Fallujah

Fallujah ( ) is a city in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq. Situated on the Euphrates River, it is located roughly to the west of the capital city of Baghdad and from the neighboring city of Ramadi. The city is located in the region defined as Sunni Triangle by the United States, as the majority of its residents are Sunni Arabs. In 1947, Fallujah was a small town with a relatively small population but had grown to a population of about 250,900 people¹ by 2018. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which triggered the Iraq War, the city became a major centre of resistance during the insurgency. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Iraqi Interim Government twice engaged in fierce urban combat with insurgents throughout the city; the first battle of Fallujah failed to dislodge the insurgents, triggering the second battle, in which the coalition forces successfully took control of the city. However, heavy fighting from these two battles left the city severely damaged, though it remained occupied by the coalition until 2011. In January 2014, three years after the American withdrawal from Iraq, Fallujah was captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and suffered a major population decline. On 23 May 2016, the government announced the beginning of a large-scale military offensive against the ISIS militants occupying the city, resulting in the Third Battle of Fallujah.…

Fallujah ( ) is a city in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq. Situated on the Euphrates River, it is located roughly to the west of the capital city of Baghdad and from the neighboring city of Ramadi. The city is located in the region defined as Sunni Triangle by the United States, as the majority of its residents are Sunni Arabs. In 1947, Fallujah was a small town with a relatively small population but had grown to a population of about 250,900 people by 2018. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which triggered the Iraq War, the city became a major centre of resistance during the insurgency. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Iraqi Interim Government twice engaged in fierce urban combat with insurgents throughout the city; the first battle of Fallujah failed to dislodge the insurgents, triggering the second battle, in which the coalition forces successfully took control of the city. However, heavy fighting from these two battles left the city severely damaged, though it remained occupied by the coalition until 2011. In January 2014, three years after the American withdrawal from Iraq, Fallujah was captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and suffered a major population decline. On 23 May 2016, the government announced the beginning of a large-scale military offensive against the ISIS militants occupying the city, resulting in the Third Battle of Fallujah. On 26 June 2016, the Iraqi Armed Forces stated that Fallujah had been fully liberated and was free from ISIS control. Within Iraq, it is known as the "city of mosques" due to the 200+ mosques that can be found throughout the city as well as in the surrounding villages. ==History== The region has been inhabited for many millennia. There is evidence that the area surrounding Fallujah was inhabited in Babylonian times. The current name of the city is thought to come from its Syriac name, Pallgutha, which is derived from the word division or "canal regulator" since it was the location where the water of the Euphrates River divided into a canal. Classical authors cited the name as "Pallacottas". The name in Aramaic is Pumbedita. ===Early history and middle ages=== The region of Fallujah lies near the ancient Sassanid Persian town of Anbar, in the Sassanid province of Asōristān. The word anbar is Persian and means "warehouse". It was known as Firuz Shapur or Perisapora during the Sassanian Era. There are extensive ruins north of Fallujah which are identified with the town of Anbar. Anbar was located at the confluence of the Euphrates River with the King's Canal, today the Saqlawiyah Canal, known in early Islamic times as the Nahr Isa and in ancient times as the Nahr Malka. Subsequent shifts in the Euphrates River channel have caused it to follow the course of the ancient Pallacottas canal. The town at this site in Jewish sources was known as Nehardea and was the primary center of Babylonian Jewry until its destruction by the Palmyran ruler Odenathus in 259. The Medieval Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela in 1164 visited "el-Anbar which is Pumbeditha in Nehardea" and said it had 3,000 Jews living there. The region played host for several centuries to one of the most important Jewish academies, the Pumbedita Academy in the city of Pumbedita, which from 258 to 1038 along with Sura (ar-Hira) was one of the two most important centers of Jewish learning worldwide. , ca. 1914|left|242x242px Under the Ottoman Empire, Fallujah was a minor stop on one of the country's main roads across the desert west from Baghdad. ===Modern era: 1900–2003=== In the spring of 1920, the British, who had gained control of Iraq after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, sent Lieut.