Editing Fallujah (section)

=== Iraq War (2003–2011) ===
{{main|Fallujah during the Iraq War}}
[[File:BrooklynBridgeFallujah.JPG|thumb|Fallujah as seen from the west, April 2004]]

Fallujah was one of the least affected areas of Iraq immediately after the [[2003 invasion of Iraq|2003 invasion by the US-led Coalition]]. Iraqi Army units stationed in the area abandoned their positions and disappeared into the local population, leaving unsecured military equipment behind. Fallujah was also the site of a Ba'athist resort facility called "[[Dreamland, Iraq|Dreamland]]", located a few kilometers outside the city proper. The damage the city had avoided during the initial invasion was negated by damage from looters, who took advantage of the collapse of [[Saddam Hussein]]'s government. The looters targeted former government sites, the Dreamland compound, and the nearby military bases. Aggravating this situation was the proximity of Fallujah to the infamous [[Abu Ghraib prison]], from which Saddam, in one of his last acts, had released all prisoners.

When the US Army entered the town in April 2003, they positioned themselves at the vacated Ba'ath Party headquarters. A Fallujah Protection Force composed of local Iraqis was set up by the US-led occupants to help fight the rising resistance. On the evening of 28 April 2003, a crowd of about two hundred people defied a curfew imposed by the Americans and gathered outside a secondary school used as a military HQ to demand its reopening. Soldiers from the [[82nd Airborne Division|82nd Airborne]] stationed on the roof of the building fired on the crowd, [[Fallujah killings of April 2003|killing 17 civilians and wounding over 70]].<ref>{{citation
 |last1        = Bouckaert
 |first1       = Peter
 |last2       = Abrahams
 |first2      = Fred
 |title       = Violent Response: The U.S. Army in al-Falluja
 |publisher   = [[Human Rights Watch]]
 |place       = New York
 |date        = 16 June 2003
 |url         = https://www.hrw.org/en/node/12318/section/4
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20090216205128/http://www.hrw.org/en/node/12318/section/4
 |archive-date = 16 February 2009
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
</ref> American forces claim they were responding to gunfire from the crowd, while Iraqi witnesses deny this version. [[Human Rights Watch]] also disputed the American claims and said that the evidence suggested the US troops fired indiscriminately and used disproportionate force.<ref name="hrw">{{cite report |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2003/06/16/iraq-us-should-investigate-al-falluja|title=Iraq: U.S. Should Investigate al-Falluja|date=17 June 2003|access-date=8 January 2014|publisher=Human Rights Watch|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224105558/http://www.hrw.org/news/2003/06/16/iraq-us-should-investigate-al-falluja|archive-date=24 December 2013|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

On 31 March 2004, [[Iraqi insurgency (Iraq War)|Iraqi insurgents]] in Fallujah [[31 March 2004 Fallujah ambush|ambushed a convoy]] containing four American [[private military contractor]]s from [[Blackwater USA]], who were conducting delivery for food caterers [[Eurest Support Services|ESS]].<ref>{{citation
 |title       = The High-Risk Contracting Business
 |series      = [[Frontline (U.S. TV series)|FRONTLINE]]
 |publisher   = [[WGBH-TV]]
 |date        = 21 June 2005
 |url         = https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/contractors/highrisk.html
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20161229030637/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/contractors/highrisk.html
 |archive-date = 29 December 2016
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
</ref> The four, armed contractors, [[Scott Helvenston]], Jerry (Jerko) Zovko, Wesley Batalona, and Michael Teague, were dragged from their cars, beaten, and set on fire. Their charred corpses were then dragged through the streets before being hung from a bridge spanning the [[Euphrates River]].<ref>{{Citation
 |first       = Robert
 |last        = Fisk
 |author-link = Robert Fisk
 |title       = Atrocity in Fallujah
 |date        = 1 April 2004
 |place       = London
 |newspaper   = [[The Independent]]
 |url         = http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5974.htm
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20081127040039/http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5974.htm
 |archive-date = 27 November 2008
 |df          = dmy-all
}}</ref><ref name="Chandrasekaran">{{Citation
  | last = Chandrasekaran
  | first = Rajiv
  | author-link = Rajiv Chandrasekaran
  | title = Imperial Life in the Emerald City
  | place = London
  | publisher = [[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury Publishing PLC]]
  | date = 10 March 2007
  | page = 305
  | isbn = 978-0-7475-9168-9}}
</ref> This bridge is unofficially referred to as "Blackwater Bridge" by [[Multi-National Force – Iraq|Coalition Forces]] operating there.<ref>{{Citation
 |last        = Tyson
 |first       = Ann Scott
 |title       = Private Security Workers Living on Edge in Iraq
 |newspaper   = [[The Washington Post]]
 |page        = A01
 |date        = 23 April 2005
 |url         = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10547-2005Apr22.html
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080509123036/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10547-2005Apr22.html
 |archive-date = 9 May 2008
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
</ref> Photographs of the event were released to [[news agency|news agencies]] worldwide, causing outrage in the United States, and prompting the announcement of a campaign to reestablish American control over the city.<ref name="Chandrasekaran" />[[File:Fallujah 2004.JPG|thumb|alt=refer|The aftermath of an air strike during the [[Second Battle of Fallujah]]|left]]
[[File:US Navy 041114-M-8205V-005 Iraqi Special Forces Soldiers assigned to the 1st Marines, patrol south clearing every house on their way through Fallujah, Iraq, during Operation Al Fajr (New Dawn).jpg|thumb|A city street in Fallujah heavily damaged by the fighting, November 2004|left]]
This led to an abortive US operation to recapture control of the city in [[Operation Vigilant Resolve]], and a successful recapture operation in the city in November 2004, called [[Operation Phantom Fury]] in English and [[Operation Al Fajr]] in Arabic. Operation Phantom Fury resulted in the death of over 1,350 insurgent fighters. Approximately 95 American troops were killed, and 560 wounded.  After the successful recapture of the city, U.S. forces discovered a room in which they claimed to find evidence of a beheading, and bomb-making factories, which were shown to the media as evidence of Fallujah's important role in the insurgency against U.S. forces.  They also found two hostages—an Iraqi and a Syrian.  The Syrian was the driver for two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who had been missing since August 2004.  The Iraqi's captors were Syrian; he thought he was in Syria until found by the Marines.<ref>{{Citation
 |last        = Harris
 |first       = Edward
 |title       = 'Beheading rooms' found
 |publisher   = [[Taipei Times]]
 |page        = 7
 |date        = 14 November 2004
 |url         = http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/11/16/2003211299
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20120928195615/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/11/16/2003211299
 |archive-date = 28 September 2012
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
</ref> Chesnot and Malbrunot were released by their captors, the [[Islamic Army in Iraq]], on 21 December 2004.<ref>{{Citation
 |title       = French hostages Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot released
 |publisher   = [[Reporters Without Borders]]
 |date        = 22 December 2004
 |url         = http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=12147
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20071030171823/http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=12147
 |archive-date = 30 October 2007
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
</ref>

