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[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] At our Sunday meeting of the Committee to End the Occupation of Iraq, I used this account of events in Bagdad on Wednesday, October 1, from the Philadelphia Inquirer (entire article below). These five paragraphs are a vivid description of a people who are not defeated and demoralized, but are standing up against the occupation and in this case successfully forcing the occupation forces to back off. In Solidarity Bob Allen "... According to witnesses, Wednesday's incident began after American soldiers in a humvee and an artillery ammunition carrier arrived before dusk to investigate a demonstration at al Bayai mosque, in a southwestern Baghdad slum populated mostly by Shiites. Soldiers had tried to arrest Sheik Moayed al Khazraji, a militant cleric there, two days earlier but were chased away by an angry crowd. When soldiers arrived Wednesday, a cleric with a bullhorn was whipping up the crowd. "If we give you the order, are you ready to fight the Americans?" witnesses quoted the cleric as saying. "Are you willing to be crushed by American tanks? Are you ready to fight for Islam?" When the U.S. soldiers arrived, the crowd surged toward them, pelting their vehicles with stones. A soldier on one vehicle responded by firing a .50-caliber machine gun over the demonstrators' heads. The situation gave the Iraqi police officers standing about 100 yards away little choice, the officers said. "When they started shooting at the mosque, we started shooting at them," said Jassim Mohammed, 35, an Iraqi police officer. "We started shooting because we are Muslims first and policemen second. Besides, our job isn't to protect the Americans. It is to protect Iraqis." http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/6932974.htm U.S. troops, Iraqi militias at odds over security roles Sunday, Oct. 05, 2003 By Drew Brown INQUIRER FOREIGN STAFF BAGHDAD - Shiite Muslim militiamen swagger in increasing numbers through the streets around Baghdad's mosques and elsewhere in Iraq these days, openly carrying AK-47 rifles, pistols and other weapons in defiance of the U.S.-backed Coalition Provisional Authority. "Our position is that we are not going to tolerate militias," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top coalition commander, said Thursday. "And where we find them, we are going to go ahead and disarm them." The militias threaten to undermine the central authority of the U.S.-led coalition. They are becoming a headache for American troops and a nascent Iraqi security apparatus struggling to establish law and order six months after Saddam Hussein's ouster. And American forces are not sure how to respond: If they crack down too hard, they risk more armed confrontations, a situation that could spin out of control quickly. Iraq is awash in guns, and there are many armed groups associated with the various political parties, especially with the powerful exiles on Iraq's interim Governing Council. But the resurgent Shiite militias are a special case. Long persecuted under Saddam, they are relishing their newfound political and social freedom, and many vow to die rather than give up those liberties. On Wednesday, U.S. soldiers exchanged fire with a group of about 50 militiamen and police at a Baghdad mosque. Miraculously, no one was hurt, and the soldiers withdrew to avoid risking a bloody confrontation. The exchange illustrates the fine line that American troops must tread in trying to establish security while avoiding inflaming tensions with the country's Shiite majority, whose cooperation is essential to a stable future in the country. It also underscores that in dealing with these new vigilante gangs, U.S.-led forces may find themselves in the cross hairs of the newly established Iraqi police forces. Torn between loyalties, the police are more likely to side with their countrymen. According to witnesses, Wednesday's incident began after American soldiers in a humvee and an artillery ammunition carrier arrived before dusk to investigate a demonstration at al Bayai mosque, in a southwestern Baghdad slum populated mostly by Shiites. Soldiers had tried to arrest Sheik Moayed al Khazraji, a militant cleric there, two days earlier but were chased away by an angry crowd. When soldiers arrived Wednesday, a cleric with a bullhorn was whipping up the crowd. "If we give you the order, are you ready to fight the Americans?" witnesses quoted the cleric as saying. "Are you willing to be crushed by American tanks? Are you ready to fight for Islam?" When the U.S. soldiers arrived, the crowd surged toward them, pelting their vehicles with stones. A soldier on one vehicle responded by firing a .50-caliber machine gun over the demonstrators' heads. The situation gave the Iraqi police officers standing about 100 yards away little choice, the officers said. "When they started shooting at the mosque, we started shooting at them," said Jassim Mohammed, 35, an Iraqi police officer. "We started shooting because we are Muslims first and policemen second. Besides, our job isn't to protect the Americans. It is to protect Iraqis." Sanchez said this was the first he was aware of Iraqi police deliberately firing on American soldiers. The militias formed mainly in Baghdad and the southern city of Najaf, about 90 miles south of Baghdad and home to the holiest shrine of the Shiite branch of Islam, after the assassination Aug. 29 of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al Hakim. Hakim was a Saddam foe who led the 10,000-strong Badr Brigade, an exile group that fought on the side of the Iranians in their 1980-88 war with Iraq and waged a low-level guerrilla campaign against Saddam in southern Iraq for years afterward. Hakim died in a car bombing outside the Najaf shrine that killed at least 78 other people and wounded more than 100. After American-led forces ousted Saddam, the Badr Brigade voluntarily disarmed. But after Hakim was assassinated, its members began appearing in the streets of Najaf, frustrated by the lack of protection from coalition forces. In Baghdad, coalition authorities have yet to deal effectively with a problem that took shape Aug. 31 during Hakim's funeral at the city's Khadimiya mosque, a prominent Shiite shrine in the northwest of the city: As hundreds of thousands of mourners packed the streets, hundreds of armed Badr Brigade militiamen were posted in the crowd and dozens kept a tight security cordon around Hakim's coffin. U.S. soldiers had stayed away to avoid angering the crowd. And they have cut a wide swath around the mosque in the weeks since Hakim's death. Contact reporter Drew Brown at dbrown@krwashington.com. _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk