapons and allow Iraqi troops to patrol the city, but = negotiations between Iraqi government officials and Fallujah = leaders are=20 at a standstill.=20

Responding to the deadlock, Allawi warned last weekend that = "our=20 patience is running thin."=20

U.S. jet bombers and helicopters are launching nightly air = raids on=20 alleged militant positions, while insurgents attack American = positions on=20 the edge of the city. Town leaders have demanded that the U.S. and = Iraqi=20 troops halt the air strikes and withdraw, allow local families to = return=20 to their homes and compensate those whose properties have been = damaged.=20

"If a ground offensive on Fallujah takes place, then thousands = of=20 people will be killed," Brig. Gen. Sabbar al-Janabi, Fallujah's = chief of=20 police, told an Iraqi journalist. "If the U.S. keeps insisting on = the=20 principle of the stick, there will be an inevitable war in = Fallujah, with=20 regrettable consequences."=20

The fiercely independent riverside town has been a stronghold = of anti-=20 American activity since the invasion last year. Fighting in the = city in=20 April left hundreds of residents dead and Fallujah in ruins before = U.S.=20 forces pulled back and allowed an Iraqi military unit staffed by = city=20 residents to take over.=20

Since then, U.S. officials say, the Sunni-dominated city has = become a=20 stronghold for followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian = Islamist=20 said to be the mastermind behind a wave of car bombings and = kidnappings in=20 Iraq.They claim their nightly bombing of alleged al-Zarqawi safe = houses=20 and fighting positions already has rattled the resistance.=20

"The recent strikes against the al-Zarqawi network have changed = the=20 leadership structure of the terrorist group, causing numerous=20 reorganizations within the group," the U.S. military said in late = October.=20

But some worry that the heightened attacks may only disperse = the=20 fighters to other parts of Iraq, while causing more suffering by = citizens=20 and creating more U.S. enemies.=20

The order to launch the full-scale assault on Fallujah must = come from=20 Allawi, a Shiite Muslim, but he faces strong opposition within the = Sunni=20 minority in Iraq.=20

The Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential organization = of=20 hard- line Sunni clerics, threatened Tuesday to call for an = election=20 boycott and a campaign of civil disobedience if Fallujah is = attacked.=20

And in an interview published Monday by the Kuwaiti daily = Al-Qabas,=20 interim President Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, a Sunni, said he = disagreed=20 "with those who believe a military attack is necessary."=20

"The way the coalition is managing the crisis is wrong," = al-Yawer said.=20 "It is as if someone shot his horse in the head to kill a fly that = landed=20 on it. The fly flies away, and the horse dies."=20

As the confrontation draws closer, cars and buses full of = Fallujah=20 citizens stream unhindered on the road from Fallujah to Baghdad.=20

"We don't stop them," said one police officer manning a = checkpoint,=20 refusing to give his name. "We don't ask them where they're going. = We know=20 they're coming from Fallujah."=20

Residents say the so-called mujahedeen, or holy warriors, who = have=20 taken control of city streets have rounded up dozens of locals who = allegedly spied or collaborated with the Americans.=20

"If they suspect you of anything, they grab you and throw you = in jail=20 and beat you up until you confess to whatever they suspect you = of," he=20 said.=20

During a hasty visit to Fallujah several days ago, an Iraqi = translator=20 working for Western media encountered a frightened city.=20

He said the only passengers on the minibus he rode into town = were men=20 wearing long beards like those favored by Wahhabi or Salafi = Islamists=20 associated with the resistance. Burned-out hulks of U.S. tanks and = supply=20 trucks littered the road.=20

At the gates to the city, four armed and masked men operated a=20 checkpoint, demanded identification cards and ordered the local = police=20 around. Entire neighborhoods lay in ruins, crushed by nightly = bombing=20 runs, as well as the fighting in April, he said.=20

Maza Mohammad al Dulaymi, 24, who owns an auto repair shop in = Fallujah,=20 is among those who have fled to Baghdad.=20

"They're saying Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is in Fallujah," he said. = "But=20 Fallujah is also full of families who just want to live=20 peacefully."

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Fallujah residents flee to avoid expected = attack on=20 militants About 80% in city of 250,000 have quit insurgent=20 stronghold

Fallujah residents flee to avoid expected = attack on=20 militants
About 80% in city of 250,000 have quit insurgent=20 stronghold