Gorilla’s Guides

• Defects in newborns 11 times higher than normal
• ‘War contaminants’ from 2004 attack could be cause

A study examining the causes of a dramatic spike in birth defects in the Iraqi city of Falluja has for the first time concluded that genetic damage could have been caused by weaponry used in US assaults that took place six years ago.

The research, which will be published next week, confirms earlier estimates revealed by the Guardian of a major, unexplained rise in cancers and chronic neural-tube, cardiac and skeletal defects in newborns. The authors found that malformations are close to 11 times higher than normal rates, and rose to unprecedented levels in the first half of this year – a period that had not been surveyed in earlier reports.

The findings, which will be published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, come prior to a much-anticipated World Health Organisation study of Falluja’s genetic health. They follow two alarming earlier studies, one of which found a distortion in the sex ratio of newborns since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 – a 15% drop in births of boys.

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Parents of children with birth defects say Britain knew of US chemical weapons use

Allegations that Britain was complicit in the use of chemical weapons linked to an upsurge in child deformity cases in Iraq, are being investigated by the Ministry of Defence.

The case raises serious questions about the UK’s role in the American-led offensive against the city of Fallujah in the autumn of 2004 where hundreds of Iraqis died. After the battle, in which it is alleged that a range of illegal weaponry was used, evidence has emerged of large numbers of children being born with severe birth defects.

Iraqi families who believe their children’s deformities are caused by the deployment of the weapons have now begun legal proceedings against the UK Government. They accuse the UK Government of breaching international law, war crimes and failing to intervene to prevent a war crime.

Lawyers for the Iraqis have sent a letter before action to the MoD asking the Government to disclose what it knows about the Army’s role in the offensive, the presence of prohibited weapons and the legal advice given to Tony Blair, Prime Minister at the time.

Legal actions against America are blocked by US federal immunity laws and the US government’s boycott of the International Criminal Court.

The offensive against Fallujah, codenamed Phantom Fury, in 2004 was described as the most bitter fighting experienced by American soldiers since the war in Vietnam. But US forces were assisted by British units.

On 21 October, British soldiers were ordered by the Cabinet to help US forces throw a "ring of steel" around Fallujah. Six days later, a British battle group of 850 troops made up of the armoured infantry from the 1st Battalion, The Black Watch, an armoured reconnaissance squadron from the Queen’s Dragoon Guards, elements of 40 Commando Royal Marines and supporting specialists including Royal Engineers and Royal Military Police were redeployed from Basra.

The battle group established a base at Camp Dogwood on the eastern approach to Fallujah where they provided essential aid and assistance to the subsequent attacks on the city.

Before the attack the former Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith is alleged to have warned Mr Blair about the legal dangers of committing British forces to the attack.

Public Interest Lawyers, the law firm representing the Iraqi families, wants the Government to release this advice in full and say whether any British soldiers were involved in the fighting or supplied or helped fire prohibited weapons. During the attack coalition forces are alleged to have used weapons including white phosphorus, a modern form of napalm, and depleted uranium.

The World Health Organisation has begun investigating evidence of a worrying rise in the incidence of birth defects in the city, which Iraqi doctors attribute to the use of chemical weapons during the battle.

Malak Hamdan, a British Iraqi researcher working with doctors in Fallujah, told The Independent: "Doctors in Fallujah are witnessing unprecedented numbers of birth defects, miscarriages and cancer cases. Now, according to gynaecologists, paediatricians and neurologists in Fallujah, the numbers of these cases have been increasing rapidly since 2005."

She explained that the most common birth defects involve the heart and the nervous system but there have also been reported cases of babies being born with two heads, upper and lower limb defects and eye abnormalities.

"What is more disturbing is that pregnant women are completely unaware that they are carrying an abnormal child until the day they give birth – traumatising the mother and the rest of the family," said Ms Malak.

