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American troops have shot and wounded an Iraqi man who hurled a slipper at a military convoy in the former insurgent stronghold of Falluja. A joint patrol of US and Iraqi troops is believed to have mistaken the flying shoe for a grenade. A statement from the US military said that during a patrol on Wednesday an "object" was thrown at the troops, who then fired "in self-defence, wounding the attacker". US troops gave the man, Ahmed al-Jumaili, first aid before he was taken to hospital by Iraqi police. He was in a stable condition after being treated for a...

I posted the following message on the CBS message board yesterday and also sent the same message to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. If you agree with my message, I would appreciate it if you would forward this e-mail to others in your address book. I believe this is very important and a "grass roots" effort may be the only way to force Dan Rather, CBS, and others to accept the responsibility of their careless and destructive actions: "I think all American citizens should be outraged at CBS for making the "abuse" pictures public. CBS has done serious damage to the...

A bomb has exploded in the western Iraqi city of Falluja, killing four policemen and a civilian, police say. Fifteen people were injured in the blast outside a bank in the city. Falluja was at the centre of the Sunni Muslim insurgency following the US-led invasion of Iraq, until local tribes turned against al-Qaeda militants. The casualties were people who were inspecting the scene of an earlier blast when the second explosion was detonated, police said. Police did not say who was behind the attack, but al-Qaeda remnants in Anbar province are often blamed for such bombings. The US military...

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Mosques such as this one are visible throughout the city. U.S. and Iraqi leaders feel such reconstruction projects are important during this phase of the counterinsurgency battle. The partner relationship between the Iraqi police and Marines of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, has provided much of the security needed to complete rebuilding inside the city. FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Corporal Ryan York, 26, infantryman, Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, walks passed residents of a small farming community in the northwestern section of the city during a recent mini-swarm. York is a combat veteran who saw...

Three years after the massive US assault on Falluja, the city's mayor has accused Iraq's central government of starving the city of resources. Mayor Sa'ad Awad says Shia officials still consider the former insurgent stronghold a haven for Sunni militants

Times photographer Luis Sinco made James Blake Miller an emblem of the war. The image would change both of their lives and connect them in ways neither imagined.

CAMP PENDLETON — Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents are examining allegations that Marines killed as many as eight unarmed Iraqi prisoners during a battle in Fallouja in November 2004, according to civilian and military sources. (snip) In the Haditha case, three enlisted Marines face murder charges, and four officers are accused of failing to investigate the killings. Preliminary hearings are underway. (snip) The two cases do not involve any of the same Marines. But some of those being interviewed in the Fallouja case were expected to serve as character witnesses for colleagues accused of murder in the Haditha case. (snip>...

By Tim Ripley NEW satellite images of an Iraqi nerve gas plant show that the site has been rebuilt after being bombed by the United States, but there seems to be little sign that production of chemical weapons is under way. The site, named Fallujah I, some 38 miles north-west of Baghdad, is one of three similar facilities built in the late 1980s around the town of Habbaniyah to mass-produce elements, known as precursors, of the nerve gases used in the Iran-Iraq war and against the Kurds in 1988 and 1991. Images taken by an American company, DigitalGlobe, and published...

<p>Satellite pix show that three chemical facilities in Iraq - Fullujah I, II and III - wrecked in the 1991 Gulf War are back in business.</p> <p>August 19, 2002 -- WASHINGTON - These mysterious chemical factories northwest of Baghdad are a major reason the Bush administration thinks war with Iraq is inevitable.</p>

Italian journalist held hostage in Iraq Claire Cozens and agencies Tuesday August 24, 2004 Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, who has been missing in Iraq since last week, has been kidnapped by militants, according to a video broadcast today on al-Jazeera television station. His driver was found dead at the weekend in Najaf and today an Islamist group said it had abducted an Italian in Iraq, giving Silvio Berlusconi 48 hours to announce it was pulling his troops out of the country.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Wednesday acknowledged using incendiary white-phosphorus munitions in a 2004 offensive against insurgents in the Iraqi city of Falluja and defended their use as legal, amid concerns by arms control advocates. ADVERTISEMENT Army Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S. military had not used the highly flammable weapons against civilians, contrary to an Italian state television report this month that stated the munitions were used against men, women and children in Falluja who were burned to the bone.

