By Jeffrey Gettleman
New York Times
02 April 2004
FALLUJA, Iraq, April 1 — As the rage cooled in Falluja on Thursday and the burned and beaten bodies of four American civilians were wrapped in white cloth, many townspeople said they were torn between pride in the attack and shame over the mutilations.
Many said they supported the killing of four security consultants because they were Americans and Americans are despised.
But some of those same people said they felt embarrassed when mobs tore the bodies apart afterward and dragged them through the streets, turning this town in the heart of the Sunni Triangle into a symbol not only of resistance but of barbarity. The macabre celebration was televised worldwide.
"This is a bad advertisement for everything we stand for," said Muhammad Khalifa, a spare-parts trader who closed his shop during the disturbance in a sign of disgust. "We may hate Americans. We may hate them with all our hearts. But all men are creatures of God."
In the morning, a team of American officials rushed to a meeting with Falluja's mayor and top clerics. American officials said the clerics promised to issue a fatwa, or religious edict, at Friday Prayer to condemn the ambush and the grisly aftermath. One of the gravest sins in Islam is desecrating the dead.
Meanwhile, military commanders acknowledged that the violence on Wednesday would make it more difficult for them to stick to their low- key approach.
"We were going to roll in there all quiet like the fog," said Col. J. C. Coleman, chief of staff for the First Marine Expeditionary Force. "Now these people are invigorated. They're all stirred up. They've gotten worldwide press. It makes our job harder."
Marines took over the Falluja area from the Army just last week and announced a shift away from aggressive tactics. They wanted to win friends by doling out $540 million in reconstruction projects. Now, commanders say, they will have to root out the insurgents.
In Washington, administration officials said that the attacks in Falluja could hamper the entire reconstruction effort by making it harder to persuade Spain and other countries to keep troops in Iraq or to convince allies like India and Pakistan to send forces.
"This raises the difficulty level for everything, including our ability to reach a political solution to the governance of Iraq," an official said.
Falluja has been one of the most difficult spots to occupy in Iraq, a place where support for Saddam Hussein runs strong. Mr. Hussein built a powerful network here, handing out choice jobs and privileges to tribal elders and powerful sheiks. At a traffic circle downtown, there are still signs that read, "Viva Saddam!" and "Long live Falluja, the cemetery for invaders."
Sometimes, it seems as if American overseers have few friends. But on Thursday, a group of clerics and policemen helped the American authorities recover the bodies of the four security consultants. After the four were shot, they were yanked from burning vehicles by a jeering mob and dragged to a bridge over the Euphrates River where at least two bodies were strung up by a rope and dangled over the water.
The families of three of the victims confirmed their identities. They were Jerry Zovko, 32, an Army veteran from Willoughby, Ohio; Michael Teague, 38, an Army veteran from Clarksville, Tenn.; and Scott Helvenston, a Navy veteran from Big Bear, Calif. The company the men worked for, Blackwater U.S.A. of Moyock, N.C., declined to identify them.
Neither American forces nor the Iraqi police responded to the chaos. More than 4,000 marines are stationed near Falluja, 35 miles west of Baghdad. Marine commanders on Thursday defended their decision not to intervene. "Should we have sent in a tank so we could have gotten, with all due respect, four dead bodies back?" said Col. Michael Walker, a civil affairs commander. "What good would that have done? A mob is a mob. All we would have done was provoke them."
An Iraqi policeman said he and his colleagues were united about what to do when the violence started. "We had to stay away," Muhammad al-Esawi said. "What happened was between Americans and insurgents. If we got involved, we would have been killed."
On Thursday, the violence continued. An Iraqi employed by the Marines was shot in the neck as he was leaving work. He was in critical condition Thursday night. Also on Thursday, a Marine Humvee was attacked — twice. First it was disabled by a roadside bomb, which wounded three marines. Then, after the marines abandoned the vehicle, a crowd set it on fire in a scene reminiscent of the blazing vehicles on Wednesday. A roadside bomb killed five soldiers on Wednesday.
American troops have pulled back to the outskirts of the city. American military commanders, though, said they were not retreating from Falluja.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld held a series of meetings at the Pentagon with his top advisers, including the commander in the Persian Gulf, Gen. John P. Abizaid, to discuss Iraq and how to deal with Falluja. The director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, also attended the meetings.
A senior military official said that American forces in Iraq were already planning an "appropriate response" to the grisly killings and overall violence in Falluja. "We're not getting panicky over this," the senior official said.
In Iraq, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for the occupation forces, said: "We will respond. It's going to be deliberate, it will be precise and it will be overwhelming."
He added, "We will pacify Falluja."
Since the war in Iraq began, Falluja has been a hot spot of resistance. Last April, American soldiers killed at least 15 civilians at a demonstration. In November, insurgents downed an Army helicopter, killing 16. In February, gunmen blasted their way into a Falluja jail, killing 15 police officers and freeing dozens of prisoners. Last week, marines fought with insurgents in a battle that killed a number of civilians.
Osama Nafaa, who sells tires, said the attack against the four American security consultants might have been revenge. "People were still talking about the civilians the Americans killed," Mr. Nafaa said.
On Thursday, several Falluja residents spoke of the attack against the Americans in admiring terms. "It was a very good ambush," said Mr. Khalifa, the spare-parts seller. He said he was driving to work in downtown Falluja around 10 a.m. on Wednesday when he passed some men alongside the road who frantically waved at him and said: "Go back! Go back! Something is about to happen."
Mr. Khalifa, 38, said the men, some wearing masks, some carrying guns, cleared the streets so that when the security consultants rolled into town in two sport utility vehicles, they were the only cars on the road.
It is not clear what the four Americans were doing in Falluja. Their company, Blackwater U.S.A., said their job was to provide security for food deliveries in the area. Many Falluja residents said they did not believe the men were civilians, insisting they were plainclothes soldiers or spies. More than 10 foreign civilians have been killed in the past month.
Within seconds, Mr. Khalifa said, the gunmen blasted the cars, killing the Americans, and melted back into the streets. Then the mobs came. Iraqi television crews caught the end of the mayhem. The images beamed worldwide were reminiscent of scenes from Somalia in 1993, when a mob dragged the body of an American soldier through the streets of Mogadishu.
Some of the Iraqis who approved of the killings expressed deep dismay over the mob's actions. "I know these men, these insurgents," Mr. Khalifa said. "Even they wouldn't accept dragging bodies."
Mazem Hazem, a 20-year-old engineering student, said killing the Americans was acceptable but what was done to their bodies was not.
"I am satisfied that we killed them — they are Americans and they are foreigners on our land," Mr. Hazem said. "But I don't agree with what they did with their bodies. It is haram," he said, using the Arabic word for forbidden. "It is an embarrassment. And people will remember Falluja for this for many years."
Iraqi employees of The Times's Baghdad bureau contributed reporting from Falluja for this article and a related one yesterday.
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Citation: Jeffrey Gettleman, "Mix of Pride and Shame Follows Killings and Mutilations by Iraqis," New York Times, 02 April 2004.
Original URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/international/middleeast/02IRAQ.html?pagewanted=print&position=
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