- BAGHDAD -- Distraught survivors
of yesterday's bloodbath in Baghdad rushed to blame the Americans for the
second suicide bombing in as many days, which brought the death toll to
over 100.
-
- "The Americans did this, the Americans killed my
brother," screamed a man named Essam, who lost two brothers in the
explosion.
-
- Few Iraqis wanted to confront the reality that terrorists
had struck another "soft" target, this time hundreds of young
men queuing to join the army. Instead they turned their hatred on the US
forces they accuse of bringing chaos to their country.
-
- "The Americans are planting these bombs so it will
never be safe enough for them to leave," cried Essam, cradling the
body of one of his brothers in his arms.
-
- He could be forgiven for wanting to escape the grim present.
The mortuary at Karkh hospital in Baghdad had overflowed with bodies on
to the piles of hospital waste outside.
-
- The remains of Essam's second brother were in a black
plastic bag beside the first. Both were lined up outside Baghdad's army
recruitment centre when the bomber struck. Would-be soldiers, they had
not been intimidated by a suicide bomb that killed police recruits the
day before
-
- They were joined by hundreds of others, queuing for a
handful of places on a new Iraqi army training course. Most in line had
already applied several times before for the two-day course. In Iraq, there
are few jobs except in the security business.
-
- By mid-morning yesterday, a torrential downpour had cleared
away most of the blood. A torn letter from one of the recruits lay on the
ground. It was a request, barely legible, for the bearer to be considered
as a candidate to serve his country.
-
- Many of the recruits had returned to the scene of the
bombing to harangue the US soldiers on guard. "I saw an American soldier
throw a hand grenade," shouted one man. Another said: "They want
to prove this country is not safe enough for elections or democracy."
-
- Abbas Razzak, another would-be soldier, said: "We
hate the Americans because of what they have done to Iraq. We don't know
who killed these people today. We just know that, since the Americans came,
there has been nothing but pain and misery."
-
- The more the Americans blame extremists linked to al-Qa'eda
or loyalists of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party regime, the less their message
seems to get through to Iraqis.
-
- "It was the Americans! They never came to oust Saddam,
they came for the oil," one man said.
-
- But so far this has not stopped desperate Iraqis queuing
up to join the police and army. Long queues outside recruitment centres
are common - making them easier targets for terrorists than heavily fortified
American bases.
-
- "I had no choice but to come today," said 24-year-old
Abdullah Jaffar, a recruit at the back of the queue. "When you haven't
been able to feed your family in weeks, you will take any chance you get."
-
- Mr Jaffar said a white Oldsmobile stopped outside the
centre shortly after 7.30 am. "I thought it was some people trying
to jump the queue. The next second there were flames and a field of dead
people."
-
- Mohammed Hadr, 30, a taxi driver, was 20 yards away from
the blast. "My windscreen caved in but I didn't stop driving until
I was far away. You wouldn't stop in that hell."
-
- He was forced to stop by a piece of the bomber's car
lodged between his wheels. The blast left a crater several feet across.
Blackened lumps of metal from the bomber's car were scattered up and down
the road.
-
- "The bodies of the Iraqis took the full impact of
the explosion," said a US military officer at the scene. "It
wasn't pretty."
-
- American forces set up a security cordon, while ambulances
took away the casualties. Back at the Karkh hospital mortuary, a coffin
had arrived to take away one of the bodies.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
-
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/12/wirq112.xml&sSheet=/n
ews/2004/02/12/ixnewstop.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=25686
|
