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Patriotic Iraqis taking things into their own hands
This appears to be a good thing on the surface but in actuality itâs a dangerous trend. Convincing an armed vigilante group to abandon violence after the terrorist threat has subsided may prove to be a problem. I think this group will end up being trouble down the road even though they may help provide security and crack down on terrorist in ways we canât today.BAGHDADâTwenty men slinging Kalashnikovs, Sterling sub-machineguns, and an assortment of pistols sauntered down a main street in the Baghdad neighborhood of al-Adhamiya one recent Friday afternoon ready for business. As locals watch anxiously, the men tore down pro-Baathist and anti-Coalition posters, a common sight in this pro-Saddam district. Then they replaced the posters with leaflets of their own, vowing attacks on "terrorists" and their allies in the name of a militia called the "Black Flag". Group members say they will act against suspected insurgents in place of the United States-led Coalition and the Iraqi police, who they say lack the street-level intelligence to deal with their enemies effectively. ... Black Flag claims 5,000 members across the country â including adherents in half-a-dozen Baghdad neighborhoods. Although this claim is impossible to verify, IWPR has met members of the groups in three different locations across west Baghdad. As well as al-Adhamiya, IWPR has seen Black Flag leaflets in al-Karkh, a west Baghdad neighborhood that is a centre of Baathist activity, the outlying mixed Sunni-Shia neighborhoods of al-Bayaa and al-Adel, and the central Bab al-Sharji market. ... "We will target the symbols of terrorism, who are known to everyone except the police and the Americans," he said. "We will target those who assist them in person, or through satellite channels like al-Arabiya.â Al-Arabiya has been accused by both Iraqis and US officials of cooperating with anti-Coalition guerrillas, either by filming their operations or broadcasting their manifestos. H.A. claims to have a list of 21 names of people it suspects in the al-Hurriya district alone, most of them from two predominantly Sunni tribes. "We will make war against the terrorist leaders, [and] we have much information and evidence proving their involvement with some tribal leaders allied with them against the democratic, patriotic forces," said one Black Flag flyer posted in al-Hurriya. Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2004-03-21 |
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