03 December 2004
Fallujah Findings Give Evidence of International Law Violations
Defense Department Report: December 3 Pentagon briefing
Evidence that mosques, hospitals and cemeteries were used by insurgents in Fallujah as battlegrounds from which to attack Iraqi and multinational forces was presented by the Pentagon December 3.
Army Brigadier General David Rodriguez said the materials found as coalition forces searched that city following Operation Al-Fajr show clear violations of international law.
Rodriguez showed overview photos of Fallujah with 26 mosques throughout the city marked as locations from which snipers operated and rocket-propelled grenades were fired. Slides were also shown of ammunition caches, torture rooms and improvised bomb-making factories. The slides may be viewed on the Internet at: http://www.dod.mil/news/Dec2004/g041203-D-6570C.html
The general said troops located eight hostage sites, one with prisoners still chained to a wall, videos of beheadings, and human corpses rigged with explosives. In addition, more than 350 weapons and ammunition caches were found -- "basically, one of these every three city blocks," he said. Cell phones and lists of foreign fighters were also discovered.
"Operation Al-Fajr struck a serious blow to the insurgency in Fallujah by denying them the use of the city as a safe haven," Rodriguez said, "and Fallujah is no longer a terrorist center for command and control, supply, and weapons storage, nor is it a base of operations."
Some of the 12,000 additional U.S. troops being sent to Iraq will be used to keep pressure on the fleeing insurgents to prevent them from setting up support bases elsewhere, he said.
Lawrence DiRita, a defense department spokesman, said new intelligence was coming forward as residents of Fallujah feel less intimidated by the insurgents.
Recruitment for the Iraqi security forces, who have been the major target of the insurgents' intimidation campaign, has so far not been affected, Rodriguez said. "We continue to get the people over there who are ready to fight for the future of Iraq," he said, "and many of them have sacrificed their lives in pursuit of that."
The general said the Iraq security forces continue to develop satisfactorily, with units at different training levels reflecting their different abilities in actual operations. "Remember, we're building this army from scratch," he said, adding that the commanders on the ground are happy with those units proficient enough in their development to work alongside coalition forces.
A video of the briefing is available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.pentagonchannel.mil/
A transcript is available at: http://www.dod.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20041203-1721.html
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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