Bitterness Grows in Iraq Over Deaths of Civilians

In numerous interviews, Iraqis said that more than factors like unemployment, fuel shortages, or electricity blackouts, civilian casualties since the war's end have raised the level of bitterness against US soldiers and could prolong or widen armed resistance.

''It has increased our hate against Americans,'' said Ali Hatem, 23, a computer science student at the University of Baghdad. ''It also increases the violence against them. In Iraq, we are tribal people. When someone loses their son, they want revenge.''

In late April, soldiers from the 82d Airborne Division shot dead 13 Iraqis when they opened fire on protesters in the town of Fallujah, about 50 miles west of Baghdad. Soldiers fired on another demonstration on June 18 at the gates of the Republican Palace in Baghdad, killing at least two people. In both those cases, US forces said they believed they were being fired upon by armed insurgents hidden in the crowd.

''No Americans have visited us to speak about what happened,'' said Moustafa Ahmed, 28, who says his 24-year-old brother, Uday Ahmed, was shot by a soldier from the 82d Airborne Division. ''And we don't feel we can go speak to them.'' His brother was killed July 9.

Uday had been fixing a neighbor's car to earn money. He walked a few blocks from his house in the southwest Baghdad district of Saidiya to an auto repair yard to look for a spare part. Walking across the yard, he held the car's ignition distributor, a metal object about the size and shape of a hand grenade.

He was clearly visible from the roof of the Dorah Police Station that abuts the repair yard. There, 82d Airborne soldiers are posted behind sandbags, rifles at the ready.

From atop the roof, a soldier spotted Uday Ahmed and fired.


This was predictable before the war, at least I predicted it. My nephew is posted in Baghdad - a new photo here.