Fallujah
Fallujah or Falluja (Al Fallujah) is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar (Umbar) and has an estimated population of 285,000. Within Iraq, it is known as the "city of mosques" for the more than two-hundred mosques in the city and surrounding villages. It has long been one of the most important centres of Sunni Islam in the region.
Location
Fallujah is located roughly 69 kilometers (43 miles) west of Baghdad on the Euphrates River and is on the main road connecting Baghdad to Jordan. The region has been inhabited for many millennia and there is evidence that it was inhabited in Babylonian times. The origin of the town's name is in some doubt, but one theory is that its Assyrian name Pallugtha is derived from the word division. There is some evidence that millennia ago a branch of the Euphrates divided off at that point, and that this is the source of the name, but today that branch has disappeared.
History
Fallujah was a small and rather unimportant town for most of its history under the Persians, Arab Caliphates. It was overshadowed by the city of Al-Anbar to the north which served as a centre of learning in the region and under the Abbasid Caliphate for a time became the capital of the large empire. With the decline of the Abbassids the region declined and Al-Anbar was abandoned and is today only ruins.
Under the Ottoman Empire the town continued to play a secondary role and in 1947 the town had only about 10,000 inhabitants. The city grew after Iraqi independence with the influx of oil wealth into the country.
Under Saddam Hussein, who held control of Iraq from 1979 to 2003, Fallujah was a favoured area, along with the rest of the region that has come to be known as the Sunni Triangle. Residents of this region were far less opposed to Saddam's rule than the population of other regions, and many senior Ba'ath Party officials came from the town. The city also saw several large factories built — including one that may have been used to create chemical weapons, but it was shuttered by United Nations weapons inspectors.
Gulf War
During the First Gulf War, Fallujah was one of the cities in Iraq with the most civilian casualties. Two separate failed bombing attempts on the city's bridge across the river hit crowded markets, killing an estimated 200 civilians, and greatly angering the population.
Iraq War
Fallujah was once one of the most peaceful areas of the country after the fall of Saddam. There was very little looting and the new mayor of the city, Taha Bidaywi—selected by local tribal leaders, was staunchly pro-American.
When the Alliance entered the town in April of 2003, they located themselves at the vacated Ba'ath Party headquarters—an action that erased some goodwill, especially when many in the city had been hoping the Alliance would stay outside of the relatively calm city.
File:Fallujahcapt.bag11103261717.jpg
Militant Iraqi insurgents prepare to fire a mortar round at U.S forces during a firefight in Fallujah, Iraq. (March 26, 2004 - Larger)
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Iraqis at the site of the killing of four contractors by guerillas and their subsequent mutilation by a crowd of residents.
(March 31, 2004 - Larger)
Insurgency
Fallujah has became one of the most dangerous areas for coalition military troops during the Alliance occupation of Iraq. Since the occupation began, over sixty Americans have died in Fallujah — more than any city except Baghdad. Reportedly, on April 28, the occupying Alliance forces of the coalition opened fire on protestors outside a school, killing fifteen. While it is still unclear who fired first, the killings led to a public outcry and turned many in the city against the coalition.
Approximately one year after the Alliance invasion, a rebel militia made up of followers of the militant Shi'a junior cleric Muqtada al-Sadr drove occupying forces out of Fallujah. This situation enabled a highly publicised attack on March 31, 2004, in which four private civilian security contractors from the U.S. were dragged from SUVs and killed.
Their bodies were then mutilated. A crowd of militants and townsfolk, estimated to number over a thousand, beat the corpses, dragged the corpses behind automobiles, and hanged the dismembered remains from the girders of a bridge over the Euphrates River. These acts were recorded on film by journalists and broadcast worldwide on television. In response, the Alliance military surrounded the city in the following days, attempting to round up the individuals responsible and any others in the region who may be involved in insurgency or terrorist activities. As of this writing, military action in Fallujah is still ongoing.
The attempt by coalition forces to regain control of Fallujah has led to about 40 Alliance deaths and over 400 Iraqi deaths in the beginning of April. Some commentators have called for the use of nuclear weapons in Fallujah as a form of collective punishment.