Two weeks ago, Turkish police arrested an Islamist with ties to many upper tier al-Qaida members. The man not only tried to get asylum in Germany, but claims to have known about the London bombings beforehand and to have helped the 9/11 pilots. The Turkish interrogators in Istanbul's high-security prison wanted to be polite; they wanted to show respect for Islam. They offered their prisoner, an Islamist named Luai Sakra, 31, a chance to pray during a pause in questioning. They'd done the same thing with earlier suspects. The move was supposed to establish trust. But this prisoner reacted a...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Navy investigators have determined a U.S. Marine acted in self-defense when he shot an apparently wounded and unarmed Iraqi inside a Falluja mosque in November, a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday. The Marine corporal, who will not face charges, was under investigation in the shootings of four enemy combatants as part of an operation during the siege of Falluja on November 13, 2004. The mosque shooting was captured on videotape by an embedded reporter. [...] Although that Marine has been cleared of wrongdoing, the investigation remains open because autopsies of some of the bodies found in the...

Wounded in Fierce House-to-House Fighting, a Marine Tries to Recover. By NICK WATT TAOS, N.M., April 10, 2005 — Huddled in an abandoned house last November, Sgt. Jason Arellano gave his platoon a pep talk as they prepared to push deeper into insurgent-occupied Fallujah. "So they're right here in this area. There are going to be more and more as we push further down," he said. Arellano gave the speech after a Marine on an adjacent street had both his legs blown off by insurgents' grenades. "You don't want other squads giving speeches to their men about one of us,...

A large number of US troops were observed leaving Fallujah on Tuesday, with speculation that the withdrawal was due to Sunday night's attack by Mujahideen who reportedly fired rockets loaded with Sarin gas at a nearby US base. Dozens of US vehicles loaded with American troops were seen leaving Fallujah on Tuesday morning, heading for the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. In a report filed at 4:25pm Mecca time Tuesday afternoon, the correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported from International Highway 1, saying that hat he had witnessed more than 90 US vehicles including tanks, and armored vehicles, being transported on giant...

Ahmed Resain has his back to the door, so he does not see the gunman alight from a car outside his rudimentary Al Pasha hairdressing salon, in Baghdad's dusty Al-Salam quarter. The assailant strides deliberately into the shop and coldly turns to face Ahmed. He presses a pistol to the stunned barber's lower lip, carefully angling the weapon to ensure that the bullet exits through his left jaw. Ahmed, 37, is still standing - but three shots to his legs as the gunman makes his getaway drop him to the floor in a pool of his own blood. His survival...

Saddam, the ATM of Al Qaeda By Christopher S. Carson FrontPageMagazine.com | November 15, 2004 The Report of the 9/11 Commission has been digested, and the news media outlets have seized upon it as confirmation of their view that al Qaeda is a kind of purely stateless entity that never had "operational links" with rogue states like Iraq. Somehow, goes the thrust of the Report, Osama bin Laden was for years able to finance, train and supply an international terrorist corporation that had ongoing jihad operations in fifty countries - by himself, on no more than a $30 million personal...

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqis reacted with anger, frustration and resentment Friday after many returned to Falluja to discover their homes in rubble and their livelihoods ruined following last month's U.S. offensive. "I saw the city and al-Andalus destroyed," said Ali Mahmood, 35, referring to the district of the city he returned to briefly Thursday but now plans to leave after seeing the mess. "My house is completely destroyed. There is nothing left for me to stay for," the teacher said, adding that he would rather live in the tented camp outside Falluja that has been his family's home for...

KurdistanObserver.com The Halabja- Falluja Paradox By: Dr. Nazhad Khasraw Hawramany Dec 1, 2004 For an uninformed outsider the names of cities like Halabja and Falluja might be just exotic names for foreign cities like many similar other names all over this planet. For us Kurdistanis and Iraqis, these names have very deep and different meanings, because we are acquainted with the events and stories attached to those cities. It simply tells the story of Kurds and Arabs in Iraq, the story of decades of suffering and genocide on one side and of human cruelty and disregard of human lives on...