Mazin Younis, a UK-based Iraqi human rights activist who visited the city before the attack, said: "When I visited Fallujah a few weeks before the attack, I was shocked to see the majority of people had not left the city. Many of them had no one to go to…. We attacked this city ruthlessly without any concern for the fate of tens of thousands of civilians who were still living there. The unlawful use of white phosphorus in built-up areas was… never objected to by the British Government who assisted in the attack on Fallujah."

Phil Shiner, the UK lawyer leading the legal challenge, said: "The rate and severity of both foetal abnormalities and inexplicable illnesses such as leukaemia or those suffered by our clients in infants born to mothers in Fallujah has been the subject of numerous reports and letters to governments…. The full extent of the emerging public health crisis is unknown…. Doctors report a "massive, unprecedented number" of congenital health problems. The BBC investigation found that the incidence of birth defects in Fallujah has reached a rate 13 times higher than in Europe."

An MoD spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that we are in receipt of this letter from Public Interest Lawyers and will respond in due course. The MoD treats issues such as this very seriously but allegations must not be taken as fact."

Army to be sued for war crimes over its role in Fallujah attacks- By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor – The Independent

A sharp increase in birth defects in the Iraqi city of Fallujah could be linked to sophisticated weaponry used by U.S. troops in 2004, it has been revealed.

There has been a ‘massive unprecedented number’ of heart defects and an increase in the number of central nervous system defects in newborns, Fallujah doctors have told British-based Iraqi researcher Malik Hamdan.

‘I’ve seen footage of babies born with an eye in the middle of the forehead, the nose on the forehead,’ Hamdan claims.

BBC correspondent John Simpson reported seeing children in the city who were suffering from paralysis or brain damage – and a photograph of one baby who was born with three heads

Officials in Fallujah had warned women that they should not have children, he added.

Doctors and parents believe the problem is the highly sophisticated weapons the US troops used in Fallujah six years ago.

Data indicates the rate of congenital heart defects among infants in the Iraqi city is 13 times higher than in Europe, the researcher says.

Doctors and parents in Fallujah say they believe the problems are linked to weapons used by U.S. troops when they carried out a major offensive against insurgents in 2004.

U.S. military spokesman Michael Kilpatrick rejected the idea.

‘No studies to date have indicated environmental issues resulting in specific health issues,’ he said.

‘Unexploded ordinance, including improvised explosive devises, are a recognised hazard,’ he added.

Iraqi doctors are reticent to talk about the problem, fearing they will create trouble for the U.S. military.

The official line is that Falluja, which lies 40 miles west of Baghdad, has only two or three cases of birth defects a year more than normal. 

Controversial weaponry was used during the bombing, including white phosphorus.

Last year a group of Iraqi and British officials called on the UN to ask that an independent committee fully investigate the defects and help clean up toxic materials left over after decades of war.

‘We are seeing a very significant increase in central nervous system anomalies,’ Falluja general hospital’s director and senior specialist, Dr Ayman Qais told the Guardian.

‘Before 2003 [the start of the war] I was seeing sporadic numbers of deformities in babies. Now the frequency of deformities has increased dramatically.’

‘Most are in the head and spinal cord, but there are also many deficiencies in lower limbs,’ he said.

‘There is also a very marked increase in the number of cases of less than two years [old] with brain tumours. This is now a focus area of multiple tumours.’

The curse of Fallujah: Women warned not to have babies because of rise in birth defects since U.S. assault  | By Anny Shaw | Mail Online

