US in Baghdad, Population Jubilant, Looting

[Mewnews, April 10] Looting and lawlessness have increased in Baghdad today. US authorities are planning to reinforce the existing troops and begin restoring order, but they cannot do so as yet. US forces entered Baghdad in force yesterday, with US Marines pushing into residential neighborhoods and forces entering the center of town as well. In scenes reminiscent of the fall of the USSR, people tore down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein in the center of town, and in some neighborhoods, greeted the US forces as liberators.

The BBC's Rageh Omaar said that as the image of the Iraqi leader tumbled to the ground the decades of pain and anger welled up and the crowd surged forward to jump on the statue to smash it to pieces.

"It is a true expression of their anger at over 25 years of rule, they are seeking to vent their anger at the government and joy that it has now fallen."

"This is an historic moment and it took place in front of ordinary Iraqi people, US marines and the gathered media of the world," he added.

Rose petals fluttered down from rooftops, flowers were thrown onto tanks and women dressed in traditional black held up bemused babies to see the soldiers.

"Hello my guest, thank you for coming," said one bystander, using practiced but limited English.

"Down with Saddam, down with Saddam," shouted a middle-aged man, his anger making his jowls shake.

Hundreds of youths chased the Marine column entering the center of the city, giving a thumbs up sign and shouting "Bush, Bush, Bush."

"No more Saddam Hussein," chanted one group, waving to troops as they passed. "We love you, we love you.

``Today the regime is in disarray,'' Brig. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks said at briefing at Central Command headquarters in Qatar. ``The capital city has been added to those places where the regime has lost control.''

Throngs of men milled about, looting, blaring horns, dancing and tearing up pictures of Saddam Hussein. Baath party offices were trashed.

Occasional sniper fire continued, but Iraqi resistance largely faded away. The American military hesitated to say the war was over, warning instead that more fighting could break out, both inside and outside Baghdad. The American military emptied jails overnight, releasing their prisoners.

The bombing campaign is over. The streets were full of activity. In the Shiite neighborhood called Saddam City, a densely populated  slum, crowds of men shouted and waved their arms in jubilation. Some carried makeshift flags.

A  man held up a giant portrait of Saddam Hussein, and beat the face of the Iraqi leader with his shoe, a particular insult. "This man has killed two million of us,'' he yelled as bystanders milled around approvingly.

An American colonel said that there was not a single area of the city that the Iraqi government still controlled, after another night of heavy bombing and intense fighting. A few explosions continued during the day as bombs fell from American war planes. However, military officials cautioned that resistance continued elsewhere in the country and that Baghdad could not be called secure. At Central Command headquarters in Doha, Qatar, an American military spokesman said:.

``I think it's premature to talk about the end of this operation,'' Captain Frank Thorp said. There could be more fierce fighting ahead, he said, within Baghdad and other cities.

Sporadic  gunfire crackled in the morning hours, but there was no visible sign of organized resistance from Iraqi forces. The fighting has gone  from targeting major military targets to dealing with local pockets of resistance, another United States military spokesman said.

In the Shiite area of Baghdad, long suppressed by the forces of Saddam Hussein, there appeared to be a quick breakdown in law and order. Crowds rushed into a government building, unfettered by police, and emerged with furniture, china and mattresses. One man carried a huge porcelain urn. Another shouted at a foreign television camera: "No Saddam" as cars passed in the background honking their horns. Marines looked on doing nothing as the looting continued. Some of the sporadic gunfire could have been shopkeepers warning looters to stay away, a sign of growing chaos as the mood spread throughout the city. Looters took over a United Nations compound in southeast Baghdad, taking air conditioners, cars and refrigerators.

American marines were moving westward into the central city. Army and marine units have already linked up in the northern part of town.

Reporters said that the government officials assigned to follow them did not turn up for work. "The Information Minister decided to take the day off,'' a British general said.

In contrast to Iraqi reaction, many other Arabs and Muslims were unhappy about the fall of Saddam, which pointed out Arab weakness once again.

Suicide Attack & Checkpoint Killing

[Mewnews April 11]  Four or five U.S. Marines were seriously wounded Thursday night by a suicide attack at a U.S. checkpoint in northern Baghdad. The suicide attack occurred about 7:30 p.m. near the Shiite Saddam City quarter.  A man strapped with explosives approached a Marine checkpoint and detonated himself. The suicide bomber was killed.

Nervous about suicide bombings, US Marines at an Nassiriyeh checkpoint fired on a vehicle, kill 2 children and wounding 9 other occupants Friday. Previously, they had shot at a van, killing a number of occupants, and also killed an old blind man who wandered across a checkpoint.

The Iraqi government had warned that suicide attacks would be "routine military policy," and American troops have been wary of approaching civilians.

Shiite Leaders Killed by Najaf Mob

[Mewnews, April 11]A crowd rushed and hacked to death two Shiite Muslim imams - during a reconciliation meeting at one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, the shrine of Imam Ali.

``People attacked and killed both of them inside the mosque,'' said Ali Assayid Haider, a mullah who traveled from the southern city of Basra for the meeting in Najaf.

A meeting was held  about how to control the shrine, which had been under the control of the hated Haider al-Kadar, of Saddam's Ministry of religion. Al-Kadar was accompanied to the shrine by Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a high-ranking Shiite cleric and son of one of the religion's most prominent ayatollahs. Al Khoei had returned a week ago from exile in London to help restore order in Najaf. 

When the two men appeared at the shrine, members of another faction loyal to a different mullah, Mohammed Baqer al-Sadr, verbally assailed al-Kadar.

