From The Chicago Tribune, 5/14/06:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0605140346may14,1,7426219.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true
U.S. troops caught in middle as Iraqis feud
By Liz Sly
Tribune foreign correspondent
BAGHDAD --
When U.S. soldiers raced to the scene of a recent gun battle between
the guards of a Sunni mosque and the mostly Shiite police commandos
assigned to Baghdad's volatile Dora neighborhood, they were appalled
by what they encountered.
Members of the force being trained to replace the U.S. military were
shooting wildly, spraying everything in sight with automatic fire.
Three men were being beaten up.
A store was burning, apparently set afire by the police.
As the platoon approached, the police shot in the direction of the
U.S. soldiers.
Two bodies lay nearby.
"We saw the National Police not exactly doing the right thing," said
2nd Lt. Jack Irby, the platoon's fire support officer, who witnessed
the fight.
"I was fairly disgusted. I'm tired of seeing dead bodies at this
point."
But this wasn't America's fight.
U.S. lives would have been at risk had the soldiers waded into the
fray, and they could have further inflamed the situation by getting
involved.
So the platoon withdrew, secured a perimeter around the area and
waited several hours for the shooting to die down.
U.S. troops have since steered clear of that mosque and are trying to
broker a deal between the local imams and the police to allow Iraqi
security forces to enter the neighborhood.
As the violence in Iraq takes on an increasingly sectarian hue, in
Dora, one of Baghdad's meanest neighborhoods, U.S. soldiers are
finding themselves occupying an unfamiliar new role, and they are not
entirely comfortable with it.
"It's like we're peacekeepers trying to stop a civil war," said Spec.
Edward Levy, 21, of Ottawa, Ill.
_______________________________________________________
They're trapped
Harry
.
|
