One Week after the "Transfer of Sovereignty",
Urban Guerilla Warfare Comes to Baghdad
By Rémy Ourdan
Le Monde
Thursday 08 July 2004
An American combat helicopter tries to eliminate a sniper by firing rockets
against a building on Haïfa Road in the heart of the Iraqi capital....Baghdadis,
already staggering from the American Army's brutality and the violence of Islamist
attacks, hoped never to see this type of urban guerilla warfare scene in their city.
Wednesday July 7's guerilla attack targeted a National Guard (Iraqi Army) road
block at the same time the government was revealing its "National Security Law"
offering exceptional powers to Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. The Iraqi Army patrols more
and more and has been installing its control points in Baghdad for the last three
days, advertising the government's desire to fight guerilla groups and criminals.
The fighting was violent around Talaï Place, where the road block was set up, and
Haïfa Avenue, on the west bank of the Tigris, a neighborhood where Saddam Hussein
lived before his reign and which he had completely rebuilt once he became president.
Machine gun fire and grenade explosions quickly drove civilians away from the avenue,
ordinarily a very busy one.
Then the American army intervened, sealing off the area and deploying armored
vehicles and combat helicopters. At least three Iraqi soldiers were killed and twenty
wounded. As for the American Army, it had to abandon an armored Humvee, hit at an
intersection, with no news on the fate of the occupants. As usual, its spokesperson
accused "foreign combatants" of being responsible for the attack, without supplying
any proof.
After a week of calm following the "transfer of sovereignty" while Baghdad feared
the worst, Wednesday was marked by renewed guerilla activity. Two hours before the
Haïfa road attack, mortar fire targeted an Iyad Allawi residence, wounding five
people. In another neighborhood, the office of the Iraqi National Entente, Mr.
Allawi's party, was fired on, killing seven people, including three of the political
movement's employees. A mortar shell also hit the airport, shaking the terminal where
passengers were waiting for a flight, while another shell hit the Dora neighborhood,
wounding two people. The firing also targeted a police station, wounding two
policemen.
A booby-trapped car, loaded with 750 kg (1650 lbs) of explosives and shells was
discovered and neutralized near a Shi'ite mosque in Karada, Baghdad's liveliest and
most commercial neighborhood. A detonation would have provoked carnage. In comparison,
the explosions a year ago in Baghdad that devastated UN Headquarters, police stations,
and a hotel were effected with 500 kg of explosives and didn't target neighborhoods
like Karada, where there are so many stalls and pedestrians.
Attacks in the North
Attacks also took place in Mosul and Kirkuk in the north of the country. Six
police were killed in the two cities. Moreover, we learned Wednesday that two other
guerilla attacks took place the evening before, one killing five Iraqi soldiers in
Taji, near Baghdad, the other killing four American Marines in the Al-Anbar province,
to the west of the Iraqi capital. Fourteen Marines have been killed in nine days in
this province that's become a guerilla fiefdom, notably around the cities of Falluja
and Ramadi.
For Baghdadis, the fighting in Haïfa Road is a symbol of the worst they can
undergo. The threat of car bombs and rampant criminality has poisoned their lives for
the last year, but at least they remained safe from urban guerilla warfare. The rebels
have now sent them, as well as the government, a clear message: they can bring the
war, by classic guerilla means, right to the heart of the capital.
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