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А.Никольский
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14.11.2004 19:42:11
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Рубрики
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Локальные конфликты;
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Репортаж Рейтер из Фаджуллы
По-моему, один из первых репортажей пишущих СМИ из самой Фаджуллы. Краткое содержание - картины полных разрушений и валяющиеся обгоревшие трупы, принадлежность которых к боевикам или мирным жителям установить невозможно. И "Абрамсы" на улицах - это к вопросу о танках в городе, использование которых часть наших СМИ до сих пор считает "идиотизмом".
Общее ощущение - ничего особо нового в сравнении с нами в глазах мировых СМИ амеры при штурме города не предложили.
Falluja a sea of rubble and death after offensive
By Michael Georgy
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov 14 (Reuters) - After six days of intense combat against Falluja insurgents, U.S. warplanes, tanks and mortars have left behind a shattered landscape of gutted buildings, crushed cars and charred bodies.
A drive through the city reveals a picture of utter destruction, with concrete houses flattened, mosques in ruins, telegraph poles blown over, power and phone lines hanging slack and rubble and human remains littering the empty streets.
U.S. officers say they have taken control of all Falluja in the offensive that killed more than 1,000 Sunni Muslim militants, foreign fighters and other insurgents. But their gains have turned large areas of the city to brick and dust.
"The only good muj is a dead muj," said U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Christopher Garza, using the slang term for mujahideen (holy warriors) as his Humvee drove past a bloated, burned body.
The northwest Jolan district, once an insurgent stronghold, looked like a ghost town after the assault.
As Marines pointed their M-16 rifles down abandoned streets, they found reminders of the days when parents took their children to Falluja's simple amusement park, now deserted.
There was no sign of the guerrillas who had scribbled graffiti along the walls of the park, encouraging Falluja's 300,000 residents to join a holy war against U.S.-led troops.
"Long live the mujahideen," read the graffiti.
Nothing could be further from the truth as a small convoy of U.S. Humvees moved through the centre of the city, pounded by air strikes, artillery and heavy machineguns.
Four bloated and burned bodies lay on the main street, not far from U.S. army tanks and soldiers. The stench of the remains hung heavy in the air, mixing with the dust.
Another body lay stretched out on the next block, its head blown off, perhaps in one of the countless explosions which rent the city day and night for nearly a week.
Some bodies were so mutilated it was impossible to tell if they were civilians or militants.
SILENT MINARETS
Falluja, regarded as a place with an independent streak where citizens even defied former leader Saddam Hussein at times, seemed lifeless.
The minarets of the city's dozens of mosques stood silent, no longer broadcasting the call to holy war that so often echoed across the rooftops, inspiring fighters to join the insurgency.
The only sound was the rumbling of tank tracks.
Restaurant signs were covered in soot. Sidewalks were crushed by 70-tonne Abrams tanks and rows of crumbling buildings stand on both sides of deserted streets.
Upscale homes with garages looked like they had been abandoned for years. Cars lay crushed in the middle of streets.
The only sign of life was two Iraqis standing in one street desperately trying to salvage some of their smashed belongings.
As U.S. soldiers walked through neighbourhoods their allies in the Iraqi forces casually moved along dusty streets past wires hanging down from gutted buildings.
They carried boxes of bottled water up to the rooftops of upscale villas they now occupy. The Iraqi soldiers sat up on the roofs staring down at the obliteration.
U.S. officers say they now only face a few pockets of resistance in the city, whose population fell by at least half in the days and weeks proceeding the offensive.
As a small convoy of Humvees moved back to position on the edge of the Jolan district, a rocket landed in the sand about 100 feet away -- a reminder that militants are still out there somewhere, even if the city that harboured them has fallen.
"God that landed right there. I heard it go right over our heads," said Corporal Samuel Shoemaker. REUTERS 1635 141104 GMT