KHIRNABAAT, Iraq, 28 November 2003 — Amaar Farman ignored the death threats and the grenade that exploded on his doorstep. Then guerrillas, angered by his cooperation with US forces, riddled the policeman with bullets.
“Three men drove up one night in a black BMW and opened fire on him while he was chatting with his friend. They shot him in the heart, they hit him in the legs, everywhere,” said his brother Hussein, sitting beside Farman’s three young sons.
“He just wanted to help rebuild the new Iraq. He didn’t like or dislike the Americans. Amaar was just doing his job.”
Guerrillas who have killed Americans and their allies in high-profile attacks, are also waging psychological warfare in the dusty streets of villages like Khirnabaat to try to undermine US efforts to win over the local population.
If their tactics succeed, it could deal a blow to American efforts to secure badly needed intelligence from Iraqi civilians on guerrillas who have killed 184 US troops since major combat was declared over on May 1.
News of Farman’s death two weeks ago spread quickly through towns in the “Sunni triangle”, the area of central Iraq that was Saddam Hussein’s powerbase before he was toppled in April.
Villagers in Khirnabaat are especially alarmed because guerrillas handed out leaflets there warning that others who cooperate with US forces will share Farman’s fate.
The leaflets from a group calling itself the National Front for the Liberation of Iraq also listed “spies” it has uncovered. A translator for US troops was named along with his relatives.
“We are afraid to walk the streets,” said Abu Sabah, 60. Just across the street, graffiti scribbled on the wall of a building vows: “Death to spies”.
Twelve bullet holes in a wall near where Farman was killed remind neighbors that the guerrillas will not hesitate to kill. Now his family can only look after his sons and pregnant wife and hope they will not be targeted.
“My son is gone,” cried his mother, rocking back and forth on the floor. She knows nothing about the men who killed Farman. And neither do many other Iraqis.
In the nearby town of Abu Ghraib, Iraqis said the insurgents usually show up at night and fire rocket-propelled grenades at a sandbagged police station controlled by US troops. The next day they find shrapnel or rocket parts scattered on streets but no clues on the identity of the guerrillas, who the US military believes are mostly Saddam loyalists.
Guerrillas recently hid rockets under sweets stacked on a wooden push cart and then fired them from a crowded Abu Ghraib neighborhood at US troops, residents said. The occupation has become an emotional quagmire for the Iraqis. Some want the guerrillas to drive out the Americans but they complain the insurgency often puts them in the crossfire.
“The guerrillas are unknown,” said Ali Shalaan, an Abu Ghraib resident. “All we know is that if they think you are with the Americans, you may survive today but you won’t survive tomorrow.”
