Here's an Iraqi blogger commenting on the recent attacks - I've excerpted several of his blog entries below. They illustrate that Iraqis and their institutions are targeted just as Americans are:
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It has been confirmed that there were six simultaneous suicide attacks in Baghdad yesterday between 8 and 9 in the morning. The first one targetted the Red Cross. The other four were against police stations in Hay Al-A'lam, Al-Dora, Al-Khadhraa', and Al-Sha'ab. In another attempted attack in Baghdad Al-Jedida the bomber was stopped by IP and he is still in an intensive care unit. They found him carrying a Syrian passport. He was driving a Toyota Landcruiser with one ton of explosives. I just hope the bastard lives. 42 Iraqis mostly IP and civilians were killed. About 230 are badly injured. So it is obvious that these were attacks intended against Iraqis. Six Syrian schmucks have said to themselves 'okay lets meet at Paradise after 10 am'. Noori Al-Badran was screaming hysterically on tv blaming Saddam. Idiot. They still don't know what they're dealing with here. This Saddamophobia has to stop. Suicide attacks are carried out by you-know-who. This is Bin Ladens gift to his fellow Iraqi Muslims. Didn't he say it himself a while ago? I demand that all Iraqi diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and Syria cease immediately. I demand that we expel all foreign Arabs from Iraq until further notice. A little firmness is necessary. We can't just sit and wait for the next attacks. Iraq should resign from the Arab League which is just a symposium for dictators. Who the hell needs it anymore? They didn't even officially show sympathy for Iraqis after the attacks. They should be considered the enemy unless they act promptly to secure their borders and ensure that no Mujahedeen sneak through to Iraq daily. They are the ones to blame. We all know they have an interest in keeping up the attacks and the chaos. They are aware of the fact that they are next on the list after Saddam. They will pursue every possible effort to make the Iraqi example fail. When attacks are carried out in other Arab countries they consider it terrorism, but in Iraq it is resistance against the occupying Americans.
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The Mujahedeen have sent the Iraqi people their Ramadan greetings. Today, the first day of Ramadan, there were several bombings all around Baghdad. The deadliest was on the Red Cross in Sina'a street. An Ambulance full of explosives went past the security barriers and exploded inside the compound. Twelve people are known to be dead till now, most of them Iraqi employees. Several people were injured in nearby houses and the Furat secondary school adjacent to the Red Cross building.
My brother came home from school very early this morning and told us all about it. His high school is about 200 meters from the targetted site. He told us that blood was all over the place and people from the area were putting injured kids from the school into taxis taking them to hospitals. Parents were panicking trying to find their children among the mess.
I don't know anything else. I saw some footage from the scene on Al-Arabiyah station and as usual they were talking about the f*ing 'resistance' and trying to justify the whole act. I couldn't stand hearing that anymore. Chickens. I can see what they are trying to do. The Red Cross has been working in Iraq since 1980 and it has never been attacked before. So why now? A spokesman from the Red Cross was talking and he said that the organization will consider abandoning all activities in Iraq. Just like the UN. Everyone I talked to today was dismayed. I'll write more about it later. I don't feel like it right now.
A police station at Hay Al-A'lam south of Baghdad was also attacked by a suicide bomber at the exact same time. I don't have any details about that one.
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The Mujahedeen are getting very creative day by day. Someone told me yesterday that a woman carrying a baby just a few months old was arrested in front of Al Yarmuk hospital in Baghdad after trying to enter. The IP and FPS found out that the baby was wrapped in explosives between his clothes. After questioning the woman she confessed that the baby was kidnapped and that some Arabs had offered her a considerable amount of money to get the baby inside the crowded emergency hall in the hospital, leave it there and they would do the rest. Pretty amazing isn't it? Hospitals? I can't understand why they didn't hang the woman on the spot. Because obviously the terrorists are craving for some attention. We could have given them all the attention they wanted by doing that.
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I was chatting with a taxi driver yesterday morning going to work. He turned out to be a member of the new and promising Iraqi Police (IP). He was telling me about a bloody encounter they had the other night with a gang during the curfew hours. A colleague of his was killed in the fight, so his boss gave them a day off.
I have to mention that most Iraqis work as taxi drivers on their spare time to get extra dough. This guy was no exception. Regular Baghdadi taxis are either colored yellow, or white and orange (most of them are 80's models of Toyota Crowns, Coronas, Datsuns, and Volkswagens). Part time taxis 'khussusi' could be anything from a 1975 Peugeot to a 1990 Toyota.
