[Mb-civic] AP Photographer Flees Fallujah

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

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AP Photographer Flees Fallujah
By Katarina Kratovac
The Associated Press

Monday 15 November 2004

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1115-04.htm

Witnesses U.S. helicopter kill fleeing family of 5.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the weeks before the crushing
military assault on his hometown, Bilal Hussein sent
his parents and brother away from Fallujah to stay with
relatives.

The 33-year-old Associated Press photographer stayed
behind to capture insider images during the siege of
the former insurgent stronghold.

"Everyone in Fallujah knew it was coming. I had been
taking pictures for days," he said. "I thought I could
go on doing it."

In the hours and days that followed, heavy bombing
raids and thunderous artillery shelling turned
Hussein's northern Jolan neighborhood into a zone of
rubble and death. The walls of his house were
pockmarked by coalition fire.

"Destruction was everywhere. I saw people lying dead in
the streets, wounded were bleeding and there was no one
to come and help them. Even the civilians who stayed in
Fallujah were too afraid to go out," he said.

"There was no medicine, water, no electricity nor food
for days."

By Tuesday afternoon, as U.S. forces and Iraqi rebels
engaged in fierce clashes in the heart of his
neighborhood, Hussein snapped.

"U.S. soldiers began to open fire on the houses, so I
decided that it was very dangerous to stay in my
house," he said.

Hussein said he panicked, seizing on a plan to escape
across the Euphrates River, which flows on the western
side of the city.

"I wasn't really thinking," he said. "Suddenly, I just
had to get out. I didn't think there was any other
choice."

In the rush, Hussein left behind his camera lens and a
satellite telephone for transmitting his images. His
lens, marked with the distinctive AP logo, was
discovered two days later by U.S. Marines next to a
dead man's body in a house in Jolan.

AP colleagues in the Baghdad bureau, who by then had
not heard from Hussein in 48 hours, became even more
worried.

Hussein moved from house to house - dodging gunfire -
and reached the river.

"I decided to swim ... but I changed my mind after
seeing U.S. helicopters firing on and killing people
who tried to cross the river."

He watched horrified as a family of five was shot dead
as they tried to cross. Then, he "helped bury a man by
the river bank, with my own hands."

"I kept walking along the river for two hours and I
could still see some U.S. snipers ready to shoot anyone
who might swim. I quit the idea of crossing the river
and walked for about five hours through orchards."

He met a peasant family, who gave him refuge in their
house for two days. Hussein knew a driver in the region
and sent a message to another AP colleague, Ali Ahmed,
in nearby Ramadi.

Ahmed relayed the news that Hussein was alive to AP's
Baghdad bureau. He sent a second message back to
Hussein that a fisherman in nearby Habaniyah would
ferry the photographer to safety by boat.

"At the end of the boat ride, Ali was waiting for me.
He took me to Baghdad, to my office."

Sitting safely in the AP's offices, a haggard-looking
Hussein offered a tired smile of relief.

"It was a terrible experience in which I learned that
life is precious," he said. "I am happy that I am still
alive after being close to death during these past
days."

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