31Dec03-Evan Osnos-Attacks in `grateful' town shock coalition
By Evan Osnos Tribune foreign correspondent
KARBALA, Iraq -- Three months after Polish, Bulgarian and Thai forces inherited control of this once-quiet city from U.S. forces, a weekend attack has shattered Karbala's peaceful reputation and posed sudden demands on largely untested troops.
Foreign commanders and Karbala residents said Saturday's attack--which killed 19 and injured at least 135 in the most sophisticated assault on coalition troops in months-- hints of deeper problems in a patch of the country that had provided the U.S.-led coalition with a success story.
"The electricity system is totally collapsed and the fuel supply is broken and I don't have control over that, and it creates great tension," said Polish Brig. Gen. Marek Ojrzanowski, the commander in charge of the holy Shiite city.
Ojrzanowski, who commands the 1,300 Bulgarian and Polish troops in Karbala and Babil provinces, said it is too early to know who is responsible for Saturday's attack. But he suspects that the people behind the four near-simultaneous strikes with bombs, mortars and rockets at three sites may have had local assistance in planning and execution.
Brutally oppressed for decades by Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime, Iraq's majority Shiite population in the south has been a largely grateful ally to the U.S.-led occupation for the past eight months.
But Ojrzanowski pointed to growing anger among southern Iraqis who are increasingly embittered by shortages of gas and electricity and weary of an influx of Iranian pilgrims across Iraq's porous borders. Since the fall of Hussein in April, the number of worshipers arriving from Iran at holy sites in Karbala and Najaf has soared.
"It is a real problem," Ojrzanowski said. "There are complaints from the Iraqis that Karbala has become an Iranian city, not an Iraqi city."
Investigators are seeking to determine whether Saturday's assailants came from Sunni strongholds further north or from abroad, and how much cooperation they may have received from local residents, Ojrzanowski said. Five Iraqis have been detained for questioning, he said.
Tribal leaders and residents said it was unthinkable that locals could have been behind the blasts, but they acknowledged growing discontent over the shortages and the surging border traffic, which may include militants among the pious.
"The borders are open with Iran, and anyone who wants to do sabotage can easily come in," said Abdel Abbas al Tamimi, a director at Karbala General Hospital.
Deaths raise toll to 19
On Sunday the toll from Saturday's attack rose to 19 after the death of a Bulgarian soldier and five Iraqi civilians. Seven Iraqi security officers, four Bulgarian soldiers and two Thai soldiers died Saturday.
On Sunday, Thailand's prime minister vowed to keep his nation's troops in Iraq despite calls from the political opposition for a withdrawal following the soldiers' deaths, The Associated Press reported.
"We will continue to work for humanitarian ends," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said. "The next batch of troops are preparing and making themselves ready. They are ready to go to Iraq as scheduled. Their morale is still good."
The four bombs used Saturday, which officials described as 120 mm mortar rounds packed in batches weighing as much as 1,300 pounds, tore deep wounds in this prayerful city.
Just four blocks from one of Shiite Islam's most holy sites, the gold-domed shrine of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, a bomber in a car disguised as an Iraqi police vehicle worked his way into the police chief's convoy. He detonated the explosives as the entourage pulled up to the main police station and governor's office, witnesses and survivors said.
The explosion ripped a crater 15 feet in diameter, shattered every window for blocks around and wounded entire units of Iraqi police officers.
The other bombs struck a logistics base guarded by Thai troops and a base for Bulgarian soldiers, where two strikes were reported.
"I knew it was dangerous work, but it is protecting our region," said Hazem Mohammed al Sherifi, 21, a police officer who was hospitalized after being struck with shrapnel in the chest, abdomen and face. "If we don't do it, who will?"
Few troubles until now
Perhaps nobody was more stunned by the attack than the European and Asian troops, who had found little reason to worry during their first few months after joining the U.S.-led coalition to rebuild Iraq.
From the moment they arrived in August and September, they faced some unique challenges. Ukrainian troops rumbled along in cold-weather vehicles that frequently broke down in Iraq's heat. Lacking interpreters for their two languages, Bulgarian and Polish soldiers resorted to Russian to communicate.
For months those problems posed little real trouble because the land they controlled was a peaceful refuge from the insurgency that persists in and around the capital, 60 miles north. In fact, some in the Karbala region suspect the troops' lack of experience in dealing with the resistance made them an attractive target.
"I think they are trying to find the weakest point and cause as [many] casualties among the coalition troops as possible," Ojrzanowski said.
That was on 22-year-old Marek Karaczun's mind as his convoy wound its way through the neighborhood near his base.
"Everybody was pretty scared" after the bombing, he said, gripping his black steel Beryl rifle. "It's hard when people attack soldiers who want to help them."
Like all Polish soldiers, Karaczun volunteered to be sent from his home post. He was eager to learn about a new country, meet new friends and, most of all, earn more money. He receives $1,060 a month in Iraq, compared with $200 if he had remained stationed at home.
In their forest-green jeeps and heavy, black, snow-ready boots, the Poles stick out against the pale backdrop and parched shrubs of this land beside the Euphrates River. Karaczun looked forward to getting back to the safer confines of his base.
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