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FALLUJAH, Dec 24: There was anger, frustration and resentment among Iraqis who returned to Fallujah on Friday as many discovered their homes in rubble and their livelihood ruined following a US offensive.
"I saw the city and Al Andalus destroyed," said Ali Mahmood, 35, referring to the district of the city he returned to briefly on Thursday but now plans to leave after seeing the destruction.
"My house is completely destroyed. There is nothing left for me to stay for," the teacher said, adding that he would rather live in the tented camp outside Fallujah that has been his family's home for the past two months.
Conservative estimates say several hundred buildings were partly or completely destroyed by the US assault, which began on Nov 8 and involved bombardment by US planes, tanks and artillery. Guerillas also blew up many homes in booby-trap blasts.
The offensive, designed to uproot guerrillas from what had become their bastion, was declared a success more than a month ago, but fighting continued in several districts. US planes bombed a western neighbourhood overnight, residents said.
An Iraqi health ministry official said his greatest concern was the resentment Fallujah's people were likely to feel when they saw how much damage had been done to their homes.
That was certainly the case on Friday. While those who fled were at pains to say they had nothing to do with the guerrillas who made Fallujah their stronghold, many of them have since become angry and militant as a result of the offensive.
"Would Allah want us to return to a city that animals can't live in?" said Yasser Satar as he saw his destroyed home. "Even animals who have no human sense and feelings can not live here," he said, crying. "What do they want from Falluja? This is the crime of the century. They want to destroy Islam and Muslims. But our anger and resistance will increase."
NO WATER, ELECTRICITY: Aid workers said 200,000 people fled Fallujah before the assault and have spent the past seven weeks living in nearby towns and villages or in tented refugee camps nearby.
The city was estimated to have had a population of around 250,000 before the offensive. It is not clear how many people stayed behind during the fighting, although it is thought to have been around 50,000, mostly in outlying areas. Most central areas were reduced to a ghost town.
The interim Iraqi government and the US military this week announced that around 2,000 heads of household would be allowed to return to the Andalus district of Fallujah, considered one of the more secure, from Thursday.
Some 900 people, mostly men, made the journey, going through intense security checks before being allowed to enter, including the fingerprinting and iris scanning of "suspicious military-age men" by the US military to ensure guerrillas do not filter back in.
The US military said the programme to return residents had gone well on Thursday and it expected more people to flow back into the Andalus district in the days ahead. In the coming weeks, others will be allowed to return to their neighbourhood. But they will be without water and electricity as basic services and communications were knocked out in the assault. -Reuters
