- FALLUJA (Reuters) -- The
Jawal family was one of the few in this flashpoint town who liked the Americans
-- until U.S. F-16 jets dropped 500-pound bombs near their home.
-
- "We used to have hopes of the Americans after they
removed Saddam (Hussein). We thought they would deliver on their promises,"
said Khatoun Jawal.
-
- "We liked them until this weekend. Why did they
drop bombs near us? Some of my children were so scared they fainted."
-
- A U.S. military source said F-16 fighter-bombers dropped
three 500-pound bombs near Falluja, west of Baghdad, on Sunday after unspecified
attacks on U.S. troops.
-
- U.S. forces resumed air strikes at the weekend for the
first time since the end of the war to topple Saddam, after guerrillas
shot down three U.S. helicopters, killing 22 soldiers.
-
- The Jawals and other families clustered in a score of
cement hovels on the edge of Falluja, a hotbed of anti-U.S. fury, said
they had heard no shooting before the jets roared overhead.
-
- Their account underscores how the U.S. military is enraging
some Iraqi civilians, instead of winning them over, as it hunts down guerrillas
who have killed 151 U.S. soldiers since President Bush declared major combat
over on May 1.
-
- Khaled Jawal said the family were fast asleep when they
were jolted awake by thunderous bombing that scattered heavy pieces of
shrapnel as close as three yards from their door.
-
- HYSTERIA AS BOMBS EXPLODE
-
- "It was so loud. The children were hysterical,"
he said.
-
- A neighbor, Maha, fainted. "I was terrified. They
took me to the hospital to calm me down," she said, pulling up her
sleeve to show part of an intravenous drip still taped on.
-
- Like many Iraqis, the Jawals were happy when the U.S.-led
invasion toppled Saddam in April. American promises of democracy and freedom
were soothing after years of iron-fisted rule.
-
- Saddam is gone but life has not improved for the Jawals,
who live in squalor amid old tires and a cannibalized military truck. With
no running water, the villagers drink and bathe in a dirty well. Mangy
dogs sniff through dry scrubland nearby.
-
- The father of the family has not been able to work for
years because he lost the use of an arm when Saddam sent him and hundreds
of thousands of others to the war front with Iran in the 1980s.
-
- The parents and eight children can only afford chicken
once a week and other meat once a month.
-
- Standing beside a bomb crater three feet deep and nine
feet wide, about 70 yards from their hovel, Khaled screamed at his mother
for mentioning how the family had once liked the Americans.
-
- "Be quiet. Bush is a dog who is a son of a dog,"
he said.
-
- Nearby a six-year-old held up a twisted piece of shrapnel
as big as his forearm. Minutes later gunfire erupted. It could have been
locals, but the Jawals said it had to be Americans.
-
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