For 15 years, the three al-Ani brothers have run a taxi business from their adjacent houses, opposite the local school. It was a nice place to live, recalls Raid al-Hati, their neighbour and cousin, a quiet part of town.
The brothers shared one vehicle. ‘It was a living,’ said Osama, now in hospital and rasping through the pain of gunshot injuries to his head and side.
The family has been torn to shreds after their homes were sprayed by American gunfire during an incident that represents a turning point in the invasion of Iraq, as hostility to the US military intensifies.
A crowd gathered outside the al-Ani’s house last week, demanding that the Americans leave the school over the road so that children can return. The military opened fire, killing 13 and wounding some 35; they claimed they were shot at first.
But even if shots were aimed at them, the response was not only into the crowd; they pummelled the street, house by house, with a mighty volley and shot at occupants as they appeared in doorways.
Each of the brothers came out in turn to try and help their families and were each targeted and shot. Walid was killed and the two others wounded, along with their mother, Mufina, and her daughter-in-law, Eptisan al-Ani. In a few minutes, said Eptisan’s husband, Muthana, now in the hospital bed opposite his brother, ‘our family is destroyed’.
The family taxi is in Osama’s front yard, looking like a cheese-grater – 38 rounds to the metalwork alone. After Osama was hit, the Americans spirited it away into the schoolyard. It was retrieved by al-Hati on Friday.
Fallujah is now festooned with banners in Arabic and English reading: ‘Go Out From Our City. If Refuse We Will Kill You. Because You Are Come Here For Petrol Not for Freedom.’
The Americans left the school and hunkered down at the old Baath Party headquarters, surrounded by barbed wire and a permanent crowd of angry young men.
Outside the hospital an Iraqi flag flies, soaked in blood, along with a bloodied sheet reading: ‘Our Power is Islam’. Through the dusk creep rebellion and anarchy, a rage unleashed by freedom. Iraq has become an armed society, men and boys have been clearing out unguarded military depots.
The calm of pre-dawn Baghdad was shattered by heavy gunfire in Sadoun Street as two gangs raided a row of shops, and fought each other as a US patrol arrived. A gunfight followed, which left a US soldier injured and a child of 10 dead, said Hamad al-Obeyi in his deserted photolab. Also in his shop was Saad al-Iraqi, who said he saw soldiers grab and shoot a youth two days earlier. ‘This is not a good thing,’ he said ‘because we all have guns now and if the Americans can kill our people, we can kill the Americans’.
A near riot broke out on Thursday evening after shots were fired into a diesel reserve killing four, wounding some 20 and causing an explosion and raging fire. Efforts by the military to clear the crowds were greeted by chants of ‘Get out, go home’.
On Tuesday in Fallujah, Muthana al-Ani and Eptisan were serving dinner as the demonstration started outside. The atmosphere was tense with neighbours complaining the US soldiers were eyeing up local girls through binoculars. ‘My mother went outside to see what was happening,’ said their son, Khalil, 16, the oldest of seven.
Eptisan was hit in the leg; as Muthana ran out to her, a bullet hit the brothers’ mother, Mufina, in the thigh. From the next house, Walid al-Ani emerged to help his brother and sister-in-law. Hit almost immediately, he fell dead.
As Walid fell, cousin al-Hati ran out with a white flag: ‘I was shouting for them to stop, but they kept shooting.’
Next to emerge was the third brother, Osama. ‘I said for him to take Walid and my wife to hospital,’ said Muthana, ‘I crawled back to the house on my hands.’
Troops had sealed off the road so that ambulances could not reach the wounded, said al-Hati, so Osama started the taxi and began to reverse into the street. What happened next, he describes with difficulty: ‘First, I was hit in the side then I fell and they kept on firing, and I felt it in my head. I do not remember much more, there was so much shooting.’
Muthana answers the inevitable question: ‘What do I think of the Americans? Look at where my foot used to be, look at my dead brother and the rest of my family, with which I do not know what to do. I have a wife and seven children who were all right, and now? That is what I think.’ – Guardian Unlimited Â