Al-Khoei pulled a gun and fired one or two shots. Both men were then rushed by the crowd and hacked to death with swords and knives, the witnesses said.

Al-Khoei's father, Ayatollah Abul-Qassim al-Khoei, was the spiritual leader at the time of the 1991 Shiite uprising crushed by Saddam. He died in 1993, two years after he was forced to meet Saddam to prove loyalty. The meeting was televised  to humiliate the Shiites.

Humanitarian Agencies Stop Services, Cite Violence
Diane Huie Balay for Mewnews

[Mewnews April 11] Contrary to Pentagon  reports, international humanitarian organizations say that a humanitarian  crisis is developing in southern Iraq and will spread to other parts of the  country. Despite this assertion, at least two and possibly three agencies are  stopping, delaying or refusing to deliver humanitarian aid, citing violence.  Amanda Williamson of the International Red Cross said that it is impossible  to deliver aid with the continued violence and looting. Antonia Paradela,  speaking for the World Food Program on CNN and clearly annoyed, called the  Coalition forces "occupiers" and showed little interest in working with them  in getting food to the Iraqi people. Rather, she said, they would use Iraqi  distribution systems to distribute the food. That may prove rather difficult  since there is, at present, no Iraqi distribution system. Jay Garner of Oxfam  revealed more willingness to attempt delivery, but, he said, "The military  has to provide a space for us to get in. It is their duty under international  law to provide it."

Law And Order
Diane Huie Balay for Mewnews

[Mewnews April 11] Law and Order was the topic of many pundits following the fall of Baghdad on  Wednesday. Fawaz Gerges, professor at Sarah Lawrence College, said "What the  US does in the next few days, few months are extremely important. In the  short run, they must provide law and order and bring humanitarian aid. It was  the US forces who destroyed the existing structure and they must replace it  with something. In the long run, he said, the United States much empower  Iraqi civil society. When reminded that was exactly what US President George  W. Bush said he was going to do, Dr. Gerges said, "Words are not enough."

New ‘Smoking Guns’?
Diane Huie Balay for Mewnews

[Mewnews April 11] US Marines found possible evidence of weapons of mass  destruction in Iraq on Wednesday when, after a firefight, they discovered a  truck with what may possibly contain a biological weapons lab. At another  site near Baghdad which had been "under the noses of the weapons inspectors,"  they found what they believe to be evidence of weapons-grade plutonium. "The  radiation levels were ‘off the charts,’" one of the marines said. When  Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was asked about the finds, he said they  were being treated as a crime scene and that tests on sample materials from  the sites will be conducted by several countries. Even if they proved  positive, some reporters believe, the credibility chasm is so great that  peoples in the region would believe that the US and Britain planted them  there.

French About Face?
Diane Huie Balay for Mewnews

[Mewnews April 11] News reports quote French President Jacques Chirac saying,  "France is rejoicing over the collapse of Saddam’s regime."

US Flags Off Limits
Diane Huie Balay & A. Isseroff for  Mewnews

[Mewnews April 11] The short time that the US flag hung over the face of  Saddam Hussein’s statue in Central Baghdad resulted in consternation by many  in the region who feared that the United States was demonstrating dominance  not liberation. The picture of the flag- draped statue was prominently displayed in Arab media as "proof" that the USA seeks to occupy and dominate Iraq. Earlier, a marine had briefly raised the US flag at Umm Qasr in the south.

The flag was put over Saddam's stature by US Marine Corporal Edward Chin, the  son of Chinese immigrants from Burma. According to the Associate Press, his  fiancee, Anne Fu, said she knew Chin meant no disrespect when he put up the  American flag. "He wanted to show the Iraqi people that they were free, that  they were liberated, that the U.S. was there to help them and that Saddam is  over,'' she said. Even though the American flag was quickly replaced by the  Iraqi flag, the gesture prompted a ban. Any display of the American flag  anywhere in the country is forbidden.

Tanks In The Air
Diane Huie Balay for Mewnews

[Mewnews April 11] The US has been airlifting Abrams tanks and armored  personnel vehicles into northern Iraq for several days. Aircraft are also  ferrying military personnel into the north. The vehicle flies low enough that  the personnel can clearly see the children below them. The children wave at  them, they report.

Deadly Side of Baghdad Bob
Diane Huie Balay for Mewnews

[Mewnews April 11]CNN revealed Thursday night that it’s Erbil  office in Northern Iraq was the target of an assassination attempt. CNN chief  news executive Eason Jordan said that the now invisible Iraqi Minister of  Information,  Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, better known in some circles as  "Baghdad Bob," had threatened CNN with "the severest consequences" if they  opened an office in northern Iraq. The minister was convinced, Jordan said,  that CNN was a CIA cover and that Jordan personally was CIA. CNN opened the  office in Erbil despite the warning. CNN was expelled from Iraq as a result.  The promised assassination attempt was foiled when two of Baghdad Bob’s  henchmen were caught with a ton of explosives and detailed directions to the  CNN office. The captured assassins confessed on videotapes, which were played  Thursday night. They had been told the office belonged to US and Israeli  intelligence. As a follow up to expelling CNN, Baghdad Bob called all of the  remaining international journalists together and told them that if they  provided any information to CNN, they would be imprisoned, Jordan said. CNN  received phone calls from news organizations from all over the world, he  said, begging CNN  not to use any material from their reporters. Baghdad Bob  permitted CNN to use footage from Abu Dhabi TV and Al-Jezeera, Jordan said.

The Face of War