Posted on 08/11/2004 8:05:33 PM PDT by propertius
The Shia fighter, masked by a scarf that revealed only his narrowing eyes, raised his battered rifle as a convoy of American tanks lumbered past the top of the street. He took aim and curled a finger round the trigger.
"Pa!" He mimicked the sound of gunshot as his weapon traced the movement of the first tank. "Pa! Pa!"
The four men around him, similarly hooded and armed, smiled and nodded appreciatively as they squatted beside a barricade of burning tyres.
"That was a joke," said the young man, who identified himself as Ahmed, lowering his scarf to light a cigarette.
"But a few hours ago we were serious. We ambushed a tank. We hit it with rocket-propelled grenades and then we burned it." In Baghdad's northern slums, home to half the capital's four million inhabitants, armed men such as Ahmed loiter at every rubbish-strewn corner.
They are members of the Mahdi army, militants loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, the fiery Shia cleric who has vowed to fight United States forces "till the last drop of blood".
A week ago, a three-month truce ending a previous Shia uprising collapsed as battles between the Mahdi army and American forces exploded in Najaf, one of Shia Islam's most holy cities. Fighting quickly spread to other cities in the Shia-dominated south.
It is a war that the interim Iraqi government and the US-led coalition feel they must win. Cities to the north and west have effectively slipped out of coalition control, their centres roamed by insurgents and foreign militants, while US troops look on from the outskirts.
One of the biggest challenges to the interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, is to stamp his authority on the capital.
Sadr City, as the Shia suburbs in north-east Baghdad are known, has increasingly started to resemble 1980s Beirut. Scores have died in the past week as American tanks and fighter aircraft have fought the insurgents.
US forces make only rare forays into Sadr City, where they come under attack from rocket-wielding militiamen hidden in the dilapidated buildings that line the roads and alleyways. The guerrilla warfare that many feared seems to have come to pass.
While its lack of training makes the Mahdi army easier to tackle than the more disciplined insurgents in the so-called Sunni Triangle, the Shia fighters seem so consumed with passion for their cause that they appear undeterred by huge casualties.
"We fight because we hate," said Ahmed.
It was not always so. Iraq's Shia community, comprising more than 60 per cent of the population, largely welcomed the American invasion after years of repression by Saddam Hussein and his Sunni acolytes. But many expected a rapid end to the grinding poverty they had long suffered, and blamed the Americans when this did not come about.
In desperation, many poor and unemployed young men turned to radical clerics who viewed the invasion as a desecration of Islam.
They were drawn to the message of hatred preached by men such as Hassan Naji al-Mousawi, a leading Sadr aide who is directing the revolt in northern Baghdad.
During a lull in fighting yesterday, Mousawi, a cleric who claims descent from the Prophet Mohammed, sat in a Sadr City house with senior commanders to plot the next stage of the battle.
"The Americans are Jews - that is why they have no right to be in this country," he said, running fingers through his long white beard that stretched down to his black Juba robes. "And now we see on the streets of Sadr City the most barbaric attack from the Americans and the traitor government since the fall of the Saddam regime."
That civilians are being killed by US troops is not in doubt. In a pool of blood on a hospital operating room floor yesterday, doctors were battling to save the life of six-year-old Ali Hussain - shot in the belly.
"He had gone to buy an ice cream," said his mother, 23, watching the laboured breathing of her unconscious son. "He had just made it back to the front door when soldiers in an American tank started firing. They did not even stop as we tried to carry him inside."
An exhausted doctor looked up. "I don't think he is going to make it," he said. "We have had at least 20 dead brought in today." Outside the hospital, two minibuses parked beside the main gate. On their roof racks, tied down with ropes, were four small coffins.
"My children, my children," an old man wailed, his fists flailing. "Curse those dogs. Why have they slaughtered my children?" US forces trying to end the insurgency in Sadr City face a bitter dilemma.
Fighting the Mahdi army at such close quarters can only result in more casualties. The more children they kill, the more moderate Shi'ites they alienate.
As one American soldier involved in recent operations in Sadr City admitted: "A year ago, we used to throw sweets to the children here and they would run after the tanks, cheering. Now they throw them back."
Stories with quotes like this are so prevalent, there must not be anyone in Iraq who does not support the insurgents.
The entire population is with the gunmen. All Iraqis will be just as happy to have a new dictator--as long as the US leaves their country.
How obvious.
I'm disagreeing in principle, but if the peak of the resistance means 80-90% of fighting age men are in active combat against you...that's a problem
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