Hollywood has joined the war. Universal Pictures announced yesterday that it is to make The Battle for Falluja. To prove it is serious, it has enlisted Indiana Jones himself, actor Harrison Ford, to help defeat the insurgency.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, who disappeared in Iraq in June and later turned up in Lebanon claiming he had been kidnapped by militants, was charged on Thursday with desertion, the Marine Corps said. After a five-month investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Hassoun "is alleged to have taken unauthorized leave of the unit where he served as an Arabic interpreter," the service said in a release from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Hassoun was also charged with loss of government property and theft of a 9mm military pistol. The charges will now be considered by...

11.8.04, Monday FALLUJAH, Iraq - Capt. Sean Sims watched artillery shells fall and explode in a blast of sand and rubble, close enough to hear but too far to see what they hit. It was Sims' first daylight look at the rebel-held city of Fallujah on Monday afternoon, just hours before he would lead his men deep into its heart. Click here for photos A Marine Harrier jet screamed overhead. A Mark-19 automatic grenade launcher nearby let loose - bomb-boom-boom - sending grenades to burst in the distance. As commander of Alpha Company, of the 1st Infantry Division's Task Force...

FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 24 - United States marines and Iraqi soldiers today discovered the empty home of Abdullah Janabi, the insurgent leader of this city's mujahedeen council, and his bomb-laden mosque, where they found a massive supply of weapons that dwarfed any of the hundreds of caches yet found, military officials said. American commanders say they do not believe Mr. Janabi has been in the city for some time, though The Washington Post published an interview with him last week in which he was quoted saying he was still in the city along with other insurgent fighters. As they comb...

Since the shooting in the mosque, I've been haunted that I have not been able to tell you directly what I saw or explain the process by which the world came to see it as well. As you know, I'm not some war-zone tourist with a camera who doesn't understand that ugly things happen in combat. I've spent most of the last five years covering global conflict. But I have never in my career been a "gotcha" reporter -- hoping for people to commit wrongdoings so I can catch them at it.

FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 21 - In one house hung a black banner with the words "One God and Jihad" and a distinctive yellow sun, terrifyingly familiar as the backdrop to videotaped beheadings by the group of that name. In another house there was a cage large enough to hold a human and a wall marked with Arabic writing and what appears to be a fingerprint in dried blood. Before the doors to these houses in Falluja were thrown open to two reporters on Sunday, soldiers and intelligence officers had already carried away other items from them, handcuffs, shackles, militant propaganda,...

Dramatic footage of our brave Marines in Falluja. Pray for the fallen, say thanks to the soldiers who continue to serve with honor, and thank God that the United States Marine Corps is on our side, not theirs!

Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday posted a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, an al Qaeda operative who ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. Also known as Abu Musab Suri, he trained terrorists in poisons and chemicals, the State Department said. In September 2003, he was among 35 people named in an indictment handed down by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzon for terrorist activities connected to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization. Ten of the 35, including bin Laden, were charged with planning the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and using...

US troops sweeping through Fallujah believe they have found a training centre for the insurgent group headed by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In video footage shot by an embedded CNN crew, soldiers walked through one imposing building with concrete columns with a large sign in Arabic on the wall reading "Al Qaeda Organisation" and "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."

It is the Rodney King incident, Iraqi style. A piece of war taken totally out of context, for ratings and to make a reporter's career. Kevin Sites, the embedded NBC reporter in Falluja has tried to pull a "Michael Moore," using an "innocent (sic)" insurgent terrorist lying dead on the floor or playing possum with the marines. One day before, an enemy body lay in a similar position with a hidden booby trap, wounding several Americans. Another group of soldiers had previously been seriously injured by an Islamic combatant, who seemingly arose from the dead with his AK-47 blazing. This...

I have spoken with the Public Relations Department of the Marine Corps. They are grateful for all the calls to the Commodant's office and know their number was published on FreeRepublic. Unfortunately, they have been absolutely overwhelmed with calls and it is taking them away from some of their other work. We will be better served by going after the media sources to tell the whole story of what the Marines are facing.

