December 20, 2005
"White flags on top of houses and cars, plenty of American and
Iraqi military vehicles, too many check points and blocks on the road,
many frightening walking patrols, curfew after sunset, heaps and heaps
of destroyed houses, shops, offices, the only bridge, hospitals
and medical care centers, walls covered with bullets shots, and
election posters…empty faces with bleak looks wandering in the streets.
This is the picture of Al-Qa’im
after the "Steel Curtain" military operation which began on November 5,
2005 with 3,000 American and Iraqi troops participating in it.
"You are filming our miserable condition so that Bush would pity us?! You want to soften his heart?"
(emphasis added) asked a tiny, skinny young villager disapprovingly,
with obvious resignation. She was holding a very heavy cooking gas
tube, trying to climb the river bank. After the only bridge which connects Rummana to Al-Qa’im was severely bombed, citizens had to cross by boat.
Our
driver was impatient with blocked roads, he took the nearest dusty
detour whenever he saw a queue. We arrived in Qa’im around six pm; the
darkness was already thick. Our car was almost shot by the Americans,
but the driver was very quick in going down the side road. "That’s how
families get killed" said Abu Adel, a lovable old man who asked for a
lift, and who was very keen on showing us his high education by using
broken English phrases.
Abu Adel was very angry because some Iraqis
make use of the refugees’ misfortune and ask for double or triple
rents. He preferred to put his family in a hut rather than being
blackmailed.
Electricity is cut for more than a month now, after the
main station was bombed, and the converters were bombed and the wires
were cut. In the morning Al-Qa’im looked horrible. The General Hospital
was 90% destroyed, the medical care centers, the schools, shops,
houses…"
Behind the Steel Curtain: The Real Face of the Occupation
Dirty Means, Genocide and Mass Destruction - Dedicated to the UN, UNSC and the International Society December 19, 2005
"Meanwhile,
seven Iraqis were killed either by gunmen or US troops in separate
incidents around Tikrit, around 190 kilometers north of Baghdad, police
said.
The police said four of the victims were killed by US troops as they approached their patrols in Balad.
...
Meanwhile, police said US soldiers shot dead a truck driver who drove
too close to an army patrol in Latifiya 40 kilometers south of Baghdad.
The U.S. army warns drivers to keep at least a 100 meters distance from military vehicles."
Car bomb kills three in Iraq December 19, 2005
Meanwhile (video clips):
Execution of 'security consultant' for the Iraqi Housing Ministry
Iraqi snipers in Taji, Fallujah and Taji
A mine sweeper south of Baghdad
A hummer in the west of Baghdad
A hummer in Tikrit
The Iraqi Resistance (9MB)
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