Fallujah killings of April 2003

Fallujah massacres of April 2003
Part of the 2003 invasion of Iraq
Location	Fallujah, Iraq
Date	April 28–30, 2003
Attack type	Civilian killings
Deaths	20 local residents
Injured	70+ local residents 3 U.S. Army soldiers
Perpetrators	U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, U.S. 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
Motive	Soldiers claimed to be under fire by gunman in the crowd, a claim investigated inconclusively by HRW

The Fallujah massacres of April 2003 began when United States Army soldiers from the American 1st Battalion, 325th Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division fired into a crowd of Iraqi civilians who were protesting their presence at a school in the city of Fallujah, killing 17 protestors. Human Rights Watch inspected the area after the incident, and found no evidence of shots fired at the building where U.S. forces were based.^[1]

On the evening of April 28, 2003, several hundred civilians ignored a curfew imposed on them by the U.S. military.^[2] They proceeded to march through the streets of Fallujah, past the soldiers positioned in the Ba'ath party headquarters. They wished to protest outside a local school about the United States military presence within. A U.S. Army Psychological Operations team attempted to force the civilians to disperse with announcements, but the team failed in this attempt. According to locals, at this point the United States soldiers fired upon the unarmed crowd, killing 17 and wounding more than 70 of the protesters. The U.S. suffered no casualties from the incident.^[3] According to the soldiers on the ground, the 82nd Airborne soldiers inside the school responded to "effective fire" from inside the protesting crowd. Human Rights Watch, based upon the absence of bullet holes in the school building, found no evidence that the US forces had come under attack and concluded that the US forces, rather than shooting with precision, shot at Iraqis indiscriminately.^[1] Two days later, on April 30, the 82nd Airborne was replaced in the city by 2nd Troop (Fox) / U.S. 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. The 3rd Cavalry was significantly smaller in number and chose not to occupy the same schoolhouse where the shooting had occurred two days earlier.

However, on the same day three more unarmed civilians were killed by United States soldiers during a daytime protest in front of the Ba'ath party headquarters and mayor's office (which are adjacent to one another; known collectively to U.S. forces as FOB Laurie). Once again, the U.S. suffered no casualties from the incident but some U.S. soldiers were hurt in a retaliatory grenade attack on the Ba'ath headquarters later that evening.^[4][5]

The incident is frequently cited and compared to other similar incidents. Foreign Policy compared Fallujah to the 2010 Israeli Gaza flotilla raid during which Israeli naval commandos used lethal force to kill nine activists, some shot when they had their backs turned to the Israeli soldiers.^[6]

• Rules of Engagement, a 2000 film displaying a similar incident, albeit of U.S. Marines under perceived attack from a supposedly hostile crowd

• U.S. Troops Fire on Iraqi Protesters, Leaving 15 Dead
• Human Rights Watch: IV. April 28 School Protest and Shooting
• Pictures of the massacre at Fallujah, Iraq 30 April 2003
• Iraqi rage grows after Fallujah massacre