seruriermarshal
04-20-2004, 03:27 AM
Marines, Insurgents Trap Fallujah Family
By LOURDES NAVARRO, Associated Press Writer
FALLUJAH, Iraq - For two weeks, Haji Abbas has lived in limbo, confined to a home in the direct line of fire between insurgents and U.S. Marines who set up a base in a factory next door, a position that has already cost the life of his 8-year-old niece.
AP Photo
Even though the fighting in Fallujah has died down in recent days as a cease-fire took hold, Abbas and some 100 relatives who live in the same compound are still afraid to leave their homes.
Every time the children venture out, the boom of explosions sends them scurrying back indoors. The family is running low on food.
Outside in the dirt yard is a grave encircled by concrete blocks where Abbas' niece is buried — a makeshift resting place because the family could not get her to the cemetery.
In the first week of fighting, a mortar round fired by insurgents targeting the Americans landed inside the walls of the compound. Shrapnel ripped through the girl's body, killing her and wounding an older child as they were playing on a terrace.
"It's been very difficult to live next to the base where the Americans are, the mortar carried away one child, and hurt another," Abbas said in remarks translated by a U.S. military translator. "We tried to revive her but we couldn't so we wrapped her in a blanket and buried her."
American officials and civic leaders from Fallujah called on insurgents Monday to turn in their weapons in return for a promise from the United States not to resume its offensive against the Sunni Muslim stronghold.
But with Marines surrounding the city of 200,000, commanders warned that if the deal falls through, they could launch an all-out assault, which would likely mean a resumption of bloody urban combat.
Abbas is a prosperous businessman who transports goods in refrigerated trucks to and from Jordan. His brother, the father of the slain girl, is there now on family business and unable to return because of the fighting.
Abbas hasn't told his brother that his daughter has died and asked that the family's full name not be used so that his brother does not find out through the media.
The Marines have tried to help the family. When the mortar hit, they sent over a medical officer.
The Marines also have sent over some of their military rations. But unable to speak English and alerted to the fact that some of the products contain pork, which is forbidden to Muslims, Abbas and his family avoid the meat products in the packages.
Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, the commander of the Marines in the industrial sector of the city, has offered the family thousands of dollars of compensation.
"That's for the bad things that happened as a result of the Marines being here," Byrne said.
Haji Abbas wonders when travel restrictions on the city will be lifted. Isolated and surrounded on all sides by Marine positions, they rely on satellite television for news.
"During the day all we do is walk around. It's like a prison. At night we all sleep together in the main house for safety," said Abbas, who wears the robe and white headdress that signifies that he has made the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
The family insists they know nothing about the insurgency, and wish the fighting would just stop.
"There is a lot of suffering that has happened. Whether it is the Americans or the Iraqis fault, I don't know," Abbas said.
Like many people in Fallujah he's disappointed that the Americans have not helped the local economy.
"People here have no jobs, nothing to do, so other people entice them to attack the Americans," he said.
But he said the insurgents have wreaked mayhem as well.
"If you speak out against them and they know who you are, they'll attack your home," he said. "I'd like the guerrillas to stop the attacks, but nobody listens to me, I just hang my head and suffer."
Next door, the rumble of heavy military trucks can be heard.
When asked why he hasn't taken his family and fled the city, like almost a third of Fallujah's population, Abbas shrugs.
"We all live here and we will die all here," he said.
By LOURDES NAVARRO, Associated Press Writer
FALLUJAH, Iraq - For two weeks, Haji Abbas has lived in limbo, confined to a home in the direct line of fire between insurgents and U.S. Marines who set up a base in a factory next door, a position that has already cost the life of his 8-year-old niece.
AP Photo
Even though the fighting in Fallujah has died down in recent days as a cease-fire took hold, Abbas and some 100 relatives who live in the same compound are still afraid to leave their homes.
Every time the children venture out, the boom of explosions sends them scurrying back indoors. The family is running low on food.
Outside in the dirt yard is a grave encircled by concrete blocks where Abbas' niece is buried — a makeshift resting place because the family could not get her to the cemetery.
In the first week of fighting, a mortar round fired by insurgents targeting the Americans landed inside the walls of the compound. Shrapnel ripped through the girl's body, killing her and wounding an older child as they were playing on a terrace.
"It's been very difficult to live next to the base where the Americans are, the mortar carried away one child, and hurt another," Abbas said in remarks translated by a U.S. military translator. "We tried to revive her but we couldn't so we wrapped her in a blanket and buried her."
American officials and civic leaders from Fallujah called on insurgents Monday to turn in their weapons in return for a promise from the United States not to resume its offensive against the Sunni Muslim stronghold.
But with Marines surrounding the city of 200,000, commanders warned that if the deal falls through, they could launch an all-out assault, which would likely mean a resumption of bloody urban combat.
Abbas is a prosperous businessman who transports goods in refrigerated trucks to and from Jordan. His brother, the father of the slain girl, is there now on family business and unable to return because of the fighting.
Abbas hasn't told his brother that his daughter has died and asked that the family's full name not be used so that his brother does not find out through the media.
The Marines have tried to help the family. When the mortar hit, they sent over a medical officer.
The Marines also have sent over some of their military rations. But unable to speak English and alerted to the fact that some of the products contain pork, which is forbidden to Muslims, Abbas and his family avoid the meat products in the packages.
Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, the commander of the Marines in the industrial sector of the city, has offered the family thousands of dollars of compensation.
"That's for the bad things that happened as a result of the Marines being here," Byrne said.
Haji Abbas wonders when travel restrictions on the city will be lifted. Isolated and surrounded on all sides by Marine positions, they rely on satellite television for news.
"During the day all we do is walk around. It's like a prison. At night we all sleep together in the main house for safety," said Abbas, who wears the robe and white headdress that signifies that he has made the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
The family insists they know nothing about the insurgency, and wish the fighting would just stop.
"There is a lot of suffering that has happened. Whether it is the Americans or the Iraqis fault, I don't know," Abbas said.
Like many people in Fallujah he's disappointed that the Americans have not helped the local economy.
"People here have no jobs, nothing to do, so other people entice them to attack the Americans," he said.
But he said the insurgents have wreaked mayhem as well.
"If you speak out against them and they know who you are, they'll attack your home," he said. "I'd like the guerrillas to stop the attacks, but nobody listens to me, I just hang my head and suffer."
Next door, the rumble of heavy military trucks can be heard.
When asked why he hasn't taken his family and fled the city, like almost a third of Fallujah's population, Abbas shrugs.
"We all live here and we will die all here," he said.