BAGHDAD, 15 July 2004 — Checkpoints may stop bombers entering central Baghdad’s “Green Zone”, but that was little consolation for Iraqis and others queuing up to be searched outside the area’s thick blast walls yesterday morning.
At 9.15 a.m. (0515 GMT), as many Iraqis lined up to start a new working day inside the security zone, a suicide bomber waiting in line to get in blew up his car, killing 11 people and wounding over 40 as shards of hot metal tore through bystanders.
“My God! My God!” screamed one woman, cowering with others against a wall at a checkpoint a few dozen meters from the point of the explosion as a cloud of dust enveloped her. Tears streamed down her stunned face as the dirt settled to reveal a flaming wreck and a plume of black smoke above what had been a queue of cars waiting to enter the zone that is home to the US and British embassies and the interim Iraqi government.
Iraqi contract workers in neat blue overalls, who had been waiting patiently to enter, fled through the checkpoint into the zone as an orderly line disintegrated into chaos.
Some shots were fired even as bystanders’ ears still tingled from the blast. Witnesses said the shots were probably Iraqi police firing into the air to clear the area. Ijwad Qadhim was slumped down on a curb and nursed a wound, still unable to hear properly. Standing near him, a US contractor shouted: “Has anyone got a first aid kit?”
It was not the first time a bomber has struck an entrance to the Green Zone, a sprawling, heavily defended complex on the banks of the Tigris River. In May, a suicide bomber killed the then head of Iraq’s now-defunct Governing Council as he entered.
Despite two relatively quiet weeks since US authorities handed power back to Iraqis, the latest bombing showed the crowded entrances to the Green Zone remain enticing sites for guerrillas looking for a soft target.
The former busy crossroads, once a major city artery, now has two roads blocked off, creating a chokepoint for cars and people. Most of those waiting to enter are Iraqis, usually stuck in slow moving queues under the scorching summer sun.
The four-meter (15-feet) concrete blast walls only offer protection to those who have already entered after searches. Militants, who still view the US presence as an occupation, have often targeted those working for the Americans. But it is an inexplicable tactic for most Iraqis.
“This is never going to stop... What’s the point, it’s just Iraqis (getting killed),” said Radwan, a security officer at the British embassy, which is a few hundred meters down the road from the site of the blast. Emergency vehicle sirens started wailing moments after the blast, and dozens of US military vehicles raced to seal off the area with razor wire.
Fas, an interpreter with the US forces who only gave his nickname, spends everyday around the checkpoint translating Arabic for US soldiers. He threw himself on the ground at the sound of the blast, then turned to see the mangled vehicle.
Blood streamed from a small wound in his neck, which a US army medical team on the scene had bound with a bandage. “They took me to the hospital, but I was sent back because they thought I was not badly injured. They didn’t even clean up my neck or put on a plaster... I work for the US forces, they should treat me like any American,” he said.
Meanwhile, Firas Naji has a good reason to welcome the interim Iraqi administration’s crackdown on crime in Baghdad, which officials say netted more than 500 suspected murderers, kidnappers, terrorists and thieves in two days.
A month ago, several men dropped by Naji’s car alarm shop, inspecting devices that are vital for vehicles in the crime-ridden city. Not long after, the men ambushed him near his shop, pumping three bullets into his stomach.
Naji suspects his alarms were too successful. “The only reason I can think of was that my work was disrupting their own. I think they wanted me gone,” Naji said, raising his shirt to reveal a long scar gouged into his stomach, the stitch marks still fresh.
In the past two days Iraqi police have raided several parts of Baghdad — a move welcomed by ordinary people who said they wanted more crackdowns and tough prison terms for criminals.
Saddam freed all common criminals in a prewar amnesty widely seen as contributing to current lawlessness. Iraqis have been complaining about rampant insecurity since the US-led invasion toppled Saddam in April 2003, but some say they feel safer since Allawi’s government took over sovereign powers from occupation forces on June 28.
They say Iraqi police are more visible and less hamstrung by the 140,000 American troops still in the country. Police can also draw on their knowledge of criminal networks, they add. Iraqis have also welcomed a National Safety Law announced last week that authorizes emergency powers to impose curfews and search and detain suspects in troubled areas.
Others were skeptical that the country’s 70,000-80,000 active police could do much against heavily armed criminals. “Car bombs are hard to stop,” said Sabeeh Hamid, a housewife, who added that street crime had dropped.
