The reputation of Fallujah is simple and fearsome: It’s known as the toughest town in Iraq, the epicenter of the insurgency, the place where more than 35 American soldiers have lost their lives.
An attack Thursday–when a top U.S. general’s visit was disrupted by rocket-propelled grenades–added more evidence to the indictment.
But something else is happening in Fallujah as residents look for a less violent way to get the Americans out. This city on the banks of the Euphrates River and at the edge of the desert is taking small but critical steps toward choosing its own government.
By Fallujah’s standards, an election last weekend was a near-perfect introduction to democracy: A heckler cried fraud, losers were angry, the winner offered to give up his post to keep the peace, young men charged the stage and order was restored by cops toting rifles.
But at last the city’s businessmen managed to select their representative to a regional council. And nobody got hurt.
“We are turning a corner,” said Keith Mines, the outgoing Coalition Provisional Authority’s governance coordinator in Al Anbar province. “A lot more people will deal with us. The hope is the people in Fallujah start to see it’s worth tamping things down.”
In recent weeks, Fallujah’s relative calm had stood in stark contrast to the mayhem boiling around the country–suicide blasts in Irbil, Iskandariyah and Baghdad–that has killed more than 200 people.
But Fallujah’s peace was shattered Thursday as Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, arrived to tour the city.
Abizaid’s party, which included Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, came under attack shortly after pulling into the headquarters of the local Iraq Civil Defense Corps unit. Insurgents launched three rocket-propelled grenades from a rooftop, and U.S. forces engaged the guerrillas in a brief firefight. No Americans were injured.
Despite the startling attack, the bigger issue facing Fallujah is how the city might be redeemed 10 months into the occupation.
A core group of residents and officials is trying to help the city adapt to occupation and the promise of democracy, once unthinkable developments among its conservative, proud people.
They are battling an image that some say is exaggerated and outdated. Mines, whose six-month tour ends this week, says “Fallujah is not the epicenter” of the insurgency.
Mutual distrust
Still, local leaders have faced months of mutual mistrust between civilians and U.S. occupiers, a gap that has yet to be bridged. And they are blazing a trail in a city that has been a killing ground for civilians and soldiers alike since the opening days of occupation.
“I want the Americans to help arrange our country. And then I want them to leave,” said Ghazi Sami Albu-Issa, a contractor and tribal leader.
The problems in Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, have helped form the restive reputation of the Sunni Triangle, the old heartland of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime.
U.S. troops still face roadside bombings and mortar attacks on bases outside town. The 82nd Airborne has suffered seven deaths and 107 injuries in the city. At least three U.S. soldiers from other divisions also have been killed there.
In addition, three helicopters have been downed around Fallujah, including a Chinook that crashed Nov. 2, killing 16; a Kiowa that was shot down Jan. 2, killing one; and a Black Hawk medevac that crashed Jan. 8, killing nine.
Inside the city, an uneasy calm by day often is shattered at night.
A 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew was imposed after a recent surge in violence. Jobless young men routinely gather on street corners under the watchful eyes of police in pickup trucks and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, or a paramilitary unit dug in behind sandbags in the old municipal building at the city’s edge.
Leaflets issued by insurgents recently warned of retribution for those helping the occupation.
But there are signs of progress in a city where Hussein recruited the shock troops of his military and industrial complex. Water has been restored to 80 percent of the city and there is more electricity now than immediately after major combat, although blackouts still occur.
And there is growing acceptance here that Fallujah has to join the rest of Iraq–at least politically–to secure a fair share of reconstruction cash.
“I am not cooperating with Americans; I am dealing with them,” said Mohammed Hassan al-Balwa, president of Fallujah’s provisional city council. “We need to help ourselves.”
With a pressed Western-style suit, trimmed mustache and booming voice, al-Balwa cuts a commanding figure.
Al-Balwa needed all his persuasive powers to try to control voters who congregated Saturday at a youth and sports center, a drab facility with a boxing ring in the courtyard and an auditorium with flickering lights.
There were eight caucuses for groups including businessmen, teachers and clerics. Each group got to pick one representative to the regional council.
Voters, including women who selected their own representative, placed ballots in a single wooden box to fill eight spots on the council for Al Anbar province, which extends into the western desert.
The winner among the entrepreneurs was Mohammed Hussein al-Zobaee, a white-bearded tribal leader and contractor.
Some dispute vote
Some in the crowd angrily disputed the election, complaining of voters who cast ballots without proper identification. Al-Zobaee briefly offered to give up the post to quiet the hecklers. But he quickly turned on his heels and followed his entourage out of the auditorium. Outside, the winners reveled in the victory while cops with guns stayed behind.
“We hope that the Americans will help the Iraqis to reconstruct our country,” al-Zobaee said. “And we hope they achieve their promise to end the occupation.”
At times messy and chaotic, the caucuses showed the residents were interested in self-government, but al-Balwa conceded that “democracy is very difficult right now.”
Still, the difficulties pale compared with past incidents between the residents and U.S. forces.
On April 28, two weeks after Hussein’s government fell, protesters in Fallujah rallied for the deposed leader, a demonstration that ended in bloodshed near a school where members of the 82nd Airborne were deployed. At least 13 Iraqis were killed and 75 wounded in the clash. Iraqis said Americans opened fire first, but U.S. troops said they were responding to AK-47 rounds fired by gunmen who infiltrated the crowd.