-Colonel Gerard Leachman, a renowned explorer and a senior colonial officer, to meet with local leader Shaykh Dhari, perhaps to forgive a loan given to the sheikh. Exactly what happened depends on the source, but according to the Arab version, Gerard Leachman was betrayed by the sheikh who had his two sons shoot him in the legs, then behead him by the sword. During the brief Anglo-Iraqi War of 1941, the Iraqi Army was defeated by the British in a battle near Fallujah. In 1947 the town had only about 10,000 inhabitants¹. It grew rapidly into a city after Iraqi independence with the influx of oil wealth into the country. Its position on one of the main roads out of Baghdad made it of central importance. Under Saddam Hussein, who ruled Iraq from 1979 to 2003, Fallujah came to be an important area of support for the regime, along with the rest of the region labeled by the US military as the "Sunni Triangle". Many residents of the primarily Sunni city were employees and supporters of Saddam's government, and many senior Ba'ath Party officials were natives of the city. Fallujah was heavily industrialised during the Saddam era, with the construction of several large factories, including one closed down by United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) in the 1990s that may have been used to create chemical weapons. A new highway system as a part of Saddam's infrastructure initiatives circumvented Fallujah and gradually caused the city to decline in national importance by the time of the Iraq War. During the Gulf War, Coalition warplanes repeatedly attacked a bridge in Fallujah which was used as part of an Iraqi military supply line. On 14 February 1991, a Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter jet fired two laser-guided missiles which were aimed at the bridge but malfunctioned and instead struck Fallujah's largest marketplace (which was situated in a residential area), killing between 50 and 150 non-combatants and wounding many more. After news of the mistake became public, an RAF spokesman, Group Captain David Henderson, issued a statement noting that the missile had malfunctioned but admitted that the Royal Air Force had made an error. Coalition warplanes subsequently launched another attack on the bridge, with one missile hitting its target while two others fell into the river and a fourth struck another marketplace in Fallujah, due to its laser guidance system once again malfunctioning. ==Geography== Fallujah's western boundary is the Euphrates River. The Euphrates flows from the west (Ramadi), past Fallujah, and into the Baghdad area. When the river reaches the western edge of Fallujah, it turns north, then quickly south, forming what is commonly referred to as the 'peninsula' area. There are two bridges that cross the Euphrates at Fallujah. The city's eastern boundary is Highway 1, a four-lane, divided superhighway that travels from Baghdad past Fallujah towards the west. After the sanctions imposed by the UN after the 1991 Gulf War, this highway became the main supply route for the country. Truckers and travelers from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and southern Syria all merge onto this highway prior to entering the Eastern Al Anbar province. The highway has a prominent 'cloverleaf' interchange with Highway 10 on the eastern edge of Fallujah. Highway 10, which also runs through Fallujah. It is a two-lane highway that turns into a four-lane highway once inside of Fallujah. The highway runs east-west from Baghdad through Fallujah then west towards Ramadi. A 'cloverleaf' on-ramp allows for traffic on/off Highway 1. The highway basically splits the city into two halves, north and south. The northern boundary is a railroad line that runs east-west just along the northern edge of the city. The line sits atop a 3-5 meter high berm all along the northern edge of the city, except where it crosses Highway 1. There are three major hospital locations in Fallujah. The main hospital (formerly Saddam General) is located downtown, near the west end. The second is located across the Euphrates River in an area of west Fallujah commonly referred to as the 'peninsula', (due to its shape). The third hospital is the Jordanian Field Hospital located east of the Highway 10/Highway 1 interchange. ==Health effects of the Iraq War== In 2010, an academic study had shown "a four-fold increase in all cancers and a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer" since 2004. In addition, the report said the types of cancer were "similar to that in the Hiroshima survivors who were exposed to ionising radiation from the bomb and uranium in the fallout", and an 18% fall in the male birth ratio (to 850 per 1,000 female births, compared to the usual 1,050) was similar to that seen after the Hiroshima bombing. The authors cautioned that while "the results seem to qualitatively support the existence of serious mutation-related health effects in Fallujah, owing to the structural problems associated with surveys of this kind, care should be exercised in interpreting the findings quantitatively". ==See also== Fallujah Barrage First Battle of Fallujah Second Battle of Fallujah Third Battle of Fallujah List of places in Iraq ==Notes== ==References== ==External links== Iraq Image – Al Fallujah Satellite Observation Hope for Iraq's Meanest City, City Journal, Spring 2008 Falluja: The hidden massacre RAI News 24 Return To Fallujah – The Independent

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1377343998 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.