Refugees tell of rising anger in Fallujah

With a US Apache helicopter hovering above, Kadher Fudella took her children and began to run. She did not stop until she reached the highway, along with scores of other refugees, flagging down cars headed to Baghdad.

"My children tried to run away and the helicopters chased them," says Ms. Fudella, breaking into tears. "Families were running through the streets.... Windows were broken, and many, many people were dead."

Fudella is one of tens of thousands of refugees to have fled the besieged city of Fallujah, where a US assault left 600 dead last week. The victims include hundreds of women and children, according to hospital and clinic records in Fallujah, before a cease-fire was carved out over the weekend.

The violence that erupted last week in Iraq has been subdued in recent days. As of late Tuesday, a fragile four-day cease-fire was still holding in Fallujah, and emergency supplies to help the wounded were streaming through.

On another front, after negotiations with Iraqi leaders, radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's army moved out of police stations and government buildings in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, as well as Karbala and Kufa. But the relative calm, many say, is tenuous. Sadr's army rebuffed US demands that it disband, and according to news wire reports, a 2,500-strong US force moved to the outskirts of Najaf Tuesday.

Occupation troops were still circling Fallujah, where a helicopter was shot down Tuesday. And the reported kidnappings of some 40 foreigners during the week, over a dozen of whom have since been released, has raised the stakes for coalition forces.

Back in Baghdad, Fallujah's refugees are still reeling from the violence they witnessed last week. As many as 60,000 - one fifth of the city - may have poured into Baghdad since Friday, taking shelter in private homes and mosques. US forces say civilians have been caught in the crossfire, but that their primary mission was to "take out insurgents."

Fudella told her story from a crowded, dank, bomb shelter in Baghdad, alongside some 60 other Fallujan women and children. With tattooed hands and black veils wrapped around their faces, the women shouted out accusations of reckless killings by the US forces the say they witnessed: a neighbor's house bombed, killing all 19 people inside; a 5-year-old gunned down by a sniper on a minaret; an old man mowed down by helicopter fire.

The women say they hid with their children in their homes from Wednesday until fleeing over the weekend, while many of the men stayed behind. "I have not seen my husband since Friday," says Turka Hashim, a crying baby in her arms. Ms. Hashim says she believes he stayed in Fallujah to fight. In fact, many of the men in the shelter displayed anger.

Take Hamid Ali. He says he only came to the Sunni Islamic Party headquarters in Baghdad to find a safe place to relocate his family.

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