Free Iraq

Further to an earlier posting on April 3, 2005 More, surely, are to follow, this is the very sanitized news about Al-Qaim that has finally filtered out in the corporate media:

"Insurgents claiming links to al Qaeda tried to overrun a U.S. Marine base near the Syrian border Monday using gunmen, suicide car bombs and a firetruck loaded with explosives, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
The assault was the second time in less than two weeks that foreign insurgents have massed an organized, military-style offensive, U.S. officials said. Insurgents typically have staged smaller-scale bombings and attacks.
The raid Monday was on Camp Gannon, a U.S. base at Husaybah, a few yards from the Syrian border near the Euphrates River. U.S. Cobra attack helicopters fired on the insurgents to repel simultaneous attacks by suicide bombers and armed fighters, officials said. A second car bomb exploded 15 minutes after the first assault, "at the same entrance, while the soldiers were busy rescuing the wounded," Capt. Saad Abdul Fattah of the Iraqi army said.
The U.S. military said three Marines were wounded and at least three bombers were killed. Witnesses and a hospital spokesman reported 10 to 15 dead, including foreign and Iraqi insurgents.
Camp Gannon is an abandoned railway station that houses hundreds of Marines along a border long used by smugglers and other outlaws. Insurgents have operated openly in some towns in the area. (added emphasis)
The suicide bombers, driving a firetruck, a pickup truck and one other vehicle, "attempted to breach the perimeter of Camp Gannon," the U.S. military said in a statement.
... Marines came under small-arms fire at the same time, the military said. A 25-year-old student who witnessed the attack said at least 40 Arab and Iraqi fighters took part in the assault.
Cobra attack helicopters fired on a vehicle carrying an unknown number of gunmen, destroying it, the military said.
The attack came nine days after the group, led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian, asserted responsibility for an unsuccessful attempt to breach the walls of the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in a concerted attack involving mortars, rockets, car bombs and ground fighters. U.S. officials said the two attacks were well-planned and mark an operational shift for foreign groups that have been known for individual suicide bombings and kidnappings.
An Iraqi insurgent commander with Zarqawi's group who claimed he helped lead the Abu Ghraib assault said in a recent interview that the movement had been scouting Anbar province, the area of Monday's assault, in search of a U.S. base to attack with suicide bombers and heavy weapons.
The commander, who goes by the name Abu Salim, did not cite other possible targets for insurgent strikes. Another commander, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Jalal, a member of the Sunni Muslim-led insurgent group Mohammed's Army, said in a separate interview that Zarqawi's group intended more assaults on U.S. installations in an effort to strike fear among the 138,000 U.S. troops here. "
Insurgents Attack US Base In Iraq April 12, 2005

The following is the 'other side' of the same news that has been daily reported since last Thursday, in Arabic, by Mufakirat Al-Islam's four reporters on the ground in Al-Qaim (their news items are often translated to English the same or next day in www.jihadunspun.com and http://uruknet.info/ . Yesterday's massacre at Al-Rummana has also just been reported by Al-Jazeera.net , which is barred from having reporters in Iraq).

Below are my translated highlights, as reported by Mufakirat Al-Islam since last Thursday:

- Thursday and Friday April 7, 8 2005: Resistance fighters took over Al-Qaim and forced 'Iraqi army' units and police to leave the city.

- Sunday April 10: Rocket attack on American military base near Al-Qaim. With an Egyptian accent, an American announcer challenged the fighters: "If you are brave men, then come out and fight us. If you want paradise, come out from your hiding and fight us face to face and man to man and don't be like women by striking us and withdrawing like cowards". The challenge was not heeded.

- Monday April 11: Fierce fighting erupted since 7am. More than 70 'Iraqi policemen' deserted their positions. An influx of 150-200 Resistance fighters from the neighboring cities of Hit, Haditha and Fallujah join the battle, including 16 women Resistance fighters.

- Monday April 11: Americans destroy water treatment plants, cold-storage food warehouses, cut off electricity from Al-Qaim and besieged it preventing food from reaching the city. They also threatened to bomb its hospital if wounded Resistance fighters are admitted to it.

- Monday April 11: An attack, by a Tariq rocket, on the A22 American military base near Al-Qaim resulted in the death of 5 American soldiers, according to Lietenant Loai Khalid from the 'Iraqi Army'. This led to an American counter attack by rockets and bombs on the city centre.

- Monday April 11: 100 American military vehicles advanced on Al-Qaim from Ain-Assad American military base in Hit. American leaflets warned women and children from aiding or hiding Resistance fighters. "Our bullets do not discriminate between women and children in the war which will crush the insutgents. Therefore, stay in your homes and do not give them aid".

- Tuesday April 12: All involved Resistance groups (Jaish Ansar Al-Sinna, Mohammed's First Army, Qaida Jihad in Raqfidain, Legions of the twenties Revolution, Legions of Al-Nasir Salah Al-Din, Abu Bakir Salafi Legions, Rahman Salafi Legions, and the Islamic Anger Legions) issued a joint statement giving the Americans 12 hours to withdraw from the perimeter of Al-Qaim to allow food and water to flow in to the civilians. Otherwise, a spike in attacks throughout Iraq will follow. In a seperate statement, an unknown group, calling itself Legions for Unifying Iraq has threatend to attack many targets, including churches, in response for prominently manifesting the Cross on American tanks.

-Tuesday April 12: Nofa Garkan, a 40-years old woman Resistance fighter from Ramadi is martyred. Nofa is the 137th Iraqi woman Resistance fighter to die in battle.

- Tuesday April 12: "Twenty Iraqis have been killed and 22 injured after US helicopters and heavy artillery bombed houses in al-Rummana village, north of al-Qaim city, Aljazeera reported. Seven children, six women and three old men were among the dead, witnesses said, while the injured included 13 children, seven women and two old men. (emphasis added)
The witnesses added that the shelling started after US forces, who landed near al-Qaim on Monday night, came under repeated attack. Early reports indicated one house was completely destroyed and three others partially damaged in the bombing, according to Aljazeera.
On Monday, five car bombs hit US military targets in the western Iraqi city of al-Qaim near the border with Syria, wounding at least two US soldiers.
Iraqi journalist Ahmad Khalid told Aljazeera two of Monday's attacks in al-Qaim were simultaneous. Three bombs hit a building used as US military headquarters while a fourth targeted a US troop convoy.
Clashes erupted later between fighters and US soldiers in the city, damaging a number of houses, the journalist said. However, no civilians were injured in those clashes as they had fled.
A spokesperson for the US Marines said on Monday three of their soldiers were wounded in the attack, which occurred outside Camp Gannon, a base in al-Qaim, about 300km west of Baghdad in Anbar province."
Many Iraqis killed in US air attack April 12, 2005

Pictures of 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' that you do not see on CNN, FOX and other corporate media