US Forces 'Slaughter' Iraqis At Dawn: Eyewitness/more than one hundred Iraqi civilians/Islam Online/Jun 19

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US Forces 'Slaughter' Iraqis At Dawn: Eyewitness
Jun 19, 2003
Source: Islam Online.net

American troops "slaughtered" more than one hundred Iraqi civilians, most of them killed while asleep, at the early hours of Friday, June 13, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net. The U.S. forces deliberately opened fire from tanks and helicopter gunships at the houses of Iraqi civilians in Rawah, 400 kilometer to the north-west of Baghdad, killing tens of people, they charged.

The town residents rushed out of their homes which came under heavy American bombardment. Some of them emerged with their light arms and battled the occupation forces, killing and injuring an unspecified number of American troops, eyewitnesses told IOL correspondent. "The bodies of 12 of your boys were found tied with ropes, each with a bullet in the head. The Americans detained them and immediately executed them in this horrible way," charged Abu Saadoun, one of the town tribal leaders. "Now we have to avenge not only the occupation of our country but also the slaughtering of our boys. We will open the gates of hell on the Americans," he pledged in exclusive statements to IOL.

Tired and exhausted Abu Khaled told IOL he spent three hours in the desert at the outskirts of Rawah digging a mass grave for the victims of the American massacre. "We buried more than 80 of our sons but are still puzzled what pushed the Americans to massacre our people. We are far away from Baghdad and no fighting has been reported here. "We have no training camps as alleged by the occupation forces. No Baathists. No nothing. The people of Rawah all reserved Sunnis," lamented Abu Khaled. "Rawah has a majority of PHD and university certificates holders," he asserted.

He uncovered to IOL that a number of Arab fighters, who flocked to Iraq during the days leading to the Anglo-American occupation to join arms in defending the Arab country, occasionally came to the town, also inhabited by a number of Iraqi army officers. "But, they are not Baathist officers. They opposed Saddam regime but they more strongly oppose the American occupation of their country," Abu Khaled said of the Iraqi army officers. He asserted that the resistance of the American occupation has not yet gained its full momentum and is just at the very beginning.

American armored vehicles and tanks are heavily deployed along Baghdad-Rawah highway but none of the Americans agreed to deliver statements to IOL team other than that they were hunting down loyalists to Saddam and his Baath party. Asked why they target the north and north-west of Iraq, areas of Sunni majority, an American major who declined to put his name said they do not care if the areas belong to Sunnis or others, claiming there was "terrorist" activities there.

Islamists Not Baathists

Majid al-Rawi, a doctor of Rawah hospital, debunked American "superstitions" , asserting that Baathists and Fedayeen Saddam did not fight during the war and left Iraq for the Americans. So why should they develop such a resistance enthusiasm now?"

"Most of the boys I treated I personally knew them very well. They are reserved Islamists and not Baathists, " he told IOL correspondent. "The fairy tale of hunting down Saddas loyalists and Baathists is a pretext exploited by the occupation forces to violate all human rights, detain and kill people without being held accountable and to evade being disclosed by the media," asserted the doctor.

"Suppose the Americans were right, does this give them the right to immediately execute people in such a horrible manner. Where is the democracy and freedom they said they came to give to the Iraqi people? "

Doctor al-Rawi recalled hearing many Iraqi young men saying they had yearned to fight the invading troops and "here they have come to us by themselves. "

One of the local leaders who refused to disclose his name told IOL correspondent "I swear by Allah Almighty there are no training camps here. We do not need one. Each Iraqi child knows how to use arms. "The obligatory enlisting and the long-running wars Iraq fought over the past two decades taught lost of Iraq men military planning and tactics of using heavy weapons. "

He asserted that the Popular Army and Al-Quds Army formed by Saddam to falsely depict him as defender of the Arab nation did not prevent the Americans from invading our land but they helped train men, elders, women and children on using all types of arms. "This will certainly help when we start real resistance to boot out the occupation forces outside the town, " the unnamed local leader told IOL.

The Americans, he said angrily, break into our homes in a violent and barbaric not respecting in the least our traditions. "They (U.S. forces) claim they are hunting down Baathists while in fact they are only trying to terrorize us not to resist the occupation, " he concluded.

U.S. Causalities

The American occupation forces sustain daily losses and damages in all Sunni areas in northern Iraq. In Falluja, anti-occupation resistance has been on the upswing to the extent that American forces stationed there fear to leave their posts after sun set and open random fire at any thing that moves. Also, the towns of Abu Ghareb, el-Ramadi and Heit, all to the west of the capital Baghdad, witness regular resistance operations that inflicted fatalities and damage to the Americans and their weaponry machine.

Over the past three days, confirms IOL's correspondent, the Americans lost seven soldiers; three Apache helicopter gunships, downed by Russian-made Strella missiles and two tanks destroyed by RBJ.

Maddened by the resistance attacks and the causalities, the Americans developed hostile attitude towards the media and deprived the entire population of Falluja of electricity. The American forces are always keen on evacuating any attack site immediately even if this would cost them more lives. One U.S. officers told IOL correspondent there are strict orders not to allow the media to document any American causalities. The American forces even rearrange the attack site so that no one would ever notice a battle was raging there.

Fires blazed on the major pipeline from Iraqs northern oilfields after twin bomb attacks aimed at sabotaging exports through Turkey. Iraqis accusing the Americans of stealing their oil wealth by trying to export oil without the approval of a central Iraqi government in Baghdad.

U.S. occupation forces killed 31 Iraqis on Friday, northeast of Baghdad, one day after another massive raid killed 70, putting the death toll to 101. US army detained Monday, June 9, around 400 Iraqis suspected of participating in recent resistance attacks against U.S. occupation troops.