Slandering Private Ryan – in Fallujah By David D. PerlmutterNovember 17, 2004 It's an irony that the week that some American television stations pulled "Saving Private Ryan" because of harsh language, many others aired parts of a video that purports to show an American Marine shooting a wounded and unarmed civilian in Fallujah. The link between Steven Spielberg's fictional (but realistic) film about World War II and a real event in the Iraq war is a reminder that, with so few of us having combat experience or studying warfare in school, the historical context of modern combat needs to be...

In an interview with Aljazeera, US marine spokesperson 1st Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert responded to the killing of the wounded man in the Falluja mosque. "I was not there and have no more information. The pictures were shown on TV but they did not reveal the circumstance that preceded the incidence. We will know after the investigation finishes. "We the US forces abide by the combat laws and consider ourselves at the top level of accountability." In response to reports by Falluja residents that US forces had executed injured Iraqis and dragged them behind US tanks Gilbert said: "I will not...

<p>BAGHDAD, Nov. 16 -- U.S. and Iraqi troops entered Mosul in force Tuesday to retake streets and police stations seized by fighters in the northern city last week, while a prominent Iraqi insurgent claimed that the battle in Fallujah was only the beginning of an uprising that has already roiled parts of Iraq (news - web sites) dominated by Sunni Muslims.</p>

<p>Iraq: Urgent action needed to prevent war crimes Recent reports from Falluja raise serious concerns that grave violations of the laws of war protecting both civilians and combatants who are no longer taking part in hostilities (hors de combat) are taking place.</p>

<p>Every day, we are grateful to you and your comrades in arms for what you are doing for our country, and every day we pray for your safe return.</p> <p>We know what is going on in Fallujah. Animals are murdering human rights workers, beheading innocent civilians, and killing their own people. We know how these animals fight without wearing uniforms and how they booby trap bodies.</p>

Her name is Louise Arbour. She is the top U.N. human rights official at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Yes, the U.N. Stop laughing. Come on, stop laughing. Ms. Arbour is calling for an investigation of a young American Marine who sent one of the scum of the earth to his reward. He did it to possibly save his life and the lives of his fellow Marines. The DFU rule --- if there is any doubt, kill the bad guy so he can't kill you. Ms. Arbour, you can go pound sand. Or, as a wretched...

DOHA, Qatar, Nov. 16, 2004 -- Reflecting on what he had just seen over a three-day visit to Iraq, U.S. Army Gen. John Abizaid said today that the enemy cannot militarily defeat U.S. troops or coalition forces fighting to free the country of terrorists and insurgents. "They can't beat us. They can only break our will. They can cause us to get tired and to go home," Abizaid said. "And we just need to make sure they understand that they are going to go down before we get tired." The battle of Fallujah waged over the past couple of weeks...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 16, 2004 -- While the battle against terrorists and insurgents moved from house to house through the streets of Fallujah, Iraq, a group of U.S. soldiers on the outskirts of the city rained precise destruction down on the enemy in support of the coalition's front-line fighters. Artillerymen of the 1st Cavalry Division's Battery A, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, fired roughly 1,600 rounds against enemy targets during a two-week period. Supporting Operation Al Fajr, the field-artillery soldiers provided indirect fire support with their M-109 Palladin 155 mm self-propelled howitzers to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, fellow...

I'm so damn mad about the cruxifiction that the brave Marine in the NBC video is taking. It make me want to put a boot up someone's behind, but since that would get me in trouble I've decided to try and take some action. If this goes to court martial I think we should take up a defense account for this guy and his family. Before that we can Freep the hell out of the media and the NIS for that matter. Any suggestions about how to support this guy would be appreciated and make my feel better.

FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military is investigating whether a Marine shot dead an unarmed, wounded insurgent during the battle for Falluja in an incident captured on videotape by a pool reporter.

MR. WHITMAN (deputy Pentagon spokesman): Colonel Regner, are you there? COL. REGNER: Yes, this is Colonel Mike Regner. WHITMAN: Colonel Regner, I think you just heard me, but we're not hearing you, so I'm having them adjust it here. REGNER: Okay, I'll try to speak a little bit louder. WHITMAN: This is Bryan Whitman, and you're here with about a dozen of the Pentagon press corps. And we appreciate you taking some time to kind of give us a little operational update. Before we get into the questions, though, if you have something that you'd like to say, well, we'll...

