STORY: After 20 years, Iraqis still suffer from impact of U.S. use of banned weapons
SHOOTING TIME: March 12, 2024
DATELINE: March 20, 2024
LENGTH: 00:03:05
LOCATION: FALLUJAH, Iraq
CATEGORY: POLITICS/SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Fallujah
2. various of local people
3. SOUNDBITE 1 (Arabic): KHALID IBRAHIM, Fallujah citizen
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Arabic): NOUR, Ibrahim's daughter
5. SOUNDBITE 3 (Arabic): ABDUL QUDDUS HAMEED, Medical analysis specialist

STORYLINE:

Twenty years after the U.S. military offensive in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, locals are still suffering from the lasting impacts of the use of internationally banned weapons by U.S. forces.
   
In April 2004, U.S. occupation forces launched an offensive in Fallujah, 50 km west of Baghdad, but they encountered strong resistance from anti-U.S. armed groups, which prompted the U.S. forces to sweep the city in November of the same year.
   
According to local doctors and citizens, the U.S. forces employed internationally banned weapons in their operation, including white phosphorus and depleted uranium (DU) ammunition that led to catastrophic levels of birth defects and abnormalities due to contamination.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Arabic): KHALID IBRAHIM, Fallujah citizen
"They bombed us with radioactive materials, phosphorus, and other things. As a result of this bombing, two of my children suffer from birth defects. I can't describe it, but (medical) reports and X-rays are available. These show the injuries.
They are currently suffering, but I cannot treat them or take them out of the country.
We had seen the different weapons used by the American forces in Fallujah, and this is the result. Not only us, but all people are affected. There are birth defects among people, but people are helpless."

SOUNDBITE 2 (Arabic): NOUR, Ibrahim's daughter
"I suffer from curvature of the spine. Sometimes I get tired, and sometimes I feel psychologically exhausted. The words I received from the teachers were not kind, so I got tired and dropped out.
All wars affected us psychologically and physically and affected our lives (a lot). This is my case and the case of many people, not just me."

A report issued by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in November 2007 stated that while the total amount of depleted uranium munitions used during and after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq remained unknown, "speculative figures from various studies range between 170 and 1,700 metric tonnes."

SOUNDBITE 3 (Arabic): ABDUL QUDDUS HAMEED, Medical analysis specialist
"Some congenital deformities occurred in Fallujah hospitals in particular and in Anbar (province) in general. These deformities appeared from 2004 to 2010. These deformities appeared in our hospital in four to five cases per month. (They ranged) from miscarriages to birth defects, abnormal growth in the legs or hands, and even in the head."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Fallujah, Iraq.
(XHTV)