Whatever the truth, it set the tone for a bloody occupation.
Fallujah came to be seen as a heart of darkness for the American-led occupation, insurgents poised to battle U.S. troops with roadside bombs and ambushes. Local residents claimed the insurgency was never as large as reputed and involved only a tiny portion of the population.
Wary coexistence
Relations were strained further in September, when eight members of the Fallujah Protection Force, a police unit, were killed by “friendly fire” from 82nd Airborne troops.
In the months since, there has been a wary coexistence between residents and Americans, who have withdrawn from the city center to bases on the outskirts of town. And residents have sought to pick up and move on with their lives.
Mines, the coalition representative, ticked off a list of theories for the difficulties in Fallujah. Tit-for-tat violence erupted after the initial troubles in April. Fallujah also had a reputation for being difficult to govern, even during Hussein’s reign. The city’s location west of Baghdad also made it a way station for foreign fighters thought to be infiltrating the country.
Mines said he subscribed to parts of all the theories. Combined, he said, they “created a negative synergy.”
`A disaster in our city’
“We don’t have to win Fallujah to win this war,” he said. “It would be nice if they flew the flag. But success is if we can leave a stable government [in Iraq] that doesn’t support terrorism.”
Hard feelings remain.
At Fallujah’s hospital, overworked staff members recall the bloody spring, when corridors were jammed with dead and wounded from the initial engagement with the U.S. forces.
“I thought there was a disaster in our city,” said Dr. Ismael Khalaf, the hospital’s chief resident.
“We expected this. We thought the war would begin after Saddam’s army had fallen, the war between Iraqi people and U.S. troops,” he said.
Sitting on a hard plastic chair in a doctors’ rest area littered with dirty tables and flies, Khalaf lamented conditions at the hospital. He said the staff is overworked, medical equipment and supplies are limited, and there are only 18 pediatric beds to serve scores of children who arrive daily.
Security has been beefed up with blast barriers and armed guards, while doctors also have received a financial safety net as salaries were increased to $120 monthly.
Americans will never be loved in Fallujah, Khalaf said.
“We dislike them,” he said with weariness in his voice. “They are not liberators, they are invaders.”
Others, though, are willing to give the Americans a chance.
“Americans have to leave, but for the time being it can’t be done,” said Gen. Abbood Farhan, the local police commander. “It’s not good for all of Iraq.”
What U.S. forces failed to realize early on, Farhan said, was that the city’s conservative nature needed to be respected. Tribal links remain strong and mosques are dominated by conservative Sunni clerics. The appearance of U.S. troops on the streets and helicopters overhead inflamed the local population.
Farhan said local leaders told the Americans to stay out of town, but those pleas were dismissed. After the initial bloodshed, U.S. troops eventually withdrew but the damage had been done, Farhan said.
“Fallujah people are known as courageous people and generous,” he said. “So one who behaves generously, he will be treated generously.”
For willing to give the relationship with Americans a second chance.
“We have to tell the world the situation in this city,” said Shakir Mahmood al-Kubaisi, a merchant who ran for a regional council seat but didn’t win. “It suffered under the previous regime. You can travel around the city and see how it was ignored. Even the gardens were turned into a desert. The city needs soccer fields, parks, a good court, government buildings and schools.”
Al-Kubaisi marveled at the caucus turnout.
“I think they can rule themselves,” he said. “And when they rule themselves, they will need the Americans as friends, not as occupiers.”
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Deadly events in Fallujah
Fallujah, a city of about 250,000, has been an insurgent stronghold for months, frustrating U.S. military attempts to subdue deadly confrontations between its troops and Iraqi civilians.
April 28, 2003
Thirteen Iraqis are killed and 75 wounded during a confrontation with U.S. troops.
April 30
American forces open fire on a crowd of demonstrators, killing two Iraqi civilians and wounding at least 14.
May 27
Two U.S. soldiers are killed and 11 injured in a firefight and an attack on a police station by insurgents.
Sept. 12
Eight members of an Iraqi police unit are accidentally killed by 82nd Airborne Division “friendly fire.”
Oct. 20
One U.S. soldier is killed and five wounded when an Army patrol is ambushed outside Fallujah.
Nov. 2
Sixteen U.S. soldiers are killed when their Chinook helicopter is shot down by a shoulder-fired missile.
Nov. 8
Three U.S. soldiers are killed when a roadside bomb explodes under their armored vehicle.
Jan. 2, 2004
A U.S. Kiowa helicopter is shot down by ground fire, killing one U.S. soldier.
Jan. 8
Nine U.S. soldiers are killed when a U.S. Black Hawk medevac helicopter marked with a red cross is hit by a shoulder-fired rocket.
Jan. 13
Three Iraqi civilians are killed after a protest over the detention of a teenage Iraqi girl.
A U.S. Apache helicopter is shot down near Fallujah in the third such incident in two weeks. Crew members escape injury.
Feb. 12
The U.S. commander in the Middle East comes under attack by insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles. Two Iraqi civilians are killed. No Americans are hurt.
Sources: AP, news reports
