AP Photographer
Flees Fallujah
By Katarina Kratovac
16 November, 2004
Associated Press
In
the weeks before the crushing military assault on his hometown, Bilal
Hussein sent his parents and brother away from Fallujah to stay with
relatives.
The 33-year-old Associated Press photographer stayed behind to capture
insider images during the siege of the former insurgent stronghold.
"Everyone in
Fallujah knew it was coming. I had been taking pictures for days,"
he said. "I thought I could go on doing it."
In the hours and
days that followed, heavy bombing raids and thunderous artillery shelling
turned Hussein's northern Jolan neighborhood into a zone of rubble and
death. The walls of his house were pockmarked by coalition fire.
"Destruction
was everywhere. I saw people lying dead in the streets, wounded were
bleeding and there was no one to come and help them. Even the civilians
who stayed in Fallujah were too afraid to go out," he said.
"There was
no medicine, water, no electricity nor food for days."
By Tuesday afternoon,
as U.S. forces and Iraqi rebels engaged in fierce clashes in the heart
of his neighborhood, Hussein snapped.
"U.S. soldiers
began to open fire on the houses, so I decided that it was very dangerous
to stay in my house," he said.
Hussein said he
panicked, seizing on a plan to escape across the Euphrates River, which
flows on the western side of the city.
"I wasn't really
thinking," he said. "Suddenly, I just had to get out. I didn't
think there was any other choice."
In the rush, Hussein
left behind his camera lens and a satellite telephone for transmitting
his images. His lens, marked with the distinctive AP logo, was discovered
two days later by U.S. Marines next to a dead man's body in a house
in Jolan.
AP colleagues in
the Baghdad bureau, who by then had not heard from Hussein in 48 hours,
became even more worried.
Hussein moved from
house to house dodging gunfire and reached the river.
"I decided
to swim ... but I changed my mind after seeing U.S. helicopters firing
on and killing people who tried to cross the river."
He watched horrified
as a family of five was shot dead as they tried to cross. Then, he "helped
bury a man by the river bank, with my own hands."
"I kept walking
along the river for two hours and I could still see some U.S. snipers
ready to shoot anyone who might swim. I quit the idea of crossing the
river and walked for about five hours through orchards."
He met a peasant
family, who gave him refuge in their house for two days. Hussein knew
a driver in the region and sent a message to another AP colleague, Ali
Ahmed, in nearby Ramadi.
Ahmed relayed the
news that Hussein was alive to AP's Baghdad bureau. He sent a second
message back to Hussein that a fisherman in nearby Habaniyah would ferry
the photographer to safety by boat.
"At the end
of the boat ride, Ali was waiting for me. He took me to Baghdad, to
my office."
Sitting safely in
the AP's offices, a haggard-looking Hussein offered a tired smile of
relief.
"It was a terrible
experience in which I learned that life is precious," he said.
"I am happy that I am still alive after being close to death during
these past days."
© 2004 AP