U.S. forces face revenge attacks from ordinary Iraqis angered by the occupation

Commander: GIs in Iraq Face Revenge Raids
Wed Sep 17

By TAREK AL-ISSAWI, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq said in an interview published Wednesday that U.S. forces, already under pressure from a guerrilla-style resistance, now face revenge attacks from ordinary Iraqis angered by the occupation.

North of Baghdad, there were at least three separate attacks on U.S. forces with roadside bombs in less than 1 1/2 hours Wednesday morning. Witnesses reported injured soldiers, but details were unclear. The attacks hit U.S. Humvees about 12 miles north of Baghdad near al-Taji.

While U.S. forces increasingly patrol Iraqi hotspots with American-trained local militiamen, citizens voice growing anger with tactics that are seen as heavy-handed and insensitive to Iraqi social and religious customs.

"We have seen that when we have an incident in the conduct of our operations, when we killed an innocent civilian, based on their ethic, their values, their culture, they would seek revenge," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez was quoted as telling The Times newspaper in London. [And this differs from Americans how?]

Coalition forces were seeking "to ensure that when a mistake has been made and when we have inadvertently wound up killing someone that we go and do the right thing culturally to take care of those families." The Times' report did not elaborate on those steps.

Sanchez's remarks came after the friendly fire killing late last week of eight Iraqi policemen by American soldiers near Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad. The military and the U.S. administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, have apologized.

Six people claiming to be Americans and two who say they are British are in U.S. custody on suspicion of involvement in attacks on coalition forces, an American general said Tuesday. They would be the first Westerners reported held in the insurrection against the U.S.-led occupation.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who is in charge of coalition detention centers in Iraq, said they were considered security detainees, meaning they were suspected of involvement in guerrilla attacks. She did not identify them but said they were being interrogated by military intelligence in Baghdad.

"We actually do have six who are claiming to be Americans, two who are claiming to be from the U.K. We're continuing the interviewing process. The details become sketchy and their story changes," Karpinski said Tuesday.

She said there were "several ... hundred third-country nationals in custody."

She declined to give more details on those being held.

"We're not trying to withhold information from you. Some information remains classified for security reasons," Karpinski said during a tour of Abu Ghraib prison, where Saddam Hussein once locked up his political opponents.

Asked about the detainees at a Pentagon news conference, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said: "The truth is that the folks that we've scooped up have, on a number of occasions, multiple identifications from different countries. They're quite skilled at confusing people as to what their real nationality is or where they came from or what they're doing." [Could they be referring to the many Palestinians who fled there but have lived most of their lives in Iraq. Americans have been left so ignorant of the Middle East by the media that people confuse their own ignorance with "trickery" on the part of Arabs.]

The British government said it was investigating the claims.

"We are urgently following up the reports," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity. She would not confirm whether the United States had informed British officials of the arrests.

If Westerners are actively involved in the resistance, it would deepen confusion about what groups are involved. Initially, the guerrilla fighters were thought to be Saddam loyalists, but in recent weeks U.S. officials have said they are being joined by foreign fighters, possibly al-Qaida members.

The revelation recalls the capture of John Walker Lindh in Afghanistan, where the American fought alongside Taliban and al-Qaida fighters following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Lindh was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to supplying services to the Taliban militia, which ruled Afghanistan and was ousted by a U.S.-led coalition.

In December 2001, British citizen Richard Reid, a member of al-Qaida, was arrested after trying to light explosives hidden in his shoes on a Paris-to-Miami flight. Reid pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

American troops in Afghanistan also captured Yaser Esam Hamdi, who was flown to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and held there for several months until it was discovered he was born in Baton Rouge, La. He was held in the naval brig in Norfolk, Va., then transferred in late July to a jail at the Charleston Naval Weapons Station in South Carolina.

At least nine Britons are being detained in Guantanamo, where some 660 men from 42 countries are being held on suspicion of links to the Taliban or al-Qaida. None of the men has been charged and some have been held for nearly two years without access to lawyers.

Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, a spokeswoman for the mission in Guantanamo, said Tuesday that none of the detainees being held there were captured in Iraq.