In the wrong place at the wrong time

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

U.S. Hunt for Baath Members Humiliates, Angers Villagers
Deaths of Teenager and Two Others Spark Talk of Revenge

By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 15, 2003; Page A14

THULUYA, Iraq -- Along orange groves and orchards of figs and pears watered
by the timeless churn of the Tigris River, Hashim Mohammed Aani often sat
before a bird cage he built of scrap wood and a loose lattice of chicken
coop wire.

A chubby 15-year-old with a mop of curly black hair and a face still
rounded by adolescence, he was quiet, painfully shy. Awkward might be the
better word, his family said. For hours every day, outside a house perched
near the riverbank, the youngest of six children languidly watched his four
canaries and nightingale. Even in silence, they said, the birds were his
closest companions.

On Monday morning, after a harrowing raid into this town by U.S. troops
that deployed gunships, armored vehicles and soldiers edgy with
anticipation, the family found Aani's body, two gunshots to his stomach,
next to a bale of hay and a rusted can of vegetable oil. With soldiers
occupying a house nearby, his corpse lay undisturbed for hours under a
searing sun.

Lt. Arthur Jimenez, who commanded a platoon of the 4th Infantry Division
near the house, said he did not know the details of Hashim's death. But he
feared the boy was unlucky. "That person," he said, "was probably in the
wrong place at the wrong time."

By this weekend, the largest military operation since the war's end -- one
involving 4,000 troops -- had wound down in this prosperous village 40
miles northwest of Baghdad, with no U.S. soldiers killed and little
resistance. But in the aftermath, Thuluya has become a town transformed.

With grief over the death of Hashim and two others, the Sunni Muslim
population here speaks of revenge. Those sentiments are mixed with
confusion. A vast majority belonged to the Baath Party and now worry about
how far the United States will cast a net to root out its former members.
Bound together by clan and tribe, many have been uneasy since the U.S.
forces tapped informers from Thuluya. One of them wore a burlap bag over
his head as he fingered residents for the troops to question, igniting vows
of bloody vendettas.

"I think the future's going to be very dark," said Rahim Hamid Hammoud, 56,
a soft-spoken judge, as he joined a long line in paying his respects to
Hashim this week. "We're seeing each day become worse than the last."

The echoes of Apache helicopters and F-16, A-10 and AC-130 warplanes soon
after midnight Monday woke the four families of Hashim's relatives and
signaled the start of the military thrust, dubbed Operation Peninsula
Strike. The goal was to find elements of resistance fighters who have been
ambushing U.S. troops, the military said. Within minutes, armored vehicles
plowed down the dirt road to the families' compound. Humvees and troop
transports followed.

From the other direction, on the banks of the Tigris near a reed-shrouded
island, soldiers hurried from camouflage boats. They ran up a hill, near a
small garden of okra and green beans and past a patch of purple flowers
known as "prophet's carpet."

"We came here ready to fight," Jimenez recalled.

At the sound of their arrival, Hashim's cousin, Asad Abdel-Karim Ibrahim,
said he went outside the gate with his parents, brother and two sisters. In
his arms was his 7-month-old niece, Amal. They raised a white head scarf,
but soldiers apparently did not see it. Ibrahim was shot in the upper right
arm. He dropped the baby, who started screaming. Days later, Ibrahim was
still wearing a piece of soiled tape placed on his back by the soldiers
that read: "15-year-old male, GSW [gunshot wound] @ arm."

"The Americans were shouting in English, and we didn't know what they were
saying," he said.

Around the corner, residents said soldiers searched the house of Fadhil
Midhas, 19. Mentally retarded, he started shouting when soldiers put tape
over his mouth, fearful that he would suffocate. Women there tried to
explain -- more with hand gestures than words -- and residents said
soldiers finally splashed water over Midhas's face in an attempt to quiet him.

In the commotion, Hashim ran away, headed toward the thick groves behind
his house. Relatives said he was unarmed.

"He was trying to hide," said his brother, Riyadh, who was detained for
four days. "He didn't know what to do."

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60042-2003Jun14.html


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