Azzaman,
Iraq
A Lawless Baghdad 'Descends into Chaos'
“Most of the carnage in the city goes unreported, and the world sees only a fraction of the daily atrocities.”
December 4, 2006
Azzaman - Iraq- Original
Article (Arabic)
Baghdad
is becoming a city almost completely at the mercy of savage militias and gunmen
who have taken the law into their own hands. Kidnappings and assassinations take
place at a scale never before seen, and both American and Iraqi troops are
practically powerless to restore any semblance of order, anywhere in the city.
International
journalists, confined to heavily protected hotels, homes or apartments, can
hardly cope with the burden of reporting major bombing attacks or deaths of
U.S. Marines. In fact most of the carnage in the city goes unreported, and the
world sees only a fraction of the daily atrocities. Even the kidnapping of senior
officials no longer grabs headlines, as has been the case of Lameh Omar, an
adviser to the Ministry of Defense. Omar was kidnapped and his body found
riddled with bullets shortly after his abduction.
In
another recent attack, marauding gunmen attacked the Doura district, stormed
several homes, and snatched every young male. Their mutilated bodies were later
found in an open space in the same district.
Every one
of the nearly six million people of Baghdad has a horrendous story to tell. Shiites
kill Sunnis, rebels kill Americans and Iraqi troops, U.S. and Iraqi troops kill
rebels and civilians, and so on. Baghdad has become a killing field to such an
extent that no one in the city can be sure of returning home safely from even a
short shopping trip.
Reports
of killings, kidnappings and bullet-riddled bodies dumped in public places are pouring
into newspapers. If all were published, they would easily fill the pages of Azzaman every day.
And while
there is no shortage of police officers, American Marines or Iraqi forces in
the city, when entire neighborhoods turn on one another, there is no force in
the world that can contain them.
Every
day, conditions are worse than the day before. Amid the unprecedented surge in
violence, the city's inhabitants have had to cope with chronic shortages of
power, fuel, water and other basic amenities.
But even amidst
the chaos, many continue to work, since they need to earn enough to survive.
Moreover,
ethnic cleansing of an unheard of scale is underway. Entire neighborhoods are
being emptied of members of opposing sects. Some families are abused; some are
killed and there are reports of a few being burned alive. These forced
evacuations have resulted in the transfer of hundreds of thousands of people
from one neighborhood to another or outside Baghdad. They leave behind their homes,
careers and even personal belongings.
And still
there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Baghdad's hapless inhabitants are
more pessimistic about the future than ever before.
VIDEO FROM DUBAI: 'U.S. BROKE
THE CAGE, BUT BIRD CANNOT FLY'
ABU DHABI TV, Dubai: Excerpts excerpts from an interview with Iraqi Member of Parliament, Iyad Jamal Al-Din, Seprember 10, 00:02:31, Via MEMRI
"Blessed be America for giving Saddam a good kick, sending him straight into the abyss of jail. Blessed be America for giving Mula Omar a good slap, sending him straight into the garbage bin of history and into the dunghills of oblivion. ... Along came America and broke the cage open, but the bird does not know how to fly, because it has never used its wings. "
Iraqi Parliamentarian Iyad Jamal Al-Din