2004 Fallujah ambush
The 2004 Fallujah ambush occurred on March 31, 2004, when Iraqi insurgents attacked a convoy containing four American contractors from the private military company Blackwater USA who were conducting a delivery for food caterers ESS.
The contractors were killed, and their charred corpses were hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates. Photographs of the event circulated widely.
The ambush
The four contractors —Scott Helvenston, Jerry Zovko, Wesley Batalona and Mike Teague—were killed and dragged from their vehicles. Their bodies were beaten, burned, dragged through the city streets, and hung from a Euphrates River bridge.Response
Photos of the event, showing jubilant Iraqis posing with the charred corpses, were released to news agencies worldwide. It caused a great deal of indignation in the United States and undermined the media narrative that US involvement in Iraq was a short-term operation welcomed by the civilian population.The ambush led to the First Battle of Fallujah, a U.S.-led operation to retake control of the city. The battle was halted mid-way for political reasons, an outcome that a few commentators have described as insurgent victory. Seven months later, in November 2004, a second misson to capture the city, the Second Battle of Fallujah, proved successful.
Intelligence reports concluded that the attack was planned by Ahmad Hashim Abd al-Isawi. He was captured by Navy SEALs in 2009, five years later. al-Isawi was held for a time by the United States intelligence community, including at Camp Schwedler. In 2010, he testified at a court-martial of SEALs he accused of mistreating him. He was subsequently handed over to Iraqi authorities for trial and executed by hanging some time before November 2013.