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U.S. Cracks Down On Iraqi Resistance, Resentment High
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Iraqis’
rejection of U.S. occupation is deepening
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WASHINGTON,
June 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The prospect of a long
and difficult occupation of Iraq was brought home to Americans this
week as U.S. forces moved sharply to crush an armed resistance that
has left a trail of U.S. dead, while anti-U.S. sentiments triggered by
U.S. troops' provocations runs deep.
Over
the past 10 days, U.S. forces have surged into the Iraqi city of
Fallujah, raided resistance cells in northern and western Iraq and
battled armed irregulars in the Balad area northeast of Baghdad,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Sunday, June 15.
The
core of the resistance is believed to be from Fedayeen Saddam,
Baathist remnants, Iraqi intelligence service and fleeing republican
guards.
The
full scope of the operations are, however, secret, but they were
clearly the biggest since President George W. Bush declared
on May 1 the end of major combat operations in Iraq, and
suggested that the war is far from over.
U.S.
commanders said the 147,000 U.S. troops now in the country are
sufficient to stabilize Iraq but they did not know when conditions
will allow soldiers to begin going home.
"We
do have plans, but they're all conditions-based. It depends on what
the enemy does," Lieutenant General David McKiernan, the
commander of U.S.-led ground forces in Iraq, told reporters Friday,
June 13.
As
U.S. troops have increased their presence throughout the country, they
have been targeted by hit-and-run attacks, mainly in the predominantly
Sunni areas north of Baghdad.
By
the Pentagon's count, 40 U.S. military personnel have been killed
since May 1 - a dozen of them by "hostile fire," and most of
those in the past three weeks.
No
Quick End In Sight
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U.S.
soldiers on high alert as Iraqi resistance gained momentum
recently
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U.S.
commanders, however, are not predicting a quick end to the resistance.
By some accounts, U.S. officials now believe U.S. forces will be
needed for two years or more.
"Who
knows how long this could take. It could take a long time. But every
time the military goes in and does what they're doing the overall
level of violence seems to decline to a certain degree," he said.
Most
Iraqis believe that Saddam is still alive and therefore as U.S. troops
are stepping up efforts to find him or his remains.
"Probably
the majority opinion is that he is alive, and that is something that
has to be dealt with," Myers told Fox News Channel.
He
made clear that perceptions were sometimes as important as hard facts,
and that the rumors circulating about Saddam had to be addressed.
"If
anybody else inside Iraq, particularly the former Baathists, thinks he
is alive then that can be a problem," the general pointed out.
Iraqi
National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi said last Wednesday that the
ousted Iraqi president had
been sighted about three weeks ago.
Revenge
But
it seems as if the Iraqi resistance has succeeded in driving the U.S.
troops there into panic, to the extent that they started a campaign of
an indiscriminate killing, provoking a public outcry of Iraqi
families.
Hashim
Mohammed Aani, "a chubby 15-year-old with a mop of curly black
hair and a face still rounded by adolescence to whom, as his family
say, the birds were his closest companions," was gunned down by
U.S. troops during a harrowing raid into the Iraqi town of Thuluya, The
Washington Post reported Sunday.
On
Monday morning, June 9, the family found Aani's body, two gunshots to
his stomach, next to a bale of hay and a rusted can of vegetable oil.
With soldiers occupying a house nearby, his corpse lay undisturbed for
hours under a searing sun.
But
in the aftermath, Thuluya has become a town transformed.
With
grief over the death of Hashim and two others, the Sunni Muslim
population here speaks of revenge. Those sentiments are mixed with
confusion.
Bound
together by clan and tribe, many have been uneasy since the U.S.
forces tapped informers from Thuluya. One of them fingered residents
for the troops to question, igniting vows of bloody vendettas.
"I
think the future's going to be very dark," the Post quoted
as saying said Rahim Hamid Hammoud, 56, a soft-spoken judge, as he
joined a long line in paying his respects to Hashim this week.
"We're
seeing each day become worse than the last."
