ANAH, Iraq, August 24 (IslamOnline.net) - Although not far away from the flashpoint town of Fallujah, a part of the so-called Sunni triangle where many U.S. forces come under growing attacks, this western Baghdad town was surprisingly untouched by scenes of chaos and anarchy afflicting most other areas of the war-torn country.

All basic services are still in operation in Anah, and life continued in normalcy after the U.S. and British forces rolled into Baghdad on April 9. Inhabitants are well aware of reasons behind this.

"With the first days of the U.S.-British offensive, the local inhabitants - mostly acting in unison - formed a delegation to meet commanders of the forces that would seize the country, threatening to kill any one of them stepping into," Helal Al-Ani, a lawyer, told IslamOnline.net.

"The delegation told the commanders that people here would not allow any American soldier in to desecrate their town which is full of mosques," he said.

Facing a tough unified stance, the American forces bowed to the demands and stayed on the periphery of the city.

"Here is the town with no American soldiers inside, thank God," said Al-Ani. This contradicts U.S. military provocations in nearby Fallujah - which left 15 protestors dead in one shooting spree occasion in April - and lack of basic services in most of Iraq.

"Many Jews of an Iraqi origin tried to sneak into the city to buy some houses, but we stood toughly up to these attempts, and we will never make any stranger walk about in our town until after we know him quite well," said Mohamed Al-Jamili, a broker.

Some 450 kilometers away from Baghdad, Anah received many of the capital inhabitants flowing in large numbers to escape from cascading shelling on war days.

"But citizens of this ancient town vowed to speak in one voice, especially to drive any occupier or invader out," said Karam Mustafa, a doctor.

"People of Fallujah themselves managed to eject the occupiers to outside of the city," said Mustafa, but only after regular house-to-house searches and massive detention of its locals, they could get in.

"If all Iraqis acted in solidarity and insisted of forcing the occupiers out, they would do so, but through resistance, he said.

Residents of Anah suffered greatly under the former regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but they are still loathe to be under occupation.

In 1985, the former regime decided to build a dam on the Euphrates River, leaving the whole town's houses and streets flooded with water.

But the government stopped building the dam suddenly and for unknown reasons, and decided instead to build a tourist resort. The project was carried out by a French company which paid inhabitants compensation for their houses damaged and inundated with water.

Noticeably in Anah, there are no headquarters of signs of political, religious organizations - unlike many areas of Iraq where there are more than 100 parties.

"Some people had tried to control a number of buildings in the town to use them as party headquarters, but tribe chiefs and locals agreed not to allow any such steps," said Sheikh Abdel-Ghafour Al-Rawy.

"They also found the common ground that Islam is the main denominator unifying all noble ideas and principles in the town," said Al-Rawy.