AC-130 gunship raked insurgents Friday night after hundreds of women and children fled the besieged city of Fallujah during a U.S.-declared pause in the Marine offensive. On the anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein ‘s regime, Baghdad and parts of central Iraq were chaotic. … Many families, emerging from their [Fallujah] homes for the first time in days, buried slain relatives in the city football stadium. (AP 04/09/04)

Al-Sadr on Friday demanded U.S. forces leave Iraq, saying they now face “a civil revolt.” “I direct my speech to my enemy Bush and I tell him … you are fighting the entire Iraqi people,” al-Sadr said in a sermon, delivered by one of his deputies at the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, Shiite Islam’s holiest site. (AP 04/09/04)

Throughout the week, Arabic-language television networks have repeatedly aired images of U.S. tanks rumbling through Fallujah, a mosque damaged by a U.S. bomb and the corpses of Iraqis killed in the heaviest fighting in almost a year. … Leading Arab newspapers and clerics have praised Iraqi insurgents and the emerging anti-U.S. alliance among Sunni and Shiite Muslims as a turning point in the fight against the occupation. (WP 04/10/04)

There are rumors that many of the 25 Governing Council members have fled abroad, fearful of assassination because of their association with the Americans. The ones who are left appear on the verge of resigning. (04/10/04 Juan Cole)

AND THEN TRAGEDY STRUCK

As [OLN Host Roland] Martin and his crew cleaned the boat for another excursion on the pond, Bush’s entourage pulled up. “He said, `Hey, Roland, sorry it didn’t work out. I had things to do.’ … “He really wanted to finish [fishing], but he had all his things to do.” Martin believed that events in Iraq had forced Bush to cancel the Saturday shoot. (AP 04/10/04)