Iraqis Turn The Tables On Insurgents

[Annie]

I know this isn't on Terri or dumb pics, but you can just move along if this doesn't interest you:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/i...=4fab5dc83f59b0ae&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 22 - Ordinary Iraqis rarely strike back at the insurgents who terrorize their country. But just before noon today, a carpenter named Dhia saw a troop of masked gunmen with grenades coming towards his shop and decided he had had enough.

As the gunmen emerged from their cars, Dhia and his young relatives shouldered their own AK-47's and opened fire, police and witnesses said. In the fierce gun battle that followed, three of the insurgents were killed, and the rest fled just after the police arrived. Two of Dhia's young nephews and a bystander were injured, the police said.

"We attacked them before they attacked us," Dhia, 35, his face still contorted with rage and excitement, said in a brief exchange at his shop a few hours after the battle. He did not give his last name. "We killed three of those who call themselves the mujahedeen. I am waiting for the rest of them to come and we will show them."

It was the first time that private citizens are known to have retaliated successfully against insurgents. There have been anecdotal reports of residents shooting at attackers after a bombing or assassination. But the gun battle today erupted in full view of half a dozen witnesses, including a Justice Ministry official who lives nearby.

The battle was the latest sign that Iraqis may be willing to start standing up against the attacks that leave dozens of people dead here nearly every week. After a suicide bombing in Hilla last month that killed 136 people, including a number of women and children, hundreds of residents demonstrated in front of the city hall every day for almost a week, chanting slogans against terrorism. Last week, a smaller but similar rally took place in Baghdad. Another demonstration is scheduled for Wednesday in the capital....

 

[Shattered]

I know this isn't on Terri or dumb pics, but you can just move along if this doesn't interest you:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/i...=4fab5dc83f59b0ae&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

MEE-OWWWWWRRRRR

 

[5stringJeff]

I know this isn't on Terri or dumb pics, but you can just move along if this doesn't interest you:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/i...=4fab5dc83f59b0ae&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

That's the coolest thing I've read today! :firing:

 

[Annie]

That's the coolest thing I've read today! :firing:

Thank you GopJeff, was beginning to think the board was going to have to be renamed.

 

[Adam's Apple]

I was floored to see that this article appeared in the New York Times! Salzburg and his editorial board must have been off on a skiing trip. If this is an indication that the Time's is going to start publishing articles to let us know what is really going on in Iraq, I might start reading it again.

BTW, I liked the Iraqi carpenter's approach to handling the terrorists. Hope other Iraqis will start following his example. Only sure way to rid the country of those SOB's.

 

[CSM]

It sure gives one hope to read that sort of thing. I may have to rethink my opinion of the average Iraqi citizen.

Of course, I can hear it now from those who think that they should have tried to negotiate with the terrorists and tried all other avenues like diplomacy or buying them off instead of attacking them with AK-47s (which they should not be allowed to own anyway!). Violence only breeds more violence you know!

Sarcasm, folks.

 

[menewa]

The insurgents were extremely stupid to think they could increase public suppport by purposefully targeting schoolchildren.

If they had simply focused on US and coalition forces instead, the Iraqi public would probably still be enamored with them the way the Greeks adore Alexander. They would have had a damn good chance against the most powerful military in world hisory. But to purposefuly target your own fellow citizens is beyond any redemption. They have doomed themselves and they deserve it.