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Defiantly, they ignore the bombs and queue to join the Iraqi army
(Filed: 25/07/2005)
Thomas Harding reports on the volunteer soldiers determined to stop their country falling to the insurgents
The south gate of Muthanna army barracks in Baghdad is one of the most frequently bombed sites in Iraq.
Bomb blast in Baghdad
The suicide truck bomb killed an estimated 40 people
Suicide bombers have killed 198 people here since last year. Almost all were potential recruits to the country's fledgling armed forces. Another 465 have been wounded.
Body parts that had been hurled by an explosion over the 30ft high concrete wall a week earlier were still being picked up when the second suicide bomber struck last week.
But, in an extraordinary display of optimism, the youngsters hopeful of being recruited into the forces still come to queue.
In the last attack a group of potential recruits had crossed the road to buy a soft drink when their killer, spotting the soft target, detonated himself in their midst, killing 10 of them.
It was the eighth attack since February last year at this small but deadly spot.
Yesterday a 500lb suicide truck bomb killed an estimated 40 people after it blew up outside a police station in Baghdad.
A deep crater was left in the road and dozens of cars and buildings were set alight after the flat-bed truck was detonated in the Mashtal area east of the capital.
The recruiting line outside Muthanna barracks stretches beyond the shelter of a massive open-ended concrete hangar that offers some protection.
But as the assembly point has to start somewhere, there is little the authorities can do to prevent future attacks without putting trained soldiers in danger.
The young men and handful of women in the queues say they are as keen for the private's salary of $400 a month as they are to serve their country to rid it off insurgents.
There are others who have had friends and relatives among the estimated 25,000 civilians killed over the past two years. Some also believe that the only way to get an American withdrawal from Iraq is to build a secure and substantial security force.
But all have an air of defiance, and in some of the fresh recruits there is a hint of gratitude for just making it through the queue at the murderous south gate, on Zawraa Road.
Ali Hamza, a 21-year-old who had always wanted to join the army, said: "It might be chaotic but I'm not afraid because I am willing to join the army and that has many dangers anyway.
"Also, in the new army people are respected."
New security measures now require every recruit to lift up his shirt before getting close to soldiers manning the narrow entrance at the former air base a few miles from the Green Zone in central Baghdad, that houses two battalions of Iraqi troops.
Wafaa Aumran, 20, was one of three women who did not have to suffer that particular indignity. She wanted to join the army because it was the responsibility of Iraq's women to work alongside men "in order to save our country".
"I don't expect there to be any difference between me and the men especially when we go out on missions," she said.
"I have taken all the security precautions I can - you cannot stay in a position that you are afraid to ever move."
Mohammed Falee, 36 and a father of four children, was one of the many veterans of the old Iraq army who make up about 60 per cent of recruits.
His friend, Abul Hatim, 38, who has five children, said: "We cannot rely on the US to secure our country. It is something we have to do ourselves."
He added: "The people who are doing these attacks are not human because there is no logic to blow yourself up. They should go to the Americans to blow themselves up."
The recruits, all aged between 18 and 40, are screened for tattoos and scars, a sure sign of a former prisoner in Iraq, before they are selected for training.
Major Abdul Qadir, 40, the intelligence officer for the 1st Bn 1st Brigade of the Iraq National Guard, said soldiers living outside the barracks had received letters and leaflets from terror groups warning them that they would be assassinated.
The officer, who wore American combat fatigues after travelling to work in civilian clothes, said: "If we are not going to serve our country then who is going to serve it for the future? The US will leave and then we will be left on our own."
