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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, March 23, 2003

Assault creates trail of insecurity in Iraq

By Susan B. Glasser and Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post

SAFWAN, Iraq — Screams echoed even before the two white pickups pulled up. In the first truck, an Iraqi woman lay bleeding with a shrapnel wound to her leg. In the second were two dead bodies and a sobbing woman who said the remains were those of her father and brother.

A U.S. soldier offers candy to Iraqi boys in Safwan, in southern Iraq. Many Iraqis, who remember the rapid pullout after the 1991 Gulf War, are greeting U.S. troops with pleasure but also with caution.

Associated Press

"The Americans did it," said an angry Iraqi from the crowd of onlookers in Safwan, a U.S.-controlled town just north of the Kuwaiti border. A British military police officer dressed the woman's wound. Amid the shrieks, it was impossible to determine what had happened to the Iraqis before they drove up.

Meanwhile, U.S. military convoys rumbled by: truckloads of Patriot anti-missile batteries, supplies for the invasion force charging north, mini-Humvee convoys off to the Basra front. They did not pause to contemplate the scene playing out here as they hurried on to military objectives farther forward. They did not stop to meet the sullen stares of the Iraqi men standing by the road in clusters of threes and fours.

As U.S. forces have pushed farther into Iraq, they appear to have left insecurity in their wake, seizing key military objectives without establishing full control over population centers. Even main roads serving as military supply routes just across the border from Kuwait were not entirely secured yesterday. Sporadic gunfights and pockets of Iraqi resistance were reported throughout the area 48 hours after American and British troops first rolled in.

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Marine Staff Sgt. Brian Koening called it the "bypass" system. Sitting in the midafternoon shade of an armored personnel carrier along the Baghdad highway, Koening described how the campaign was playing out in southern Iraq: Skip the smaller fights, and save the cleaning up for later.

"I'm not surprised it's taken this long," he said at a post along Highway 8 that he had been manning since Friday.

Twelve years ago, this intersection played host to Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf when he accepted the Iraqi surrender in the Persian Gulf War. Today, it is a place of uncertainty. To the east, the road leading to the port of Umm Qasr, Iraq's main outlet to the Persian Gulf, was the scene of gunfire yesterday morning, a day after U.S. military officials said the city had been seized. To the north, battle raged on the outskirts of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city with a population of more than 1 million.

Even the smooth blacktop highway proved to be a threat. A short way west from Koening's position, an armored personnel carrier tripped a mine yesterday afternoon on a road the U.S. forces did not realize was mined.

When they first arrived, Koening and other Marines had enough emergency rations to provide a day's worth of food to 48 people and were soon overwhelmed by Iraqi civilians seeking help they did not have. "They just kept coming for the food," Koening said.

In the stretches of desert outside town, white flags of surrender hung from Bedouin tents and pickup trucks. Some children waved and flashed thumbs-up signs at military convoys; others threw stones. In Safwan itself, no fighting was reported. But fear and resentment mixed with celebration as residents contemplated the prospect of an American occupation.

"They were a bit late — 12 years late," said a 32-year-old Safwan resident who identified himself as Haider."Why did they have to leave us for 12 years? We don't believe anything."

Haider, who said his two brothers were executed by President Saddam Hussein's government, described himself as "unbelievably happy" that U.S. forces had finally come, but also distrusting. A dozen years ago, after Schwarzkopf accepted the Iraqi surrender here, Saddam maintained enough might to quash a Shiite Muslim uprising that had spread throughout southern Iraq. Many Shiites, Haider recalled, believe the United States betrayed them by encouraging their rebellion but not intervening to help it.

"We thought the troops were coming then but they let us down," said Haider, himself a Shiite. "People are not so confident now. They think it could happen again."

With security concerns predominant, the U.S. military had little time to do anything for the needs of Safwan's threadbare population of 4,000. At the intersection just north of town, the British MPs were the only discernible presence of the occupation, and they were charged with watching enemy prisoners and securing the road, not helping the town. Almost everyone encountered wanted something from the military — money, food and especially water.

"We have no electricity. We have no water. We have no police. We have no medicine in the hospital," said Saad Hamed, a farmer with nine children. "When the U.S. soldiers entered, life was no good. We lived like animals."

But the return of the Americans to Safwan was also an occasion for hope, even if mixed with wariness. "Saddam finished!" shouted another young man, who gave his name as Fares. "Americans are here now."

His friend, Shebah, added, in broken English, "Saddam killed people."