Boston Globe, April 2, 2004 Violence indicates extent of resistance By Thanassis Cambanis and Anne Barnard
BAGHDAD -- US strategists have carefully painted the armed opposition in Iraq as a constellation of frustrated Ba'athists, former lieutenants of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, and Islamic terrorists from outside Iraq.
But the mob violence Wednesday in Fallujah, in the heart of the Sunni Triangle, underscored how popular -- and indigenous -- Iraqi resistance has become over the past year.
While organized insurgents might have sprung the ambush that killed the four US civilian contractors who were driving through Fallujah, it was a horde that seemed to be mostly teenage boys who doused the bodies with gasoline, mutilated them, and then hung them as resistance trophies from the town's major bridge.
Even in other regions of the country, Iraqis seem to have a deep well of sympathy for those who kill Americans. The attackers are called mujahideen, or holy warriors, and considered freedom fighters.
L. Paul Bremer III, head of the US-led occupation authority in Iraq, used his address to a class of graduating Iraqi police cadets yesterday to condemn the attacks, declaring the mob brutality beyond the pale.
"The acts we have seen were despicable and inexcusable," he said. "They violate the tenets of all religions, Islam included, as well as the foundations of civilized society. Their deaths will not go unpunished." But it is unclear whether the coalition running Iraq knows who its targets really are.
"These are despicable people. They're a small minority of the Iraqi people," military spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said yesterday. "And I suspect that most Iraqi people were as horrified with what they saw yesterday because they realized that that is painting the entire country of Iraq with a very wide brush."
But in Baghdad on Wednesday after the violence in Fallujah, tens of thousands of supporters of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demonstrated outside the occupation's headquarters, burning a US flag and pointing at the soldiers on the perimeter, chanting, "You're next."
Abu Ali, a soda vendor who did not leave his perch outside the Green Zone gate during Wednesday's protest, said yesterday that the resistance in Fallujah had provided a compass for occupied Iraq. The most recent violence, he said, would inspire Iraqis nationwide.
"They are brave. We should do the same," Abu Ali said. "It is OK as long as it is Iraqis fighting for their country."
full: <http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/04/02/violence_indicates_extent_of_resistance/> --
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