Iraq: June 26, 2004

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Despite the pro-Sunni and al Qaeda slant in the Arab satellite news networks, most Iraqis are fed up with the Sunni Arab violence. Even Sunni religious leaders are preaching against the killings, which are overwhelmingly Iraqis, not the "foreign occupiers" that the "resistance" says it is fighting to expel. Meanwhile, Iraqis report that Fallujah is "full of foreigners" and many of the Iraqis there are not happy with how these gunmen are trying to take over the Sunni resistance, and Sunni Arab life in general. The majority of Iraqis, being Kurds and Shia Arab, are uniting behind the interim government, and calling for martial law against the gunmen and suicide bombers. Apparently, American intelligence about what is going on in Fallujah has gotten good enough to provide precise information for several smart bomb attacks. Iraqis traveling to Fallujah on business report fear in the city that there will be another large scale operation by American marines to find and kill the foreign fighters there.