ونحن على مقربة من الاحتفال بانسحاب القوات الاجنبية من المدن يبدو واضحا ان وتيرة العنف بدأت بالتصاعد في البلاد، ففي منطقة البياع، استشهد سبعة مواطنين وجُرح واحد وثلاثون ٌ في انفجار عبوةٍ داخل مرآب للحافلات المكتظ بالمواطنين. وفي حي العامل انفجرت قنبلة مثبتة في حافلة فاصابت ثلاثة. وفي عامرية الفلوجة استشهد ثلاثة من الشرطة واصيب اربعة بجروح بانفجار عبوة ناسفة، وفي الفلوجة ايضا، استشهد شرطي واصيب ثلاثة آخرون في هجوم على حاجز تفتيش في قرية السعدان. وفي حي الجهاد، انفجرت قنبلة مزروعة على الطريق فقتلت مدنيا واصابت عشرة.
وفي الديوانية، نجا القيادي في التيار الصدري الشيخ حامد السعيدي من محاولةِ اغتيالٍ اسفرت عن اصابتِه بجروحٍ بالغة عندما اطلق مسلحون النارَ عليه بالقرب من منزله. يشار الى ان السعيدي اُفرج عنه من السجن قبل اربعين يوما، وقضى نحوَ عاما في سجن تسفيراتِ الديوانية، لاتهامه بالتورط ِ باعمال عنف.في المقابل، جُرح تسعة ُ جنود اميركيين بانفجار عبوتين ناسفتين بفارقٍ زمني بسيط استهدفتا دوريتَهم في جانب الرصافة.
ووقعت هذه التفجيرات فيما تواصل الشرطة بحثها وسط الركام نتيجة الانفجار الذي وقع في ساعة متأخرة الأربعاء في احد اسواق مدينة الصدر في محاولة لتحديد كيفية دخول عبوة متفجرات هائلة إلى السوق وادى الانفجار الكبير الى استشهاد ثمانية وسبعين مواطنا من بينهم نساء واطفال، كما ادى الى جرح اكثر من مئة وخمسين آخرين:

واليوم صباحا، شيعت جثامين الشهداء في جنازة جماعية فيما يعالج المصابون في مستشفى الشهيد الصدر العام في بغداد.

ضبطت القوات الامنية العراقية سيارة مفخخة في منطقة الكرمة شرقي مدينة الفلوجة بمحافظة الانبار.
وقال مصدر امني اليوم الاحد إن السيارة المفخخة عثر عليها صباح اليوم على مسافة 500 متر من مكان السيارة التي انفجرت امس واسفرت عن مصرع واصابة عدد من افراد الشرطة.
يذكر ان سيارة مفخخة استهدفت دورية للشرطة العراقية امس السبت وسط سوق شعبي في منطقة الكرمة شرقي الفلوجة ادى انفجارها الى مصرع ثلاثة من افراد الدورية واصابة عدد اخر من المواطنين.

Under Fire Anbar Journalists Arming Themselves  – Regularly threatened and attacked, they’re buying guns on the black market for protection.

Journalist Yasin al-Fadhawi’s recent brush with death has prompted him to look for a new home – and a gun.

As he was getting ready for work on May 30, Fadhawi received an early-morning call from his neighbour – a man he describes as “annoyingly curious” – warning him that danger was lurking.

“His voice was shaking as he told me over and over again, ‘Don’t go out, stay in your house and call the police. Two people put a strange object at the entrance to your house and ran away’,” Fadhawi recalled.

Fadhawi rang the security forces, who spent more than an hour diffusing a two-kilogramme bomb the size of a football close to his front door. Police said that if it had gone off, the bomb would have killed Fadhawi and his family.

Fadhawi believes the incident was connected to his work: two days prior to the bomb scare, his magazine published his report on alleged government corruption involving tribal chiefs.

He credits his neighbour with saving his life but, fearing for his safety and that of his family, Fadhawi fled his home in Al-Khaldiya, a town in western Anbar province, and is shopping around for a gun.

He has submitted an application for a weapons license, but if it is not approved he said he will fork out up to a month’s salary – 900 US dollars – for a gun on the black market.

Police in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, report that at least 43 journalists in the province have applied for gun licenses since April, amid an increasingly hostile climate for journalists.

Once a stronghold for Sunni insurgents and one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq, Anbar – now controlled by Iraqi forces – has been held up as an example of the government’s ability to stabilise formerly volatile regions of the country.

