Baghdad Residents Set Up Blockades To Combat Looting

AP via Dow Jones Broadtape | 4/11/03 | AP Staff

[BunnySlippers]

Baghdad Residents Set Up Blockades To Combat Looting

BAGHDAD (AP)--Armed with rifles, Baghdad residents beat up looters and blockaded streets Friday in an attempt to quell the looting and lawlessness running rampant in the Iraqi capital.

As thousands of Iraqis - including some entire families with young children - raided government buildings and hauled away everything from cars to refrigerators, some residents in the Karada neighborhood set up roadblocks and checked cars for stolen goods.

Suspected thieves were pulled out, beaten and thrown into an alley in the neighborhood southeast of the city center. Some pleaded with U.S. troops help stop the looting.

In new rules of conduct issued Friday, Gen. Tommy Franks forbade U.S. forces to use deadly force to prevent looting.

Fighting had dwindled to occasional bursts of machine-gun fire but U.S. troops were still on high alert for ambushes and suicide attacks by fighters loyal to President Saddam Hussein.

"I feel like I'm in Beirut, Lebanon, waiting for the suicide bombers," U.S. Army Lt. Col. Philip DeCamp said. "We know they're holed up on the other side of the river and scattered around the city."

Friday, a car carrying an Iraqi family drove through a checkpoint in Baghdad without stopping, and American forces opened fire. Three adults were killed and a 5-year-old girl was wounded.

Fires burned throughout central Baghdad. The Trade and Planning ministries were smoldering, along with one of the city's main markets.

People raided the nursing college at Baghdad University as well as the Engineering College. Looters left with light fixtures, desks, water coolers and air conditioners.

Three men stood on the roof of the German Embassy unscrewing a large satellite dish. Sofas, tables, chairs, electronic equipment and a refrigerator were taken from the Information Ministry.

Abu Dhabi television showed footage that it said was Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf's trashed office at the ministry and his Mercedes limousine stripped of its lights.

Cars were stolen off the streets. If the thieves could not start the engines, they towed the cars away. Children as young as 10 and entire families took part in the looting.

Residents in some neighborhoods erected street barricades of tiles, huge rocks and sandbags to keep looters out.

"Tell the Americans to stop the killing and the looting. We can't live like this much longer, with Muslims looting other Muslims," said 41-year-old Jabryah Aziz. "I need to feel safe so I can go and collect my food ration."

In the Al-Mansour district in western Baghdad, pro-Saddam bands of Arab volunteers manned sandbagged positions, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikov rifles. Residents said they were mostly Syrians.

In Saddam City, mosque minarets urged Iraqis to stop looting and destroying their city. Some people heeded the clerics' calls and brought stolen goods to mosques for safekeeping.

Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, at U.S. Central Command in Qatar, said the U.S. military is helping to rebuild the civil administration but expects the Iraqis themselves to assume responsibility for law and order.

Bands of looters also were roaming the residential areas, casing homes to see if the residents were home. Journalists trying to talk to the looters were robbed of money and cameras.

Long lines formed outside bakeries, garbage piled up on the streets along with debris from three days of looting.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-11-03 1159ET- - 11 59 AM EDT 04-11-03

[rhombus]

Without the UN? How dare they! What arrogance!

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[CFW]

Looks like the local citizenry will take care of the looting problem.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Armed and free!

[janee]

Why wasn't EBAY or all those FLEA market dealers consulted on the remnants distribution.....everybody could share! Anything showing up on ebay?

[TomGuy]

We need a UN resolution. The UN needs to handle this. Under their expert leadership, the situation should be controlled with months after a resolution is passed. Of course, getting a resolution passed will take 4-6 months. So, within a year, two at most, the UN should be ready to act.

[RightWhale]

the local citizenry will take care of the looting problem

The sooner the locals start governing themselves, the better. They know how. The first civilization since Euxine Lake was right there. They have 5000 years of experience with civilization.

[ODC-GIRL]

Happened a lot sooner than I would have expected. I'd say it's a good sign. Most of them really want a normal, civilized life to go along with that new FREEDOM. Hopefully, it won't take long to re-establish order and get the city back on it's feet.

[harpseal]

This sort of thing will do more to get ordinary Iraqis involved in their future government,

[overtaxed_canadian]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12285174,00.html

SHOPKEEPER KILLED

US soldiers have shot and killed a Baghdad shopkeeper defending his business with a Kalashnikov assault rifle against looters.

The 25-year-old merchant pulled his rifle on the thieves when they began ransacking the shop, neighbours said.


When US soldiers approached the area, the looters told them that the shopkeeper was a member of Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen paramilitary force.

The American troops reportedly opened fire with machine guns, killing the man, the neighbours said.

An AFP photographer saw the covered body of Mohammad al-Barheini lying on a shelf of his shop, his head in a bag, on the Al-Rashid commercial street in the capital.

[Petruchio]

Journalists trying to talk to the looters were robbed of money and cameras.

So, that is why looting is now a problem.

[TexasRepublic]

"Tell the Americans to stop the killing and the looting. We can't live like this much longer, with Muslims looting other Muslims,"

Ha, ha! Oh, the irony. Isn't that a b!tch?

[zeugma]

Problem: massive looting.

Apparent solution: In new rules of conduct issued Friday, Gen. Tommy Franks forbade U.S. forces to use deadly force to prevent looting.

Solution that will work quickly: Have the U.S. forces start broadcasting everywhere that in 6 hours, anyone seen looting will be shot on sight with no questions asked.

Duh. I've always thought that looters should be shot on sight. I understand the military wanting to allow the Iraqis to have a little time to blow off steam, but I don't think wide-spread looting is the answer. I'm hoping that we expended some effort to make sure we get whatever documents existed in the embassies, and government buildings before they all disappear.

[GreenHornet]

"Fires burned throughout central Baghdad. The Trade and Planning ministries were smoldering, along with one of the city's main markets. People raided the nursing college at Baghdad University as well as the Engineering College. Looters left with light fixtures, desks, water coolers and air conditioners. Three men stood on the roof of the German Embassy unscrewing a large satellite dish. Sofas, tables, chairs, electronic equipment and a refrigerator were taken from the Information Ministry."

From the sound of it, you would think that Baghdad had just won the NBA title.