Fallujah Under Threat Yet Again

*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily

*FALLUJAH, Sep 11 (IPS) - After enduring two major assaults, Fallujah is under threat from U.S. forces again, residents say.*

"They destroyed our city twice and they are threatening us a third time," 52-year-old Ahmed Dhahy told IPS in Fallujah, the Sunni-dominated city 50km west of Baghdad.

"They want us to do their job for them and turn in those who target them," he said.

Dhahy, who lost 32 relatives when his father's house was bombed by a U.S. aircraft during the April 2004 attack on the city, said the U.S.military had threatened it would destroy the city if resistance fighters were not handed over to them.

"Last week the Americans used loudspeakers on the backs of their tanks and Humvees to threaten us," Dhahy said. Residents said the U.S. forces warned of a "large military operation" if fighters were not handed over.

A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said he had no reports of such action.

Fallujah was heavily bombed in April 2004 and again in November that year. The attacks destroyed 75 percent of city infrastructure and left more than 5,000 dead, according to local non-governmental groups.

But following the heavy assaults, resistance fighters have continued to launch attacks against U.S. and official Iraqi forces in the city.

Fallujah remains under tight security, with the U.S. military using biometric identification, full body searches and bar-coded ID's for residents to enter and leave their city.

"The Iraqi resistance has not stopped for a single day despite the huge U.S. army activities," a city police captain speaking on condition of anonymity told IPS. >>>cont

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