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Raids Provoke Increased Unrest
By Dahr Jamail &
Ali al-Fadhily
22 September, 2006
Inter
Press Service
BAGHDAD, Sep 20 (IPS) - Renewed raids at Iraqi homes by joint U.S.-Iraqi
security forces are angering Iraqis -- while failing to improve the
worsening security situation.
"Operation Forward Together
should be called 'To Hell Together'," 53-year-old Hamid Fassal,
an estate broker from the Dora region of Baghdad told IPS, referring
to the major U.S.-Iraqi joint security campaign launched in June. "They
should be ashamed of what's going on after four years of plans and such
huge expenditure. The result is only more deaths and more agony for
all Iraqis."
U.S. troops accompanied by
Iraqi soldiers have conducted raids across much of the Sunni region
of Iraq in search of death squads. Several Iraqis say they are surprised
about the areas searched because they say U.S. forces know that the
majority of death squads are located in the Shia areas.
"I do not understand
what they are really looking for and whether they are doing it right,"
Salim al-Juboori of the Sherq Journal in Baghdad told IPS. "They
searched Amiriya, Adhamiyah, Dora and other places in Baghdad where
citizens are the victims of gangs who come from other places under government
flags, and during curfew hours."
Residents of the Amiriya
neighbourhood of Baghdad recently faced a week-long blockade after U..S.
troops raided more than 6,000 houses. Residents had to face checkpoints
and body searches.
"They detained many
innocent people and robbed lightweight valuable materials from the houses
they raided," a member of the Amiriya local council told IPS. "It
seems they were searching for gold, cash and expensive mobile devices.
They know very well where to search for criminals, so why destroy Amiriya?"
Similar complaints have come
from Dora, Adhamiya and other Sunni areas of Baghdad, and other cities
throughout the primarily Sunni province of al-Anbar west of Baghdad.
"Hasn't Fallujah had
enough," said Mansoor al-Kubaissi of the Fallujah Youth Centre.
"Those Americans are raiding our houses, looting our savings and
business capital and detaining our sons again and again, as if there
were a feud between us. Look at the result of their doings: they are
being attacked several times a day and their soldiers are falling dead
every day."
Kubaissi was referring to
joint U.S.-Iraqi security force raids in central Fallujah over this
past weekend.
On Sunday Sep. 17, five car
bombs and another tied to a bicycle exploded in Fallujah. The bomb attacks
targeted U.S. and Iraqi troops during their routine patrols and home
raids.
U.S. forces have detained
many people, including Reuters/BBC/al-Jazeera correspondent Fadhil al-Bedrani.
Bedrani is well known to people in Fallujah for his professional reporting
during more than three years of U.S. occupation.
Associated Press (AP) photographer
Bilal Hussein, who is also from Fallujah, has been detained for five
months by the U.S. military. Hussein was accused by U.S. forces of being
a "security threat", but they have never filed charges or
permitted a public hearing.
Executives from AP say they
did not find any sign of inappropriate contact with resistance fighters.
Bedrani and Hussein are only two among an estimated 14,000 people detained
by the U.S. military across the world.. At least 13,000 of these are
in Iraq.
Most have been held without
charge, and have been given no date for a court appearance or tribunal
hearing where they might argue for their freedom.
The home raids and neighbourhood
searches that are leading to more such detentions meanwhile continue
to anger Iraqis. Many say the raids are only worsening the already chaotic
and violent situation.
"Their searches always
end up with terrible failures," Col. Kathum Jawad of the previous
Saddam security directorate told IPS in Baghdad. "Two days after
their search in Adhamiya, 14 roadside bombs exploded within a quarter
an hour, killing soldiers. This failure only means the Iraqi problem
is not coming to an end as long as those people are in power."