http://musliminsuffer.wordpress.com/
bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
latimes.com
THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ: IRAQIS IN DANGER; U.S. SENATORS' VISIT
They saw the uniforms and knew to run
By Borzou Daragahi
Times Staff Writer
December 15, 2006
Iraqis at a Baghdad market had expected this day, when gunmen swept in,
opened fire and took people away. This is the example of America's
Democracy. Kurds and Shiites who ruling Iraq now, more brutal and
barbaric than Saddam Hussein. This is the promises America to Iraqis
people.
BAGHDAD — "They're here! They're here!"
The panicked cry rose from the crowd of shoppers and businessmen,
sending them into a stampede past storefronts and shocked onlookers.
Men, women and children fell over handcarts and folding chairs, knocking
one another down, hiding behind buildings and seeking shelter in shops.
None knew who "they" were: uniformed men firing weapons in the air and
herding people into trucks, just a few hundred yards from the edge of
the U.S.-guarded Green Zone.
But most had suspected such a day might come to the Sinak market of
downtown Baghdad. All knew to run at first sight of the uniformed gunmen
who have become signature elements of the all-too-common mass
kidnappings in the Iraqi capital.
"We weren't really surprised," said Hossein abu Marwa, an employee of an
air conditioner shop in the sprawling market. "We face such threats on a
daily basis. Sometimes we hear they're coming from this side or that
side. We don't know who is shooting. We don't know who is coming. Are
they the resistance? Are they armed criminals? You don't know if they're
Sunni. You don't know if they're Shiite."
This time, at least five dozen people disappeared within minutes,
stuffed into four delivery trucks and hauled away toward eastern
Baghdad.
An Interior Ministry official reported later that at least 23 of the
shopkeepers had been released unharmed in northern Baghdad, after
showing their captors identity cards bearing names associated with
Shiite Muslims.
The fate of previous victims of mass kidnappings has been brutal: Most
show up dead within days, often with signs of torture, such as drill
holes.
Thursday's abduction took place in and around the auto-supply section of
the open-air Sinak wholesale market, a few hundred yards from the
headquarters of Iraq's Defense Ministry.
It began around 10 a.m. when a convoy of about a dozen sport utility
vehicles of the type often used by official security forces screeched
into the market and sealed off the main roads, witnesses said.
Heavy gunfire erupted almost immediately.
Ghaith Abdul-Kahdem, owner of three shops in the marketplace, had been
stuck in traffic and was arriving late for work, just as the kidnapping
was unfolding. He heard the shots and saw police vehicles and quickly
hid under a bridge.
"I saw the four-wheel-drive cars arrive, about 10 of them, as well as
trucks for transporting prisoners," he said. "I immediately realized
something grave was going on."
The shopkeepers said they clutched their guns as the drama began,
fearful of criminals. When they realized the invaders came heavily armed
and in official dress, they put their weapons away.
"They were men in uniform," said Ahmad Jassem Saadi, 39, the owner of a
leather jacket shop. "What could I do?"
"The raiders were selective at first," Abdul-Kahdem said. "But after a
while they started grabbing anybody."
Saadi and other shopkeepers stood at the doors of their businesses and
watched. "They detained a group of people, and then they started taking
other sellers and even passersby," he said.
"The people struggled. They were taken by force and put into trucks."
Some described the trucks as the type used to transport milk and meat
products.
Others said they were like armored vehicles used for transporting cash.
They began to fill up.
Abdul-Kahdem watched helplessly as the men stuffed four of his employees
into the trucks.
The gunfire continued. The panic mounted.
Hassan Khafaji, shopping for a part to repair his broken-down 1990
Oldsmobile, lay on the ground as the shooting continued. He crawled to
an alley, stood up and fled.
"I just kept running and running until I got somewhere safe," he said.
Yassin Hashim, who works at a refrigerator motor shop within the
market's labyrinth of alleyways, helped an elderly man to his feet after
the jittery mob knocked him to the ground. "He was too weak to get
away," Hashim said.
"Some people were running and screaming," Saadi said. "Others were
frozen in their place, watching."
"They were just looking for a place to hide," Hashim said. "Some people
thought there were snipers."
The ordeal was over within 15 minutes, witnesses said. A detachment of
Iraqi soldiers arrived and sealed off the area. Some witnesses described
the kidnappers as police commandos, but a spokesman for the Interior
Ministry said the suspects wore army uniforms.
Afterward, Saadi gathered around a group of shopkeepers consoling a
Christian restaurant owner, a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair,
who was weeping. His son had been taken. "It was painful and I felt very
sad," Saadi said.
By then, around 11:30, the streets had emptied. There were no customers
and no shopkeepers. "I couldn't work," Saadi said. "We closed up the
shop and went home."
source:
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes636.html
===
-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW
_______________________________________________
is-lam mailing list
[email protected]
http://milis.isnet.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/is-lam
