BACKGROUND

On 8 Nov 2004, after more than two months of aerial attacks, the US - with British support - began its second major assault on Fallujah, devastating it and killing hundreds of civilians. UK forces supported the attack, with hundreds of troops redeployed to form part of a “ring of steel” around the city.

The scale of the attack - and its effect on civilians - was unprecedented in the bloody history of the invasion and occupation, yet the crimes committed in Fallujah received little attention here and have quickly been forgotten.

A year after the attack the New York Times described Fallujah as 'virtually
a police state, with random checkpoints and frequent street patrols by
marines and Iraqi soldiers, largely Shiite Arabs' and Sunday Times reporter
Hala Jaber found it 'impossible not to be shocked by the devastation' with
'[f]ields of rubble stretch[ing] for as far as the eye can see.' This July
the rubble was still there and an estimated 50,000 people had yet to return
to the city. Moreover, more recent US military offensives in Ramadi, Haditha, Qaim, Tal Afar and elsewhere, have killed many more civilians and created thousands more refugees (see articles listed opposite). Indeed, according to the recent Lancet survey on excess deaths in Iraq, " coalition" forces were responsible for one-in-four violent deaths in Iraq during the period June 2005 - June 2006.

22 cities
Since Fallujah the US has continued to attack other towns and cities in Iraq, including Ramadi, Hit, Baghdadi, Haditha, Qaim, Karabila, Tal Afar and Sadah. During the period 1 Oct 05 – 28 Feb 06 US warplanes under the control of US Central Command attacked at least 22 Iraqi cities - twice the number struck during the same five-month period one year earlier (Knight Ridder, 14 Mar 06). See articles listed opposite.

Sowing the seeds
The city’s devastation has also continued to generate rage and hatred both inside and outside Iraq.

Thus, in the video released by al-Qaeda on 6 Jul 06, the British suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer – who killed seven people when he blew himself up on a tube that had just left Liverpool Street station - explicitly referred to the UK’s support for “the genocide .of … innocent Muslims in Fallujah’ as part of the rationale behind his attack.

In late 04, Ali Fadhil – whose Channel 4 documentary about the aftermath of the Nov 04 attack on Fallujah won an award from Amnesty International – observed that ‘by completely destroying this Sunni city, with the help of a mostly Shia National Guard, the US military has fanned the seeds of a civil war that is definitely coming’ (Guardian, 11 Jan 05). Since then Iraq has indeed been plunged into a civil war that is currently claiming scores of lives on a daily basis.

See more on what happened in Fallujah and the ongoing attacks on Iraq's cities, and why we must remember, and demand justice for those whose lives have been so damaged.

Ending the occupation
‘ Can anything be done to lead [Iraq] out of this savage civil war even if it is too late to stop it?’, Patrick Cockburn – Independent Middle East correspondent and as sympathetic and knowledgeable an Iraq-watcher as any - asks (Independent, 25 Jul).

As Cockburn notes, ‘Conflict was always likely after Saddam Hussein as a deeply divided Iraq tried to recover from his disastrous rule. But it was the added ingredient of a prolonged US and British occupation that ensured this conflict would be so extraordinarily violent’ (Counterpunch, 15 Jun). His conclusion? ‘Ending [the occupation] is essential if this war is to be brought to an end’ (Independent, 25 Jul).

See more on why you should demand an end to the occupation of Iraq.

Further Reading
After Fallujah: Unpunished US Killings Spark Iraqi Resistance by JNV, 6 August 2003
Onslaught: The Attack on Fallujah by JNV, 17 November 2004
Remember Fallujah by Voices UK and JNV, October 2005
Iraq: the Logic of Withdrawal by Anthony Arnove, The New Press, 2006

In May 2002, Voices anti-sanctions campaigners met this group of boys in the Fallujah marketplace. On 14 February 1991 a bomb dropped by the RAF hit this marketplace in Fallujah killing an estimated 200 civilians. How many bombs have these boys suffered since?

SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS

No More Fallujahs (October 2006)was organised by the Mass Action Group and supported by Act Together: Women’s Action for Iraq, Birkenhead CND, Birmingham University Against the War Society, Blackpool and Fylde CND, Bolton CND, Brent Stop the War, Bristol Stop the War Coalition, Cambridge Town and Gown Against Warmongering, CND, CND Cymru, Darlington for Peace and Justice, Falmouth Peace and Justice Group, Greater Manchester and District CND, Hastings Against War, Headingley and District CND, Highland Justice Not War, Huddersfield STW, Hull Stop the War, Iraq Occupation Focus, JNV, Kingston Peace Council, Labour Against War, Leicester Stop the War, Lewes and District CND, London Catholic Worker, London Federation of Green Parties, London Region CND, Milton Keynes Gulf Crisis Group, Musicians Against Nuclear Arms, Norwich Stop the War, Nottingham Stop the War, Oswestry Coalition for Peace, Oxford for Justice & Peace. Peace Plan Group, Radical Activist Network, Redbridge Against the War, Red Pepper Magazine, Sevenoaks CND, Sherwood for Global Justice and Peace, Smash EDO, South Tyneside STWC, Steering Group of the Barrow in Furness Peace Coalition, Stevenage Coalition for Peace, Stop the War, Voices UK, Wallasey CND, Wandsworth Stop the War, Warwick and Leamington Green Party, West Midlands CND, Wrekin Stop War, Wrexham Peace and Justice Forum and Yorkshire CND.

Naming the Dead (April 2006) was organised by the Mass Action Group and supported by Nadje al-Ali, Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, Pax Christi, Chumbawamba, Maya Evans, Hastings Against War, Iraq Occupation Focus, Ewa Jasiewicz, London Catholic Worker, Caroline Lucas MEP, Movement for the Abolition of War, Harold Pinter, Milan Rai, Sami Ramadani, Mark Thomas, Voices UK, Wrexham Peace and Justice Forum, Haifa Zangana.

Remember Fallujah (November 2005) was sponsored by Brent Stop the War, Iraq Occupation Focus, Justice Not Vengeance, Sutton for Peace and Justice, Voices in the Wilderness UK and the Wrexham Peace and Justice Forum.

Events during the Remember Fallujah month raised funds for projects here and in Iraq: see more.