Quote:

Iraqis Drag Bodies Through Streets After Attack
2 hours, 6 minutes ago

By Michael Georgy

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - A vengeful crowd of cheering Iraqis dragged the burned and mutilated bodies of four contractors -- three of them American -- through the streets of Falluja Wednesday after killing them in a vehicle ambush.

In a separate attack five American soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb was detonated beside their armored vehicle convoy west of Baghdad, the U.S. army said.

The White House vowed that the United States would stay the course in Iraq (news - web sites) despite another bloody day.

The Falluja violence began when guerrillas attacked two four-wheel-drive vehicles on a main road. A crowd set the vehicles ablaze and dragged the bodies through the streets of the town 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, witnesses said.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the U.S. army in Iraq, said all four contractors in the vehicles were killed. He said they were working for the U.S.-led occupation authority in Iraq.

A State Department official in Washington said three of the four were U.S. citizens but gave no further details.

"These are horrific attacks by people who are trying to prevent democracy from moving forward, but democracy is taking root," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. He said the United States was holding fast to a June 30 deadline for handing over power in Iraq to a transitional Iraqi government.

Television pictures from Falluja showed one incinerated body being kicked and its head being stamped on by a member of the jubilant crowd, while others dragged a charred and blackened body by its feet.

As one corpse lay burning on the ground, an Iraqi came and doused it with petrol, sending flames soaring into the air. At least two bodies, their skin burned away, were tied to cars and pulled through the streets, witnesses said.





"THE FATE OF ALL AMERICANS"

"This is the fate of all Americans who come to Falluja," said Mohammad Nafik, one of the crowd surrounding the bodies.

Some body parts were pulled off and left hanging from a telephone cable, while two incinerated bodies were later strung from a bridge and left dangling there.

A young boy beat one of the incinerated bodies after it was pulled down with his shoe as a crowd cheered.

"I am happy to see this. The Americans are occupying us so this is what will happen," said Mohammad, 12, looking on.

As the victims lay burning, a crowd of around 150 men chanted "Long live Islam" and "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Greatest") while flashing victory signs for the television cameras.

No U.S. soldiers or Iraqi police were seen in the area for several hours after the attack, but a U.S. fighter plane roared overhead, prompting the crowd to scatter.

Falluja has been one of the most violent, restive towns in Iraq since the U.S.-led occupation began. There are almost daily strikes against U.S. military convoys in the area.


An Iraqi hits a burning car with a shovel in Fallujah where four civilian contractors were shot dead.(

More than 400 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action since the start of the war, many of them in attacks using improvised explosive devices -- charges hidden in a plastic bag, soft drink can or dead animal and wired to a simple detonator.

As well as attacks on U.S. and coalition troops, there has been a sharp increase in insurgent strikes against foreign civilians in recent weeks.

In March alone, 12 foreign civilians have been killed in drive-by shootings or similar attacks.

With less than 100 days to go before U.S. authorities hand over sovereignty to an Iraqi government, the U.S. military, Iraqi police and other local security forces are still battling to bring security to the country.

Wednesday's scenes were reminiscent of an October 1993 incident in Somalia when 18 U.S. Army Rangers and one Malaysian were killed in the downing by Somali militias of two U.S. helicopters. Mobs dragged the corpses of Americans through the streets of Mogadishu. (Additional reporting by Fiona O'Brien)


An Iraqi boy holds a leaflet in broken English that reads 'Fallujah, the cemetery of the Americans,' near a burning car in Fallujah.(





Quote:

Anti-American Voices Get Louder Across Iraq
32 minutes ago


By Fiona O'Brien

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The people who burned and kicked the corpses of four American contractors in the Iraqi town of Falluja this week were not armed insurgents or foreign fighters.

Children joined in as jubilant crowds played with the charred bodies, dragging them like trophies through the streets of a town overwhelmed by hatred for the occupying forces.

Those who participated in the brutality may represent just a tiny minority of Iraqis, but across the country anti-American voices are getting louder and more insistent.

"There's an increasing feeling of anti-Americanism definitely," said Paola Gasparoli of Occupation Watch, an independent organization that monitors the occupation.

"It's like all their hopes were destroyed. Families who had some hope the Americans would help Iraq (news - web sites) now have sons who were killed or arrested, houses destroyed. This hope has died."

The U.S. authorities in Iraq cite polls showing that a vast majority of Iraqis are happy to have them in the country.

But one survey of 2,500 Iraqis released in March found that while they were happy to be rid of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), 41 percent said they were humiliated by the invasion, four in 10 had no confidence in occupation troops, and one in five believed attacks on foreign soldiers in Iraq were justified.

A number of factors fuel the growing resentment.

A year since the invasion, there has been no let-up in violence, infrastructure is still poor, jobs scarce. There is often friction between civilians and occupying troops.

Raids across the country leave houses damaged and property broken. Iraqis complain that troops coming under attack are quick to fire in self defense, but fire randomly and without regard for civilians nearby.

In Tikrit last month, U.S. soldiers killed a three-year-old boy when they fired on a car carrying four children and three women. The troops said the car jumped a checkpoint, the Iraqis said they never saw one.

Rights groups say that in the so-called battle for hearts and minds, the occupying forces are often their own worst enemy.

One tank rumbles through Baghdad with "Bloodlust" painted on its barrel. Another says "Kill them all."

DUTY TO FIGHT

Frustration at the breakdown of order since Saddam's fall on April 9, 2003, has been compounded by a perceived disregard for Iraqi lives.

"They come and destroy our houses, it's the duty of all Muslims to fight them," Ahmad Muhammad, a Falluja resident who watched the carnage on Wednesday said. "We're happy to see this...This is the democracy that Bush was waiting for."

Falluja and the region west of Baghdad have long been a hotspot for resistance, but the problem is wider. When two foreigners were shot dead in the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, Iraqis cheered as their bodies lay in the street.

Anyone linked to the U.S.-authorities is a target. Iraqi policemen, foreigners, local politicians have been killed in Baquba, Kirkuk, Basra, Baghdad.

Rumors stoke the hatred and Americans are blamed for everything. When Iraqi insurgents fire rockets and mortars, locals shout "Death to America" and "Bush is the enemy of Islam," and often claim sightings of U.S. aircraft.

"It was a plane, the Americans dropped a bomb from a plane," a small girl wounded in a rocket attack on a residential neighborhood in Baghdad recently wailed from her hospital bed.

The U.S. army has increasingly linked the insurgency to foreign terror networks, but Wednesday's killings showed their No. 1 enemy within Iraq is hatred of the occupiers.

"On the issue of hearts and minds, trust and confidence, that's something we need to work on every day with the people of Iraq," the deputy director of operations for the U.S. army in Iraq, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, told Reuters.

"It's an active battle. It's as important for us to win the moral battle, the trust and confidence as it is to provide a safe and secure environment for the people of Iraq."







Last edited by whomod; 2004-04-02 9:40 AM.