ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — In the evenings, the residents of Fallujah wait for the terror of the Iraqi helicopters that have been raining primitive but deadly barrel bombs that Baghdad has resorted to in its bid to recapture the city from militants of the Islamic State (IS).
Although residents know there are few measures they can take against the destruction, for the sake of comforting themselves they go through a routine of trying to protect themselves.
“We start by turning off the lights at home and assembling all family members in one room,” recounted Iyad Mahmud Halbusi, a 33-year-old family head caught in the war between the Shiite government in Baghdad and Sunni jihadis who have captured about a third of the country.
“We stay away from windows, usually on the ground floor,” Halbusi said. “But despite these measures we are fully convinced that we would not survive if we were hit by a barrel bomb.”
For Iraq’s embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has turned to Iran, Syria and Russia for military help after his appeals to the United States and other Western backers fell on deaf ears, the barrel bombs appear to have become a staple in the war.
They are cheap and easy to manufacture, and their impact is fatal.
The people of Anbar, who have seen the deaths of family, neighbors and friends torn apart by the explosives, the bombs are called “barrels of death.”
The bombs are loaded with highly explosive material, and some people wonder if their use is not internationally prohibited because of their indiscriminate killing of civilians in Fallujah, Ramadi and other areas of Iraq.
Hassan Abdul-Karim, 39, a government employee from Fallujah told Rudaw he fled the city with his wife and two-year-old child because of the barrel bombs.
“I left my house in Fallujah after one of the bombs fell on a family that lived close to us in the Askari neighborhood. The bomb killed the entire family of women, children and an elderly man. The scene was very painful because their bodies were torn apart," he recounted.
“They make a huge noise, blowing up homes, killing people and trapping them under the rubble,” he said.
Mustafa Abu Abdullah al-Jumaili, a Sunni fighter from the Karma rebel clan east of Fallujah, told Rudaw: "In just two days four explosive barrels were dropped on civilian homes in the village of Subaihat in the Karma region, but thankfully they did not explode.”
“When a barrel bomb explodes it destroys all buildings within an area of about 500 meters,” he said, explaining that each bomb weighs between 250-500 kilograms.
Sheikh Ahmed Obaid al-Issawi, an academic professor and preacher in one of the mosques in Fallujah, told Rudaw that according to “information and images circulating among the people” the bombs are being manufactured by the Iranian-backed Shiite Asaib al-Haq militia, a claim not independently confirmed.
Meanwhile, pro-government sources denied the use of barrel bombs by the military.
"Iraqi warplanes cannot use explosive barrels and these claims are untrue,” said Alia Nassif, an MP for Maliki’s State of Law coalition. “They use only military missiles with known origin to accurately target terrorist gatherings.”
The head of the Awakening Council in Ramadi, Sheikh Hamid al-Hayes, told Rudaw: “The talk of barrel bombs being used against civilians in Fallujah and Ramadi is just rumors began by the Islamic State. The Iraqi air force deliberately uses weapons that are internationally recognized, and it is using them to strike armed groups that are hiding among civilians."
The members of Anbar's Provincial Council threatened the Iraqi government with mass resignations unless the military stops its indiscriminate shelling and the use of barrel bombs.
The deputy chairman of the Anbar Provincial Council, Faleh al-Issawi, said that a large number of air strikes by Iraqi forces turned out to be on civilian targets, especially in the city of Fallujah and other areas of Anbar.
“I have received these reports and submitted them to the leadership of Anbar, but the Iraqi army has denied the use of explosive barrels or the targeting of civilians," he said.
In Anbar, already a bastion of the Sunni rebellion against Maliki, the bombings have soured the mood against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad even more.
"Innocent women and children are among the daily targets of Nouri al-Maliki’s warplanes and barrel bombs,” said Saleh Albjari, a tribal leader in Anbar. “The Iraqi government has lost all elements of legitimacy."
Former MP for the Islamic Virtue Party, Susan al-Saad, denied that the targets hit by Iraqi army planes were civilian, saying that the majority of the dead belonged to the IS.
"The images that appear on satellite channels, showing dead and wounded women and children are all false and fabricated by IS,” Saad said.
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