The Marines told the pool reporter that the wounded men would be left behind for others to pick up and move to the rear for treatment. But Saturday, another squad of Marines found that the mosque had been reoccupied by insurgents and attacked it again, only to find the same wounded men inside. Four of the men appeared to have been shot again in Saturday's fighting. Two were lying against the wall bleeding heavily, one appeared to be dead and a fourth was severely wounded but still breathing, according to the pool report. A Marine approached one of the men...

His men always came first Their captain died in Fallujah firefight By Tom Lasseter KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE November 15, 2004 FALLUJAH, Iraq – Army Capt. Sean Sims was up early Saturday, looking at maps of Fallujah and thinking of the day's battle. His fingers, dirty and cracked, traced a route that snaked down the city's southern corridor. "We've killed a lot of bad guys," he said. "But there's always going to be some guys left. They'll hide out and snipe at us for two months. I hope we've gotten the organized resistance." Sims, 32, from Eddy, Texas, commanded Alpha...

ALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 14 - American forces overran the last center of rebel resistance in Falluja on Sunday after a weeklong invasion that smashed what they called the principal base for the Iraqi insurgency. While much of the city lay in smoking ruins and isolated bands of rebels still harassed American and Iraqi troops, the American takeover of Falluja addressed a growing problem that had gnawed at the Iraq occupation force for months. But American military commanders were reluctant to declare the invasion a total success and were forced to contend with insurgent violence spreading elsewhere, particularly in the northern...

Smashing through the narrow residential streets of Falluja is not the textbook way to conduct a counterinsurgency campaign, where winning hearts and minds is even more important than reasserting control over contested territory. American commanders understood that, and for months hoped to avoid the attack that began a week ago. Since then, the military advance has been relentless, while the political reaction in the Sunni Arab community has been highly negative. If Sunni hostility continues to deepen, Falluja could turn into a very costly victory. Many of Falluja's armed insurgents simply dispersed to other predominantly Sunni cities as soon as...

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Capt. Sean Sims [Army's 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Vilseck, Germany] was up early Saturday, looking at maps of Fallujah and thinking of the day's battle. His fingers, dirty and cracked, traced a route that snaked down the city's southern corridor. "We've killed a lot of bad guys," he said. "But there's always going to be some guys left. They'll hide out and snipe at us for two months. I hope we've gotten the organized resistance." Sims, a 32-year-old from Eddy, Texas, commanded his Alpha Company without raising his voice. His men liked and...

November 14, 2004 By ALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 14 - Foot soldiers combed the smashed and deserted houses in southern Falluja this afternoon after a mechanized unit smashed through the neighborhood, called Shuhada, the day before, routing insurgents in their last major redoubt within the city. In house after house, the searches have turned up large caches of weaponry, like artillery shells and mortar rounds, along with electronics for making bombs and mujahedeen literature. Fearing booby traps, the troops generally entered the houses only after tanks rammed through walls or specialists put explosive charges on doors. As the searches moved southward...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - In the weeks before the crushing military assault on his hometown, Bilal Hussein sent his parents and brother away from Fallujah to stay with relatives. The 33-year-old Associated Press photographer stayed behind to capture insider images during the siege of the former insurgent stronghold. ``Everyone in Fallujah knew it was coming. I had been taking pictures for days,'' he said. ``I thought I could go on doing it.'' In the hours and days that followed, heavy bombing raids and thunderous artillery shelling turned Hussein's northern Jolan neighborhood into a zone of rubble and death. The walls...

HUNDREDS of fighters who escaped the American onslaught on Falluja were regrouping, rearming and attacking elsewhere yesterday in an attempt to show that Iraq’s insurgency would continue despite the loss of up to 1,600 men in their former stronghold. Seven Saudi suicide bombers were among those who had reached Baghdad, an insurgents’ commander said. They were waiting to be given a list of targets. Other fighters clashed with American troops on the road from Falluja to Baghdad, and US warplanes carried out airstrikes against insurgents just outside the capital. A video said to have been made by 11 insurgent groups...