Fallujah family trapped between Marines and insurgents

[Judi Lynn]

Fallujah family trapped between Marines and insurgents
By Lourdes Navarro, Associated Press, 4/20/2004 02:11

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) For two weeks, Haji Abbas has lived in limbo, confined to a home in the direct line of fire between insurgents and U.S. Marines who set up a base in a factory next door, a position that has already cost the life of his 8-year-old niece.

Even though the fighting in Fallujah has died down in recent days as a cease-fire took hold, Abbas and some 100 relatives who live in the same compound are still afraid to leave their homes.

Every time the children venture out, the boom of explosions sends them scurrying back indoors. The family is running low on food.
(snip)

In the first week of fighting, a mortar round fired by insurgents targeting the Americans landed inside the walls of the compound. Shrapnel ripped through the girl's body, killing her and wounding an older child as they were playing on a terrace.
(snip/...)

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/111/world/Fallujah_family_trapped_betwee:.shtml

[gottaB]

1. What would Justice Jackson say about stray mortar rounds?

We need not trouble ourselves about the many abstract difficulties that can be conjured up about what constitutes aggression in doubtful cases. I shall show you, in discussing the conspiracy, that by any test ever put forward by any responsible authority, by all the canons of plain common sense, these were unlawful wars of aggression in breach of treaties and in violation of assurances.

The third group of crimes was: Warfare in Disregard of International Law.

It is unnecessary to labor this point on the facts.

Oops-a-daisy!--Sorry Haji, wrong American Justice. How about $2000? Will that take care of your family's grief? What do you say? She was only eight did you say? $2400. That's fair, right? For a niece. Do we have a deal here, or what?

[gottaB]

2. Story on NPR Morning Edition--important details

Niiler: "During the first week of the Marines' assault on Fallujah, a mortar round that Marines say was fired by Iraqi forces landed inside the Abbas family compound. It was aimed toward the Marines, but it hit near a group of children, including Abbas's niece."

Translator speaking for Abbas: "She was playing inside the house. A shrapnel came in through the door and cut her body and killed her. They tried to revive her. They could not. She was eight years old."

Niiler: "Medical Corpsman Sergio Torres was on the other side of the concrete wall inside his office. He scrambled outside when he heard the loud boom next door. When he and two other Marines arrived, one girl lay dead, her older sister was wounded."

(My emphasis.)

***

Ultimately it hardly matters who fired the mortar round. I note the attribution because journalists ought to maintain high standards, especially in the face of government pressure to tell things a certain way. Personally, I tend to believe the Marines, and lay fault for the girl's death squarely on the policy makers who concocted this illegal war.

http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgDate=20-Apr-2004&prgId=3