The
U.S. raid, with Apache helicopters and F-16, A-10 and AC-130 warplanes and dubbed as Operation Peninsula Strike, was aimed at
finding elements of resistance fighters who have been ambushing U.S.
troops, the U.S. military said.
Within
minutes, armored vehicles plowed down the dirt road to the families'
compound. Humvees and troop transports followed.
From
the other direction, on the banks of the Tigris near a reed-shrouded
island, soldiers hurried from camouflage boats.
At
the sound of their arrival, Hashim's cousin, Asad Abdel-Karim Ibrahim,
said he went outside the gate with his parents, brother and two
sisters.
In
his arms was his 7-month-old niece, Amal. They raised a white
headscarf, but soldiers "apparently" did not see it. Ibrahim
was shot in the upper right arm. He dropped the baby, who started
screaming.
Days
later, Ibrahim was still wearing a piece of soiled tape placed on his
back by the soldiers that read: "15-year-old male, GSW [gunshot
wound] @ arm."
Around
the corner, residents said soldiers searched the house of Fadhil
Midhas, 19. Mentally retarded, he started shouting when soldiers put
tape over his mouth, fearful that he would suffocate, the daily added.
U.S.
troops and residents say about 400 residents were arrested in the
sweep. By week's end, residents said, all but 50 were released from a
makeshift detention center at an abandoned air base known as Abu
Hleij, seven miles to the north.
At
the entrance, guarded by two soldiers who said no one was available to
comment, graffiti painted in English read, "Welcome to Camp Black
Knight."
'100
Saddams Better Than U.S.'
In
Thuluya, many residents complained that the entire town felt punished
by the operation.
"They
carried out the raid here because we're Sunni and because Saddam was
Sunni," said Ibrahim Ali Hussein, 60, a farmer.
"After
this operation, we think 100 Saddams is better than the
Americans."
"We're
not criminals," added Hussein Hamoud Mohammed, 54, a veterinarian
and Baath Party member. "If they don't come in peace, then we'll
attack them with our fists and feet."
Residents
of Thuluya make no secret of their ties to both the Baath Party and
Hussein's government, though many insist membership does not make them
complicit in attacks on Americans.
Some
residents estimated that as many as 90 percent of the residents were
party members; as many as 25 percent were employed by the army,
government or intelligence services.
"I'll
tell you the truth, I liked him," said Hussein, the farmer.
He
said Saddam guaranteed stability, adding that only a strong leader
could hold this fractious country together. He quoted a proverb:
"He who is scared stays peaceful."
At
the condolences for Hashim, residents debated American intentions in
the wake of the raid. Some said retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner,
the first civilian administrator, had promised that only the
55 most-wanted Baathists would be targeted.
Now,
they feared, his successor, L. Paul Bremer, had declared war on all
Baathists, even the millions that had joined the party more for its
patronage than its politics.
On
May 16, Bremer banned
members of the Iraqi Baath party from "positions of
authority and responsibility in Iraqi society," a decision that triggered
an outcry from international law experts and human rights
watchdogs.
"Now
all the people are hunted. All the people are being chased," said
Hammoud, who worked as a judge for 30 years. "The condition to
work in the government meant you should be in the Baath Party. The
majority of Iraqis are in the Baath Party."
"The
rule is that someone is innocent until proven guilty," Hammoud
said. "They're stomping all over our dignity."
The
Washington Post further reported that U.S. troops attacked Iraqis
after an American tank patrol was ambushed Friday morning in the Iraqi
town of Balad, about 50 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing seven
people.
Lt.
Col. Andy Fowler, commander of the 7th Cavalry unit, said two of those
killed were dressed in the black clothes typical of Saddam's Fedayeen.
The
other five people killed, according to witnesses and relatives, were
an elderly shepherd, three of his sons and one son-in-law. A fourth
son was wounded, and his relatives said doctors told them he may never
walk again.
On
Friday, a statement issued by the U.S. Central Command said that
Fowler's unit was ambushed with rocket-propelled grenades and a
remote-controlled land mine.
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