Fallouja Iraq

In one of the most misguided reconstruction projects attempted in Iraq, the U.S. spent nearly $100 million to build a sewage treatment system for the city of Fallouja, according to a government audit report released today. Sewage continues to run in the streets, and the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that the system may never be properly connected to individual homes, lacks the necessary fuel to operate and is unlikely to ever cover the full city.

In desperation and anger, they arrive daily at a Marine outpost here: Sunni Arabs fleeing the violence in Baghdad and often pleading for U.S. protection against Shiite death squads. Two years ago, it was the opposite. Fallouja residents fled their city for the relative safety of Baghdad before a violent clash between U.S. forces and the Sunni-led insurgency. Now, the city astride the Euphrates River has become a sanctuary from the violence in the nation's capital.

U.S. troops in Iraq uncovered a "car bomb factory" near Fallouja this week that contained multiple canisters of chlorine, a potentially lethal gas that has been used in three insurgent attacks over the last month, a top U.S. official in Baghdad told reporters Thursday. Lt. Gen. Raymond T.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents are examining allegations that Marines killed as many as eight unarmed Iraqi prisoners during a battle in Fallouja in November 2004, according to civilian and military sources. The investigation is at least the third of possible war crimes by Marines based here and involves the same company, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, that is at the center of the largest allegation of atrocities by U.S.

The U.S. attorney in Los Angeles has filed charges against a former Marine sergeant for his alleged role in the killing of eight unarmed Iraqi prisoners during a November 2004 battle in Fallouja, according to military and civilian sources. Jose Nazario, a Murrieta resident who worked as a sworn officer in the Riverside Police Department until his termination last week, is expected to appear in a federal courtroom in Riverside today.

camp pendleton -- The Marine Corps announced Monday that it has charged a Marine sergeant with murder in connection with the killing of an unarmed Iraqi prisoner during fighting in the city of Fallouja in late 2004. Sgt. Jermaine A. Nelson was charged with one count of unpremeditated murder Thursday, the same day that a charge was unsealed in federal court in Riverside against former Marine Jose Luis Nazario Jr. in the same incident.

It has become one of the iconic pictures of the war in Iraq: blood-soaked Marine 1st Sgt. Brad Kasal, grim-faced and still clutching his service pistol, being helped from a firefight by two younger Marines. Although wounded by seven AK-47 rounds and hit by more than 40 pieces of hot shrapnel from a grenade, Kasal refused to quit fighting and is credited with saving the lives of several Marines during the U.S. assault on insurgent strongholds in Fallouja in November 2004.

Coordinated attacks Sunday in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in south Baghdad killed at least 56 people and wounded 148, local officials said. The attacks on a market in Zafaraniya included a barrage of mortar rockets, a car bomb and a suicide bomber on a bicycle, police reported.

along msr mobile, outside fallouja, iraq -- The battle for this desolate stretch of road east of Fallouja is relentless: Twenty-four hours a day, Marines lumber up and down the six-lane freeway in 23-ton amphibious assault vehicles, looking for bombs and dodging snipers. The shadowy gunmen are a constant menace on MSR Mobile -- short for Main Supply Route Mobile, so dubbed because it serves as a main link between several U.S. bases here in Al Anbar province.

The line began forming in the predawn chill Tuesday when the only sounds coming from this devastated city were the honking of geese on the Euphrates River and a call to prayers from a riverfront mosque. By midmorning, hundreds of Iraqis were waiting to cross the bridge that serves as one of the five carefully guarded entry points into Fallouja that were recently opened by U.S. and Iraqi forces.