But journalists in Anbar say their jobs continue to put them at grave risk. They no longer fear al-Qaeda and its affiliates – which hunted down journalists – but instead believe they are being targeted by political factions.

Particularly risky for journalists is exposing corruption or challenging political parties or the authorities.

Yousif Abu Jabal, editor-in-chief of the Al-Esnad newspaper in Fallujah, barely survived a drive-by shooting last year after he wrote an article on Iranian intervention in Iraq. An American patrol showed up as his car was coming under fire, saving his life, he said.

“I don’t blame any journalist who carries or wants to carry guns in Anbar,” said Jabal. “The situation here is unbelievably dangerous.”

Anwar Ibrahim, head of the Journalists’ Rights Protection Association in Anbar, said nine colleagues in Fallujah have received death threats since March.

Journalists either quit their jobs, leave their homes and go into hiding “or carry pistols without permission and live in fear”, said Ibrahim.

Omar Mohammed, who works for Voices of Iraq Agency, revealed he applied for a gun license after receiving a letter last month that, he said, warned him to “quit your job or you will die”.

Mohammed had recently written on alleged corruption and bribery, reports which he said “were not welcomed by some parties in Anbar”.

“I’m expecting to be killed by several political groups at any moment,” said Mohammed.

But journalists who’ve submitted gun license applications to the interior ministry in Baghdad complain that they’re requests are either being denied or put on hold.

At the same time, some journalists argue that carrying weapons undermines their neutrality and puts them at greater risk of being attacked.

Ziad al-Ajili, head of the Baghdad-based media rights organisation the Journalistic Freedom Observatory, said he understands why reporters feel they need to carry guns, but warns that if they fall into the hands of insurgents or are detained by the military, they would not be considered – or treated – as civilians. He said they would run the risk of the being killed by the former and imprisoned by the latter.

“In a war anything is possible, especially when a journalist is armed,” said Ajili. “Weapons could endanger [a journalist] rather than protect him.”

But few Anbar journalists share this view.

One Fallujah-based photographer, working for an international news agency, said he bought a gun on the black market after his application for a license was denied. He said he carries it with him at all times as he is always fearful of being targeted. “The police are indifferent whether we live or die,” he said.

Mistrust of the military and security forces runs deep in Anbar. Mohammed Faysal, a Reuters reporter, was beaten by police in Fallujah while filming the aftermath of a car bombing in mid-May. He suffered six blows to the head, leaving him with concussion and a scar on his face.

Colonel Daud al-Marawi, deputy police commissioner in Fallujah, said two officers were held in custody for several days after the incident, but Faysal said the investigation has gone nowhere.

Marawi insisted the security forces do not target journalists and maintained that his officers investigate threats made against the press by political, religious or armed groups.

He also said security forces are willing to provide journalists with escorts in volatile areas, as well as flak-jackets and helmets.

But his words provide little reassurance for Fahdawi, who says he is looking for a new home in a more secure area and that in future he will “not write anything that could cost me my life”.

Source: Under Fire Anbar Journalists Arming Themselves by By Uthman al-Mukhtar in Fallujah (ICR No. 292, 10-June-09) Uthman al-Mukhtar is a Fallujah-based IWPR-trained reporter.

لقي ثلاثة اشخاص مصرعهم اثر انفجار عبوة ناسفة شمال مدينة الفلوجة غربي العاصمة بغداد.
وقال مصدر امني ان عبوة ناسفة انفجرت الليلة الماضية في منطقة الكرمة شمال الفلوجة لدى مرور سيارة تقل ثلاثة اشخاص بينهم شقيق رئيس مجلس الصحوة في المنطقة ، مما تسبب بمصرعهم جميعا.
واضاف المصدر ان القوات الامنية انتشرت في منطقة الحادث بحثا عن الجناة دون ان يذكر مزيدا من التفاصيل.