The Martyrs' Cemetery of

Fallujah Fallujah ( ar, ٱلْفَلُّوجَة, al-Fallūjah, Iraqi pronunciation: ) is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Jew ...

is the chief burial site of Iraqis killed during the

First Battle of Fallujah The First Battle of Fallujah, code-named Operation Vigilant Resolve, was an operation against militants in Fallujah as well as an attempt to apprehend or kill the perpetrators of the killing of four U.S. contractors in March 2004. The chief ca ...

, both insurgents and civilians.Siege Defined On Stones Set in Haste In the Dirt - by Christine Hauser, New York Times, April 28, 2004
/ref> It was formerly the football field of the Falluja Sports Club,IBC Falluja April 2004 News Digest :: Iraq Body Count
/ref> and was converted into a cemetery after US troops blockaded attempts to reach the city's main cemetery. A sign outside the cemetery reads "''This cemetery is given by the people of Fallujah to the heroic martyrs of the battle against the Americans, and to the martyrs of the

Jihad Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...

i operations against the Americans, assigned and approved by the Mujahideen Shura Council in Fallujah.''" The cemetery holds between 250 and 500'We Will Fight Them Again!' - by Dahr Jamail, May 9, 2004
/ref> bodies, only one of which is identified as a foreign fighter, a Tunisian. At least 22 of the dead were from a single US mortar-attack in June 2004. The road leading to the cemetery has been named Martyrs' Cemetery Road, and according to the '' Mafkarat al-Islam'' was the site of an August 26 2006 attack against a US convoy on the road headed to the cemetery, which destroyed a Humvee and killed three American troops, wounding two others, and a similar attack nine days later. Another football field in the city was used for similar purposes.Fragile cease-fire holds in Fallujah
/ref>

References

{{reflist, 35em Cemeteries in Iraq Military cemeteries Fallujah in the Iraq War Iraq War sites