UK reporter describes the day the fire was lit in Fallujah

[sabra]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tm_headline=exclusive--dispatches-from-hell&method=full&objectid=17937242&siteid=94762-name_page.html

EXCLUSIVE: DISPATCHES FROM HELL
Only Western journalist to witness the horror as US Marines gunned down innocent Iraqis

<snip>

'FEW people outside Iraq knew of Fallujah before April 2003. But the City of Mosques is home to dozens of ancient clans, renowned for their bloody feuds. No one crosses a Fallujan...

We were in Baghdad when we heard that US troops had opened fire on a crowd in the city.

...

In one classroom, some idiot Marine had chalked "I Love Pork" on the blackboard, an insult to Muslims. Magazines featuring topless women also lay around - pornography to Iraqi eyes - along with copies of the Koran which locals said had bootprints on them.

...

The tension was enormous... all that was needed was a spark. And then it came.

A convoy of about six US vehicles drove towards us. We jumped out of the way, towards the walls of the compound and just beneath the line of fire of the soldiers inside. A Humvee roared past, then a Jeep, and the student line broke. Everybody ran towards the speeding vehicles, hurling their sandals at the armoured sides. A soldier on the back ducked to avoid a flip-flop and, as he did so, unleashed the fire of his .50 calibre machine gun on the crowd. Immediately, dozens of M16s opened up from the roof and, for 20 seconds, there was a deafening rattle of bullets. I got as low as I could, a crouching heap beneath the wall, swearing to myself and watching the mayhem unfold.

Then the shooting stopped - and the moaning and screaming began.

...

Later US forces claimed troops opened fire after someone fired an AK47. It's highly unlikely.


I didn't see a single weapon in the crowd. I didn't hear any shots. What I saw was a US soldier on a Jeep open fire when a rubber sandal was thrown at him.


Next day local tribal leader Ibrahim Hamad said in Fallujah: "Everyone here was happy at first that the Americans threw out Saddam - but these killings will make all our children go off with bin Laden."


The spark of future turmoil had been lit that day in Fallujah.'

[Peace Patriot]

1. "these killings will make our children go off with bin Laden."

That old Bush Cartel friend and beneficiary.