BAGHDAD, 15 April 2003 — Eighteen Iraqi civilians were injured, many seriously, in the mostly Shiite district of Al-Ha’ab in the northwest of Baghdad yesterday morning when one of them stepped on an unexploded grenade or shell. Arab News discovered that the area had either been used as a storage facility by the Iraqi military, or was occupied by an active unit which abandoned it as US troops closed in on the city. There were 12 large trucks, each carrying Iraqi-made Thunder missiles similar to the Russian-made Volga. Each truck contained four of the large missiles — meaning that 36 of them had been hastily abandoned four days earlier.
Curious civilians, including children, strolled around the mobile missile launchers to look at the bombs and hundreds of other shells. A number of them blocked the road after the explosion, directing traffic amid the ensuing chaos. They rushed to the Arab News car and pleaded with us to tell the world what had happened here.
“People are dying here,” one middle-aged man said. “Look at all these missiles! We are not safe. Where are the Americans? Why are they not helping us? We need blood. Let everybody know our plight,” he added.
Within half an hour, a large convoy of US troops did indeed reach the area. They quickly started to co-operate in a scene that was replayed across the capital as US troops and local police started jointly patrolling the streets yesterday to quell the lawlessness that has engulfed the capital since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Most stores and government offices remained closed. Residents were seen collecting and burning garbage, and the buses were running.
US troops searched a palace left behind by Saddam’s eldest son Uday and found Cuban cigars, liquor, watches and pictures of cars and women — including those of US President George W. Bush’s twin daughters, 21-year-old Jenna and Barbara — in one of the gymnasiums.
Several hundred Iraqi police officers in plainclothes and uniform reported to the Iraqi police academy yesterday morning in response to calls for joint patrols.
Iraqi Police Lt. Col. Haitham Al-Ani told Arab News the US troops and the Iraqis would patrol in separate cars and that the Iraqi police would not be allowed to carry guns. US military patrols were seen in many neighborhoods as the Marines spread out initially concentrating at key spots.
Local men, desperate to see calm return, helped the Marines translate and point out those who were guilty of crimes.
Looting appeared to be easing, whether because the best plunder was already gone, or because of more Marine patrols, along with checkpoints and vigilante groups thrown together by Iraqi residents. Looters have ransacked and burned parts of Baghdad, stealing even priceless archaeological treasures from Iraq’s national museum. Even the Islamic Library was on fire.
Elsewhere in the city, a number of looters were caught by American troops at the Republic Palace in the center of Baghdad, close to the downtown area of Sanak. The looters were not hurt and were escorted politely by the US military.
Ahmed Al-Hassan, one of the looters, told Arab News that the bathroom sinks were made of gold and the looters had also found a golden handgun. Asked how he knew that this was gold, he said in better days he had been a gold merchant.
Arab News asked if he was afraid of being arrested. “We were never scared of Saddam,” he answered. “So why should we be scared of the Americans?”
