ABU GHRAIB PRISON ATTACKED IN RESPONSE TO "FATIMA'S LETTER".

Fatimah Martryed In Abu Ghraib Prision In Resistance Attack That
Takes Heavy US Toll

Jan 10, 2005 By Muhammad Abu Nasr, Free Arab Voice and Omar Al-Faris
JUS; Published In Arabic By Islam Memo

Resistance forces fired a rocket barrage at the US Abu Ghraib prison
camp west of Baghdad. A correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam in
Baghdad said that the attack took place at 1 am Friday and that a
variety of rockets, including the powerful Ababil and the Grad were
used in barrage that lasted more than
15 minutes.

The barrage left four Iraqis dead, as well as the Iraqi woman
prisoner known as Fatimah whose letter, smuggled out of the prison
two weeks ago, sent shock waves around the Muslim world outrages as
it disclosed many horrid details of US forces gang raping female
prisoners and regularly perpetrating other abuses e against the
prisoners in the ill-reputed facility. Friday's barrage also
severely wounded another 22-year old Iraqi woman.

An Iraqi who works at the Abu Ghraib prison camp told Mafkarat al-
Islam that more than 68 US troops were killed in the bombardment as
that the rockets specifically struck their barracks. But just one
night before the attack, the Americans had moved more than 500 Iraqi
prisoners to the east side of the prison, resulting in the death of
many of them.

Allawi police brought the body of Fatimah to her home in the adh-
Dhahab al-Abyad village in the Abu Ghraib area, 45 km east of
Fallujah. The correspondent wrote that because of the family's
psychological condition at the time, he was unable to interview
them. Their neighbor, however, spoke to the reporter.

Fatimah's eldest brother, who is one of the mujahideen whom the
occupation forces are searching for, spoke in the mosque Thursday at
the nighttime prayer said "Praise be to God" with tears in his eyes.
Everyone in the mosque witnessed him saying 'Oh God take her soul!
Oh God this is a shame so please cleanse it! You are the All-
Powerful! You are the All-Powerful! You are the All-Powerful!' Then
after the prayer, one of the worshippers came up to him and
remonstrated him for saying, 'Oh God this is a shame so please
cleanse it!' The man told him, 'Say rather, this is an honor, so
raise it up and honor it. It is we about whom the word shame should
be used, not Fatimah. She is the most honorable, purest, and
cleanest of girls. I ask you for her hand in marriage after she gets
out of prison, God willing.'"

The neighbor went on, saying, "Fatimah's brother and his fighting
detachment carried out more than 50 rocket attacks on the prison
before and after her letter came out. Every day they would hunt down
a car or two belonging to the occupation forces. His name became
famous among them in this area, as famous as that of al-Zarqawi."

The neighbor's wife told the correspondent, "a month before her
arrest Fatimah distributed candy and 'brides' fingers' an famous
Iraqi folk delicacy to the people on her street because she finished
memorizing 13 of the 30 sections of the Qur'an. She told the
women, "after memorizing Surat al-Baqarah, the rest of the Qur'an is
easy to memorize. Give me three more months and you'll see who's
better, me or Shaykh Khalid.'" (Shaykh Khalid is the imam of the
mosque in the neighborhood where Fatimah lives.)

The neighbor wife says of Fatimah: "she used to be shy about
everything. I remember once she was with the women at a wedding
party for one of the local young people, and the other girls all
asked her to take off her veil because there weren't any men around,
but she refused to, because she was so shy."

Fatimah's funeral took place at 1pm today, Friday, the Mafkarat al-
Islam correspondent reported, to the sound of exultant cries of
Allahu akbar! [God is greatest!] and the Muslim creed "there is no
God but God!" Fatimah's brothers and father were not there for the
funeral, however, because they are all wanted by the occupation
forces, and the Americans surrounded the whole area of funeral -
from Fatimah's home to the cemetery - and kept everyone under close
surveillance.

The medical report concluded that Fatimah was struck fatally in the
head during the bombardment. The blow killed her instantly.

At the time the correspondent sent his report at 8:30 pm Friday,
Mecca time, white flags - the sign of a martyr, were flying over the
Fatimah's house. Local people stayed in the house to receive
condolences from mourners on behalf of the family. It was as if
Fatimah were saying from her grave to all the mourners:

How can you find sweetness when life is bitter?
How can you find pleasure when humanity is enraged?
If your desire is true then everything [else] is insignificant,
And everything on the dust is but dust.

Fatimah lies in the al-Karakh Islamic cemetery west of Baghdad. The
mourners put a date palm frond on her grave so that she might remain
in people's memory even as the hot daytime sun dries up the palm
leaves.

In case you missed it, here is Fatimah's original letter, smuggled
out of Abu Ghraib and published throughout Muslim press and on JUS
December 18, 2004. the letter speaks for itself. (23/12/04 [28th] in
this yahoogroup - the attack seems 2 b on the 18th)