- BAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) -
The burly young Iraqi swells with pride when he talks about the men he
leads in mortar attacks against a U.S. airbase under the cover of darkness.
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- "After dusk we begin our attacks with 82 or 120
mm mortars," said the former special officer in Saddam Hussein's security
apparatus who goes by the nom de guerre of Abu Jassem.
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- In the heart of the "Sunni Triangle", Saddam's
capture last week by the Americans has done little to dampen the will to
fight among fellow Sunni Muslims, angered by foreign occupation and at
losing their once dominant minority position in society.
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- Abu Jassem said he lives in one of a string of lush palm-lined
villages close to the former Iraqi airforce base, now occupied by U.S.
troops and near the town of Baquba.
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- "We hit (that) with nine mortars," he said,
pointing to a communications tower on the outskirts of Baquba, some 65
km (40 miles) north of Baghdad.
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- The sprinkle of small villages east of Baquba became
moderately well off under Saddam's regime, which continued an Iraqi tradition
of repressing the Shi'ite Muslim majority. Many of the 3,000 residents
were members of Iraq's military, security and industrial complexes and
bitterly resent the U.S. troops.
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- Abu Jassem said Saddam's capture last week by U.S. forces
near the former dictator's home town of Tikrit, further to the north of
Baquba, jolted many of his followers but has not broken their spirit or
determination to hurt the American occupiers.
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- "The resistance will strengthen, not for love of
Saddam, but for love of the people," Abu Jassem said.
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- As if to underline his determination, a cache of shiny
new mortar bombs lay in hiding spots just visible behind the palms on the
road facing the base.
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- A mix of former members of Saddam's Baath party, army
officers and Islamist youth inspired by jihad, or Muslim holy struggle,
make up the insurgents who have been waging a guerrilla war with U.S.-led
forces in Iraq, he said.
-
- U.S. officials say die-hard supporters of Saddam and
the deposed Baath Party are behind the hit-and-run attacks plaguing them
in the Sunni Muslim Arab heartlands north and west of Baghdad. U.S. administrator
for Iraq Paul Bremer has dubbed them the "bitter-enders".
-
- More than 200 U.S. soldiers have died since Washington
declared major combat over on May 1.
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- PLENTY OF WEAPONS
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- Abu Jassem said weapons left over from the former government's
stockpiles and black market mortar bombs are plentiful enough to keep the
insurgents going for years to come.
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- "We have a lot that can keep us for four to five
years..we get things to attack such as mines, ground-to-air missiles and
rocket propelled grenades and mortars," he said.
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- The guerrillas launch coordinated attacks by a series
of cells of up to 10 people, he said.
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- "We are groups...a group of six, another group of
10. We are four (groups) in this village and in another," he said
of the cells in the adjoining villages.
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- The proximity of targets and their villages gives guerrillas
ample time to take cover, and to dismantle and hide their mortars in and
around the lush orchards which stretch out from a tributary of the Tigris
River.
-
- "They (Americans) take time to respond and in half
an hour we have finished everything and have changed our clothes,"
said Abu Jassem, who says he hails from the Sunni Dulaimi tribe.
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- Residents say they are being severely punished for their
faithful service in Saddam's former military industrial complex and now
for the repeated attacks on the base.
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- "For every mortar that comes from the village..the
Americans respond with fifty missiles and their planes hit and burn our
watermelon fields," said local resident Ahmed al-Azawi.
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- At night U.S. tanks stream into the village's dirt streets
to hunt down the perpetrators of the attacks, residents complain. A night
curfew further fuels resentment.
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- "I am inside the village and I cannot go to see
my brothers in the house next door," said Abdul Karim Obeidi.
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- Few of the residents dare rip off red ribbons placed
by U.S. soldiers on the doors of village houses after every search.
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- Farmer Faris Muhsin holds up pieces of shrapnel close
to the village mosque he says was hit by U.S. mortars after several U.S.
troops were injured in a landmine near the road.
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- Anxious villagers point to bulldozer activity on the
highway that separates them from the base as rumours fly the U.S. military
is planning to cordone off the area, like they have done for an operation
north of here in a town called Samarra.
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- "If they erect a fence our anger will explode and
we will hit them even more," said villager Ahmad Otab.
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