Overview
In 2004, the United States waged one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq war in the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad. For many, the city was a symbol of the resistance to the US war and occupation; since the battle it has become a symbol of the worst of the war. Only one news organization-al-Jazeera-stayed in Fallujah to report on the battle, and the horrifying and heartbreaking images seen worldwide came from its reporter Ahmed Mansour and cameraman Layth Mushtaq.
The images so outraged the world that the US military made Mansour's leaving Fallujah the first condition for a cease-fire. Donald Rumsfeld called his reporting "vicious and inaccurate." Here, for the first time in English, is the renowned reporter's own view of what happened inside Fallujah.
Synopsis
In 2004, the United States waged one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq war in the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad. For many, the city was a symbol of the resistance to the US war and occupation; since the battle it has become a symbol of the worst of the war. Only one news organization-al-Jazeera-stayed in Fallujah to report on the battle, and the horrifying and heartbreaking images seen worldwide came from its reporter Ahmed Mansour and cameraman Layth Mushtaq.
The images so outraged the world that the US military made Mansour's leaving Fallujah the first condition for a cease-fire. Donald Rumsfeld called his reporting "vicious and inaccurate." Here, for the first time in English, is the renowned reporter's own view of what happened inside Fallujah.
Publishers Weekly
American readers will learn a great deal about Arab perspectives on the war in Iraq from Mansour, an Egyptian journalist and host of an al-Jazeera talk show, in this account of the bloody battles for Fallujah. In April 2004, Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah ambushed an SUV, killing four Blackwater private security guards (widely hated for their violence and arrogance, and called mercenaries by the author). Afterward, a civilian mob mutilated the bodies, dragged them through the streets and hung them from a bridge. Soon American forces surrounded the city, but Mansour's TV crew slipped past; according to Mansour, they were the only journalists inside. Their vivid reports of bombing in residential areas and horrific civilian casualties proved an American public relations disaster. Partly as a result, U.S. forces withdrew, but returned later that year (with Mansour gone) and devastated the city. Mansour writes a gripping eyewitness account of the fighting without concealing his dislike of the American invasion and occupation. Readers may squirm at the account of the assault on the Blackwater guards (and the American attack that followed)—but most of all, perhaps, at the hatred of the American occupation that the grisly action expressed. (Dec.)