- "(Disbanding the Iraqi army), US officials now concede,
was a mistake and merely filled the ranks of the resistance movement with
angry young men with military experience."
-
- BAGHDAD -- Iraq's standby
government has put Saddam Hussein's former legions to work in an attempt
to solve the growing security crisis, but all was not going to plan yesterday.
-
- At a roadblock on the outskirts of Baghdad manned by
hardened veterans of 25 years of war, former soldiers were less than appreciative
of their new American paymasters.
-
- "I'm not here to serve the Americans," insisted
Lt Ali Abbas, a former non-commissioned officer in the Iraqi army, but
now an officer in the Iraqi Civil Defence Force.
-
- "I'm serving my country, and the sooner the Americans
get out of it the better. They are the ones causing most of the violence
by being here."
-
- The force is one of several security organisations set
up to swamp the insurgency by putting men on the ground.
-
- Plans are afoot to employ up to 300,000 Iraqis, most
of them former soldiers left without a job when the government disbanded
the army six months ago.
-
- That move, US officials now concede, was a mistake and
merely filled the ranks of the resistance movement with angry young men
with military experience.
-
- Iraq's Governing Council has called for a speedy handover
of security to local forces - an idea that would help US administrators
scale back their own operations. So far 100,000 men have been hired at
about £50 a month, almost three times what they earned under Saddam,
but most have only a limited enthusiasm for the job.
-
- Many said they would rather do less dangerous work if
there was anything else available. Unsurprisingly, they have had little
success in quelling the violence.
-
- Most of the new policemen and soldiers are given a few
weeks' training, a gun and uniform if they are lucky, and sent to the front
line of America's war on terrorism.
-
- Poorly armed and without armour, they have proved easy
pickings for terrorists who accuse them of collaborating with the occupation.
-
- At the dusty crossroad that Abbas guards, he and his
men huddled in a little mud hut. Half were dressed in civilian clothes
and had no guns, the other half wore their uniforms from the former regime.
Morale was at rock bottom.
-
- The unit's task was to look out for terrorists trying
to enter the capital. They had found nothing so far, although a sister
unit was ambushed a short distance up the road, with one killed and another
wounded.
-
- Sgt Khatan Thamar Jabber, another former officer in the
Iraqi army, said: "We don't know how to begin tracking down the terrorists.
-
- "We handed over a list of names of former Fedayeen
members in the area to the Americans, but we're not sure what has happened
to them. The attacks have continued."
-
- Radan Jassim, another patrol member, said: "Sometimes
it feels like we're just another target for the terrorists to aim at. The
only thing that is better than serving under Saddam is the pay."
-
- The situation is mirrored in central Baghdad, where the
Iraqi police have been given responsibility for security and find themselves
dying at the rate of two per day.
-
- At al-Baya'a police station, where six policemen were
killed and more than 50 injured by a suicide bomber last week, patrols
are co-ordinated beside the 9ft deep bomb crater.
-
- "We feel scared and vulnerable," said Lt Omar
Khudair, the station's supervisor.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
-
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/06/wirq0
6.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/11/06/ixworld.html
|