You shouldn't be surprised to find college graduates, postgraduate students, engineers, and university proffessors working 'khusussi'. It was impossible to depend on the salary the government gave you. So this was the main means of earning more money. Of course salaries were raised drastically the last few months. But this was still a reliable and widespread method of making more money. The result is that its very easy to hire a cab anytime and anywhere in the city. Taxi fares are relatively higher than before, excuses for this are long queues at petrol stations, or traffic jams. Cabs don't use counters so you have to bargain the driver for an acceptable fare.
Anyway, back to my driver. He was describing the fight to me; The gang were in a black BMW (very fashionable among gangs these days). 4 of them. The police patrol ordered them to stop by loud speakers. The gang tried to flee, and opened fire from their kalashnikovs on the two car police patrol. A policeman was injured. The patrol returned heavy fire and hit one of their tires. After a small chase the gang stopped and surrendered. My driver told me that while they were approaching the criminals, they blurted "Don't touch us", "We want our rights!", "Promise you won't hurt us!". Of course that was too much to ask. They had just shot and killed a police officer. I told my driver that I hope they beat the shit out of them. He relieved me by answering yes.
The whole point of this anecdote is:
1-The new IP and traffic police are doing a great and wonderful job. Iraqis used to describe policemen as lazy, corrupt, and unreliable. Now they are welcomed with cheers by Iraqis everywhere they go. They are efficiently protecting schools, colleges, banks, and public buildings. They are being trained and briefed daily by the coalition on modern police methods, effective communication, and human rights. I'm sure the coalition would be at loss if the IP weren't around. They are giving enormous sacrifices daily. They are a huge part of what makes me optimistic about Iraqs future. I salute them wherever I see them.
2-What we need instead of peacekeeping forces (Yes, I mean Turkey), or extra coalition deployments is MORE Iraqi police. There are about 70 thousand of them now. 16 thousand police in Baghdad alone. Where Baghdad used to have at least 50 thousand prior to the war. We don't need to send new police recruits to Hungary or Jordan for training. We need them now on the streets.
3-On several occasions police officers have been complaining that they work hard to capture criminals and the next day the Americans simply release them. Many conspiracy theories are circulating in the country because of these actions. Some people are saying that the Americans are deliberately encouraging crime and unrest in the city, to provide an excuse that the security situation is still bad and that they are still needed. However, the explanation for these acts is very simple. We do not have enough jails to accomodate a large number of criminals. Hundreds of which are arrested daily. We need more jails opened, and we need the CPA to trust Iraqi police more to handle the situation. In my opinion they are qualified to do so.
4-The death penalty should return and be implemented immediately. This isn't an issue of morals, human rights, and ethics..blah, blah, blah. We need it badly to deter criminals, terrorists and gangs. Iraqis were horrified when Bremer abolished the death penalty. That may be possible in the US or Europe, but in Iraq the results would be devastating. A hundred thousand dangerous criminals released by the regime before the war are loose on the streets killing innocent people, abducting children, women, and businessmen, carrying out daily armed robberies, and carjackings (an average of 20 carjacking incidents occur in Baghdad daily). And since those criminals know they won't be executed for it, they act extremely. Hence your regular murderer kills a policeman and then asks for his rights. Killing a person remorselessly in Iraq has become so easy because of this. The necessity and the consequences of reactivating the death penalty cannot be underestimated to resolve the security problems. Crime will simply diminish today if say a hundred deadly criminals were hanged publicly. This may sound barbaric to people in the west, but in Iraq its a MUST to put an end to the chaos. So we can safely move on to reconstruction.
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I heard some very distressful news today. Someone has been writing graffiti all over Baghdad threatening to kill children who accept the new schoolbags that are to be gifted to them by UNESCO for the new school season. Also warning that any hand waving to the infidel Americans will be cut.
Are these people sane? I mean what are they thinking? Is this our latest form of 'resistance'? Threatening our own children for getting some shiny new schoolbags. I am trying very hard to understand. This so called resistance is getting hated more and more by Iraqis everywhere. I'm sure this will only add to that scorn exponentially. They are losing any sympathy they may have had earlier. The terrorists have turned out to be MUCH dumber than I thought.
# posted by zeyad
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