Deborah Pasmantier, Agence France Presse  --  Arab News

BAGHDAD, 12 April 2004 — The battle-scarred Sunni bastion of Fallujah west of here became a ghost town where frightened residents lived like rats, fearing to venture out, and many were forced to bury their dead in their yards.

Refugees from the city described the days of fear before the cease-fire which came into force yesterday.

With US marines locked in street battles with fighters, residents were trapped indoors, a stadium has been transformed into a graveyard and bodies littering the streets are hastily moved in blankets.

“As soon as the Americans see a group of people in the streets, they shoot at them, people venture out only if their homes risk being bombarded or if they must carry the dead or wounded to the city’s clinics,” said Abbas Ibrahim, a 30-year-old Fallujah resident who was able to escape the city Friday.

“They put them in blankets and dart through the streets.” “When there are bodies in the streets, neighbors run to get them. The stadium has been turned into a graveyard, as the town cemetery lies outside the city,” he added. “I saw people bury their dead in their yards because they feared to venture out.”

Families were only able to leave the town from Friday, following the US marines’ assault from Monday to flush out fighters responsible for last week’s murder of four US contractors. “Fallujah is a ghost town, a battlefield,” said a Red Crescent official, Mohammed Ibrahim Abbas, who was able to reach Fallujah’s central district Thursday to deliver medical supplies.

“The streets were deserted, no cars, all the shops were closed, homes and stores bombarded,” he added. Some 2,000 marines taking part in Operation Vigilant Resolve rolled into the town Monday riding on tanks and armored vehicles through the southern industrial zone.

“Late Sunday, there were heavy bombings, the market was hit. When we woke up, we saw roads and two bridges blocked, tanks ringing the town, planes, US snipers,” said Haitham Assad, a 20-year-old member of the paramilitary Iraqi Civil Defense Corps who reached Baghdad Thursday.

Since then fighting was non-stop in the outlying districts and in the industrial zone, but the center was still in the hands of fighters, according to the witnesses. “Marines armed with machine-guns are taking up positions behind stores, on rooftops and in streets. The fighters too,” said Qussai Ali Hassen, another Red Crescent official who was caught in the cross-fire.

“The fighters, aged 20 to 35 and armed with rocket propelled grenades and Kalashnikov assault rifles, are positioned around the US troops. They are trying to stop them from reaching the center. I saw hundreds of mujahedeen, some say thousands,” said Abbas Ibrahim.

“When US soldiers are in trouble, they call for air support. There are also bombardments in the center. Several of my friends died in their homes,” he added. Fallujah’s general hospital lies outside the town limits, so five small clinics have been turned into makeshift hospitals.