usmc4669
04-11-04, 04:56 PM
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, April 11, 2004; 2:10 PM
FALLUJAH, Iraq, April 11 -- When the American troops entered the abandoned factory shed Sunday, they found a hastily abandoned campsite full of jumbled clothing and bedrolls, scattered sneakers and gym bags, broken eggs and dirty cooking pots.
But there were other, less innocent objects half-hidden in the gloom. Sacks full of chemical-coated rocks. Leather belts stuffed with explosive putty, and one smeared with dried blood. Boxes of batteries with wires taped to them. A recipe for making bombs.
"This was a 16-man terrorist cell," pronounced a Marine captain, rifling through the mess. "See? All the bags and sneakers are brand new, all the same make. This took money and planning. Someone sponsored them."
Among the deadly debris were more intimate clues to the identity and motives of the suicide squad that had lived, prayed and made human bombs in the shed, preparing to do battle with the 2,500 Marines who entered this turbulent city one week ago.
The evidence -- Islamic books, pamphlets, tapes and farewell letters in Arabic -- suggested that some of the men were not local Iraqis, but foreign Sunni Muslims who had traveled to this urban Sunni stronghold to fight and die in a holy war, both against the American forces and the country's Shiite Muslim majority.
"I say good-bye with tears in my eyes and heart, and I ask God for victory," read one letter, which made it clear the writer's parents had tried to stop him from leaving home. "Father, don't blame yourself. I am happy to be here," it said. "Mother, don't be weak. Raise your children to be martyrs for the cause."
The urban guerrillas battling Marines since last Monday have put up a fierce and well-organized fight, and Marine officials said early last week that they believed foreign Islamic fighters had joined the local insurgents. On Thursday they shot and killed a sniper who was wearing a suicide belt, and they have since discovered seven human bomb devices in various hiding places.
But so far they have not conclusively established that any of the insurgents were foreign infiltrators. Several detained Sudanese nationals have turned out to be longtime workers here, and Marine officials here said Sunday that they had used grenades and bombs to explode the corpses of two snipers shot while wearing suicide devices, which made them impossible to identify.
But the unearthing of the Islamic documents among the bomb-making materials Sunday, while two foreign journalists and an Arabic interpreter were present, suggested that at least some of the suicide squad members were not from Iraq.
Some letters referred to repaying old debts, patching up quarrels and acquiring false passports. Others read like sermons, and one contained a poem saying that "the blood of martyrs smells sweet." Most were in blank envelopes and some were signed with Islamic noms de guerre like Abu Ahmed. They were clearly intended to be delivered home by messengers.
In one letter, dated April 4, a man urged a friend to leave behind worldly concerns and join a "beautiful" war against Shiite "non-believers" and Americans. "This is like Iran, there are many Shiites and we need to fight them," he wrote. "We are in another Kandahar, and we will burn the Americans." Kandahar, a city in Afghanistan, was the religious stronghold of the Taliban, the extremist Sunni militia that was toppled by U.S-led forces in 2001.
There were also notebooks with military instructions, including how to make a bomb , and where to launch attacks against American facilities in Baghdad, 35 miles to the east.
As they listened to the letters being translated, the young Marines looked incredulous. Then someone opened a wallet that contained hand-made drawings of U.S. military insignia, evidently meant to pick out important targets. "I see captain and lieutenant, but no warrant officer. Guess I'm safe," said one Marine with a nervous laugh.
The squad examining the shed also inspected several other weapons caches in the abandoned factory zone Sunday, including a freezer full of mortar rounds and a pile of rice sacks from Vietnam that contained machine gun ammunition. Officers said most of the material would be detonated or destroyed.
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, April 11, 2004; 2:10 PM
FALLUJAH, Iraq, April 11 -- When the American troops entered the abandoned factory shed Sunday, they found a hastily abandoned campsite full of jumbled clothing and bedrolls, scattered sneakers and gym bags, broken eggs and dirty cooking pots.
But there were other, less innocent objects half-hidden in the gloom. Sacks full of chemical-coated rocks. Leather belts stuffed with explosive putty, and one smeared with dried blood. Boxes of batteries with wires taped to them. A recipe for making bombs.
"This was a 16-man terrorist cell," pronounced a Marine captain, rifling through the mess. "See? All the bags and sneakers are brand new, all the same make. This took money and planning. Someone sponsored them."
Among the deadly debris were more intimate clues to the identity and motives of the suicide squad that had lived, prayed and made human bombs in the shed, preparing to do battle with the 2,500 Marines who entered this turbulent city one week ago.
The evidence -- Islamic books, pamphlets, tapes and farewell letters in Arabic -- suggested that some of the men were not local Iraqis, but foreign Sunni Muslims who had traveled to this urban Sunni stronghold to fight and die in a holy war, both against the American forces and the country's Shiite Muslim majority.
"I say good-bye with tears in my eyes and heart, and I ask God for victory," read one letter, which made it clear the writer's parents had tried to stop him from leaving home. "Father, don't blame yourself. I am happy to be here," it said. "Mother, don't be weak. Raise your children to be martyrs for the cause."
The urban guerrillas battling Marines since last Monday have put up a fierce and well-organized fight, and Marine officials said early last week that they believed foreign Islamic fighters had joined the local insurgents. On Thursday they shot and killed a sniper who was wearing a suicide belt, and they have since discovered seven human bomb devices in various hiding places.
But so far they have not conclusively established that any of the insurgents were foreign infiltrators. Several detained Sudanese nationals have turned out to be longtime workers here, and Marine officials here said Sunday that they had used grenades and bombs to explode the corpses of two snipers shot while wearing suicide devices, which made them impossible to identify.
But the unearthing of the Islamic documents among the bomb-making materials Sunday, while two foreign journalists and an Arabic interpreter were present, suggested that at least some of the suicide squad members were not from Iraq.
Some letters referred to repaying old debts, patching up quarrels and acquiring false passports. Others read like sermons, and one contained a poem saying that "the blood of martyrs smells sweet." Most were in blank envelopes and some were signed with Islamic noms de guerre like Abu Ahmed. They were clearly intended to be delivered home by messengers.
In one letter, dated April 4, a man urged a friend to leave behind worldly concerns and join a "beautiful" war against Shiite "non-believers" and Americans. "This is like Iran, there are many Shiites and we need to fight them," he wrote. "We are in another Kandahar, and we will burn the Americans." Kandahar, a city in Afghanistan, was the religious stronghold of the Taliban, the extremist Sunni militia that was toppled by U.S-led forces in 2001.
There were also notebooks with military instructions, including how to make a bomb , and where to launch attacks against American facilities in Baghdad, 35 miles to the east.
As they listened to the letters being translated, the young Marines looked incredulous. Then someone opened a wallet that contained hand-made drawings of U.S. military insignia, evidently meant to pick out important targets. "I see captain and lieutenant, but no warrant officer. Guess I'm safe," said one Marine with a nervous laugh.
The squad examining the shed also inspected several other weapons caches in the abandoned factory zone Sunday, including a freezer full of mortar rounds and a pile of rice sacks from Vietnam that contained machine gun ammunition. Officers said most of the material would be detonated or destroyed.