The U.S. military first denied that it has used [[White phosphorus (weapon)|white phosphorus]] as an anti-personnel weapon in Fallujah, but later retracted that denial, and admitted to using the incendiary in the city as an offensive weapon.<ref name=":2">{{Citation
 |title       = US used white phosphorus in Iraq
 |work   = [[BBC News]]
 |date        = 16 November 2005
 |url         = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4440664.stm
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20081223230929/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4440664.stm
 |archive-date = 23 December 2008
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
</ref> According to [[George Monbiot]], reports following the events of November 2004 have alleged [[war crimes]], human rights abuses, and a massacre by U.S. personnel.<ref name=":3">George Monbiot, [https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,3604,1647716,00.html "Behind the phosphorus clouds are war crimes within war crimes"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 22 November 2005</ref><ref name=":4" /> This point of view is presented in the 2005 documentary film, ''[[Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre]]''.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> On 17 May 2011, AFP reported that twenty-one bodies, in black [[body-bag]]s marked with letters and numbers in [[Latin script]] had been recovered from a mass grave in al-Maadhidi cemetery in the center of the city.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" /> Fallujah police chief Brigadier General Mahmud al-Essawi said that they had been blindfolded, their legs had been tied and they had suffered gunshot wounds.<ref name=":4" /> The Mayor, Adnan Husseini said that the manner of their killing, as well as the body bags, indicated that US forces had been responsible.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":3" /> Both al-Essawi and Husseini agreed that the dead had been killed in 2004.<ref name=":4" /> The US military declined to comment.<ref name=":4">{{Citation
  | title = '21 bodies found in Iraq mass grave
  | publisher = [[Agence France-Presse|AFP]]
  | date = 17 May 2011
  | url = https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5giPBJ5NN3rMkTWZmapBREDPRYB8w?docId=CNG.2797b7dff287e16a1e77be966d636bc3.dc1
  | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130124195813/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5giPBJ5NN3rMkTWZmapBREDPRYB8w?docId=CNG.2797b7dff287e16a1e77be966d636bc3.dc1
  | url-status = dead
  | archive-date = 24 January 2013
  | access-date = 19 June 2011}}
</ref>

Residents were allowed to return to the city in mid-December 2004 after undergoing [[biometric]] identification, provided they wear their ID cards all the time. US officials report that "more than half of Fallujah's 39,000 homes were damaged during [[Operation Phantom Fury]], and about ten thousand of those were destroyed" while compensation amounts to twenty percent of the value of damaged houses, with an estimated 32,000 homeowners eligible, according to Marine Lt Col William Brown.<ref>{{Citation
 |last        = Tyson
 |first       = Ann Scott
 |title       = Increased Security in Fallujah Slows Efforts to Rebuild
 |newspaper   = [[The Washington Post]]
 |page        = A15
 |date        = 19 April 2005
 |url         = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64292-2005Apr18.html
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20110720124729/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64292-2005Apr18.html
 |archive-date = 20 July 2011
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
</ref> According to NBC, 9,000 homes were destroyed, thousands more were damaged and of the 32,000 compensation claims only 2,500 have been paid as of 14 April 2005.<ref>{{Citation
 |last        = Miklaszewski
 |first       = Jim
 |author-link = Jim Miklaszewski
 |title       = Still locked down, Fallujah slow to rebuild
 |work   = [[NBC News]]
 |date        = 14 April 2005
 |url         = http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7503610
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130617233541/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7503610
 |url-status  = dead
 |archive-date = 17 June 2013
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
</ref>

