Posted on 12/19/2003 11:40:46 AM PST by TexKat
KADISAYA, Iraq (Reuters) - The fresh produce on the floor outside made it look like any other Iraqi greengrocer's, but the Saddam Hussein portrait hanging inside led a passing U.S. army patrol to take a closer look.
A quick search through baskets of vegetables and bags of seeds on Friday uncovered a stash of ammunition, explosives, detonators and one rocket-propelled grenade. The only thing missing was the shopkeeper who had apparently vanished.
The chance find was significant for the Cougar tank company which patrols the area north of Tikrit, Saddam's home town where he still enjoys open support from the people and where the U.S.-led occupation is bitterly resented.
Soldiers in the area have been plagued by home-made bombs and they are on the look out for bomb makers and materials which could be used to make the crude but effective road-side "improvised explosive devices" (IEDs).
"In Kadisaya, we haven't found much of this, we look for it on a daily basis," said company commander Captain Jon Cecalupo.
"This was found hidden in a basket of vegetables they are selling on the market, these are places we usually wouldn't have looked."
The Saddam picture was spotted by a tank commander from the turret of his M1A1 Abrams and a soldier was sent to gingerly peel it off the wall, mindful of the fact that some such posters pasted on to nearby bus stops have been booby-trapped.
The soldiers had considered the market place a relatively friendly area as it was opposite a school they had "adopted" and recently helped paint.
But far more obvious support for the former regime was pointed out when an army interpreter arrived on the scene. Scrawled in Arabic on the end of the row of shops was the message the troops could not read: "Long live Saddam Hussein."
When reporters left the scene, soldiers were questioning a middle-aged woman who said her husband died four years ago and insisted the shop was run by her eight-year-old child.
"He ran away because someone told him Americans would kill him," the interpreter said after speaking to the woman.
The hunt for insurgents is not the war soldiers expected.
Tank commander Sergeant Anthony Coates said when he initially drove up through Iraq nine months ago he expected to engage in tank battles with Saddam's Republican Guard but as it turned out he encountered no serious military resistance.
Instead he has been patrolling urban and rural areas to fight the constant threat of reprisals by pro-Saddam Iraqis -- a battle style he was not trained for and which, he says, is more difficult that traditional tank warfare.
"In the type of combat we try to do, you know what the enemy looks like and you know if you see an enemy you can shoot them.
"Here, we are reacting."
Really??Do we not hear this often enough? The US had no idea whatsoever that the Sunni Triangle would be upset about their TOTAL loss of power to wring wealth from the Kurds and Shiites and treat them like serfs?
Maybe they thought their wouldnt be as many dead soldiers, but I doubt this reaction is a total shock to military. Insufficient response does not mean total surprise.
This writer makes it sound as if these homemade bombs blew up at night, disturbing the soldiers' sleep. What an idiot.
Oh we can just suck that little stuff up like a string of gettis. I'm sure we've been called worse.
An Iraqi gunman brandishes his weapon while others celebrate around the wreckage of a burning tanker truck near Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, Friday Dec. 19, 2003. A homemade explosive device exploded on the roadside as the military truck was passing, wounding two U.S. soldiers. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
Iraqi boys wave to soldiers of U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division (Task Force Ironhorse) during a patrol with M1 Abrams tanks in Khadisiya, just outside Tikrit, Friday, Dec. 19 2003. A U.S. armored unit on a routine patrol in Khadisiya discovered a bomb-making materials in an grocery shop. Its commander immediately asked for reinforcement to search the area wider for more weapons and explosives. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
An Iraqi youth searches through the debris of his home destroyed in an explosion in Baghdad, December 19, 2003. A blast ripped through a building belonging to Iraq's main Shi'ite Muslim political group, killing at least one person and wounding two people, witnesses said. (Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters)
US soldiers secure the area as Iraqi Sunni and Shiite Muslims march together in Baghdad. Prayer leaders from the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam called on the faithful to show restraint after attacks on two mosques.(AFP/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)
Wounded members of an Iraqi family who lost one of their relatives in an explosion at a religious school attached to the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq offices, stare at the explosion site in western Baghdad. Residents blamed the explosion on a bomb and said about 10 people were wounded and one killed.(AFP/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)
US soldiers arrest a suspect in Baghdad. US forces are questioning two Yemenis picked up in northern Iraq who claimed to be students.(AFP/File/Sabah Arar)
Spc. Jamie Post, of Haledon, NJ, of 501st Military Police Company mans a grenade launcher while an helicopter hovers overhead during a patrol west of Baghdad, Iraq Friday, Dec. 19, 2003. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Erik Miller of Aberdeen, Md.. gets ready to hug his son Kaleb Miller, 2, after arriving home Friday, Dec. 19, 2003 to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen from military duty in Iraq. Miller was one of about 115 soldiers from the 115th Military Police Battalion to return to the United States. (AP Photo/ Steve Ruark)
Briana Harris, 3, of Catonsville, Md. holds on to her father Sgt. Colin Harris Friday, Dec. 19, 2003 after his return to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Md. from military duty in Iraq. Harris was one of about 115 soldiers from the 115th Military Police Battalion to return to the United States. (AP Photo/ Steve Ruark)
An Iraqi man stands next to a burning tanker truck destroyed by a Improvised Explosive Device while travelling in a US army convoy along the highway from western Baghdad to the town of Fallujah. According to witnesses the driver suffered injuries and no lives were lost.(AFP/Abdelqader Saadi)
Anyone have a guess of what their next choice will be? Hopefully it will be the towels on their heads and they explode prematurely.
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