- ALBU-ISA, Iraq (AFP)
-- The residents of Albu-Isa rejoiced Monday at the killing of 16 US soldiers
when a helicopter was downed near their sleepy village, in the deadliest
single attack on the Americans since the start of the war.
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- "It's party time for us," said farmer Ahmad
al-Issawi, summing up the bellicose mood after a Chinook military transport
helicopter was shot down Sunday, ferrying soldiers on leave.
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- "If the resistance carries on like this, the Americans
will leave Iraq."
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- The villagers' spirits were further roused by the site
of American troops removing by truck the heaps of wreckage.
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- A convoy of some 20 trucks, ambulances and bulldozers
drew up at the crash site about 10:20 am (0720 GMT), as they searched for
evidence of exactly what brought down the aircraft in the hope it could
lead them to the attackers.
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- Witnesses said they saw what looked like surface-to-air
missiles hit the chopper and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld speculated
the same Sunday, although the military has drawn no final conclusions.
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- US forces had sealed off the whole area around the crash,
looking to keep away journalists and jubilant revelers, gloating over the
US forces' losses.
-
- In this swathe of central Iraq, just a few kilometres
(miles) from the powderkeg town of Fallujah, home to many diehard supporters
of the old regime, there is clearly no love lost for the occupiers.
-
- The relations with US troops, tenuous at best, are often
on knife's edge, as insurgents ambush soldiers on the roads, and locals
nurse bitter grievances against the US military for raids and arrests.
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- "If one US soldier is killed we'd be happy, so imagine
how we feel now," said a smiling young man named Hadi, surrounded
by 20 men nodding in agreement.
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- A companion chimed in good measure: "The United
States is the enemy of Islam."
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- "We will hit another two or three still, if God
wants it," said Mohammed Jamal al-Issawi, a 20-year-old farmer.
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- Feeling bold, his friend Abed Falah, 22, boasted: "You
want to see another helicopter fall? You'll have it."
-
- And in what was the common sentiment of the day, the
people of Albu-Issa clearly believed that with a higher power and the right
munitions anything was possible.
-
- "We are going to make our country a cemetery for
the Americans so that they leave. If we can not hit them in the sky, we
will hit them on the ground," said a farmer, who refused to give his
name.
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- "The resistance will increase in force as US patrols
increase," vowed Mohanad Abed, 22.
-
- "Russia was defeated by the Afghans. Vietnam crushed
the Americans. We are much stronger than the Afghans and the Vietnamese.
We have the weapons and the training," said Jassem Hammadi.
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- Some said they wanted to celebrate by the debris of the
helicopter. All the bravado was in stark contrast to Sunday, when in the
hours after the crash they were clearly cowed by the heavy US presence.
-
- But despite their choice of words, the residents claimed
the people who shot down the chopper were not from the village and said
they had no idea who carried out the attack.
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- However, the village does have a grudge with the Americans.
Its residents rank as followers of the Albu-Issa tribe, whose chief, Sheikh
Barakat Saadoun Aifan, was arrested by the Americans on October 13.
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- As tensions remained high, in Fallujah residents said
US troops detained 10 men from their homes before dawn but it was not clear
if there was any connection to the attack on the chopper.
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- The door to at least one home was blown up and the men
were led away with bags over their heads, the relatives said.
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- That more trouble could be expected in the future was
written on the city's walls.
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- "Stealing from Americans is halal (sanctioned according
to Islam) and killing them is halal, halal and even more halal," read
one piece of graffiti.
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- http://www.prolog.net/webnews/wed/ag/Qiraq-unrest-us-wreckage.R_co_DN3.html
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