According to Mike Marqusee of ''Iraq Occupation Focus'' writing in the ''[[Guardian (newspaper)|Guardian]]'', "Fallujah's compensation commissioner has reported that 36,000 of the city's 50,000 homes were destroyed, along with 60 schools and 65 mosques and shrines".<ref>{{Citation
 |last        = Marqusee
 |first       = Mike
 |author-link = Mike Marqusee
 |title       = A name that lives in infamy
 |newspaper   =[[The Guardian]]
 |page        = 32
 |date        = 10 November 2005
 |url         = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/nov/10/usa.iraq
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20130829200239/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/nov/10/usa.iraq
 |archive-date = 29 August 2013
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
</ref> Reconstruction mainly consists of clearing rubble from heavily damaged areas and reestablishing basic utility services. 10% of the pre-offensive inhabitants had returned as of mid-January 2005, and 30% as of the end of March 2005.<ref>{{Citation
 |last=Raffaele 
 |first=Robert 
 |title=Fallujah Four Months Later 
 |publisher=[[Voice of America|VOA News]] 
 |date=31 March 2005 
 |url=http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-03-31-voa6.cfm 
 |access-date=21 February 2009 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050418094059/http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-03-31-voa6.cfm 
 |archive-date=18 April 2005 
 |df=dmy 
}}
</ref> In 2006, some reports say two-thirds have now returned and only 15 percent remain displaced on the outskirts of the city.<ref>{{Citation
 |title       = IRAQ: Fallujah situation improving slowly
 |publisher   = [[The New Humanitarian|IRIN]]
 |date        = 21 March 2006
 |url         = http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=26215
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20090111235359/http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=26215
 |archive-date = 11 January 2009
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
</ref>

Pre-offensive inhabitant figures are unreliable; the nominal population was assumed to have been 250,000–350,000. Thus, over 150,000 individuals are still living as [[internally displaced person|IDP]]s in tent cities or with relatives outside Fallujah or elsewhere in Iraq. Current{{when|date=January 2022|reason=The figure could have been put here at any time, no citation}} estimates by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and Coalition Forces put the city's population at over 350,000, possibly closing in on half a million. In the aftermath of the offensive, relative calm was restored to Fallujah although almost-daily attacks against coalition forces resumed in 2005 as the population slowly trickled back into the city. From 2005–06, elements of the New Iraqi Army's 2nd and 4th brigades, 1st Division, occupied the city while the Marines maintained a small complex consisting of a security element from [[8th Marine Regiment (United States)|RCT8]] and a [[Civil-military operations center|CMOC]] at the city hall. The Iraqi units were aided by [[Military Transition Team]]s. Most Marine elements stayed outside of the city limits.

In December 2006, enough control had been exerted over the city to transfer operational control of the city from American forces to the 1st Iraqi Army Division.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> During the same month, the Fallujah Police Forces began major offensive operations under their new chief.<ref name=":6" /> Coalition Forces, as of May 2007, are operating in direct support of the Iraqi Security Forces in the city.<ref name=":6" /> The city is one of Anbar province's centers of gravity in a newfound optimism among American and Iraqi leadership about the state of the counterinsurgency in the region.<ref name=":6">{{Citation
 |last        = Kagan
 |first       = Frederick W.
 |author-link = Frederick Kagan
 |title       = Plan B? Let's Give Plan A Some Time First
 |newspaper   =[[The New York Times]]
 |date        = 6 May 2007
 |url         = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/opinion/06kagan.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20130616090301/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/opinion/06kagan.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
 |archive-date = 16 June 2013
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
</ref><ref name=":5">{{Citation
 |last        = Semple
 |first       = Kirk
 |title       = Uneasy Alliance Is Taming One Insurgent Bastion
 |newspaper   =[[The New York Times]]
 |date        = 29 April 2007
 |url         = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/world/middleeast/29ramadi.html?pagewanted=all
 |access-date  = 21 February 2009
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20140623041232/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/world/middleeast/29ramadi.html?pagewanted=all
 |archive-date = 23 June 2014
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
</ref> In June 2007, [[Regimental Combat Team 6]] began [[Operation Alljah]], a security plan modeled on a successful operation in [[Ramadi]].<ref name=":6" /> After segmenting districts of the city, Iraqi Police and Coalition Forces established police district headquarters in order to further localize the law enforcement capabilities of the Iraqi Police.<ref name=":6" /> A similar program had met with success in the city of Ramadi in late 2006 and early 2007 (See [[Battle of Ramadi (2006)|Battle of Ramadi]]).<ref name=":6" /> Though the war and occupation ended in 2011, the insurgency continued.