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Iraqis say they're living in fear

Oct-16-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

By Margaret Friedenauer, Daily News-Miner

BAGHDAD - The young artist, sitting in a comfortable upscale home earlier this week, told Lt. Andrew Pfeiffer he didn't feel safe in his own western Baghdad neighborhood. The home offers a nice coolness on a clear, hot day as they speak.

The man, who specializes in ceramics, bronze and glass, said the increased violence keeps him and his family living in fear.

As if on cue, a single gunshot rang out a few blocks away.

�You see?� the man said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder and speaking through an interpreter. The gunfire was just a warning shot that soldiers with the 2-1 Infantry Battalion fired when a vehicle approached them too closely.

Soldiers with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, of which the 2nd Battalion 1st Infantry is part, have heard similar concerns in the many neighborhoods they've patrolled since arriving in Baghdad in August. Many residents see the presence of U.S. forces as helpful, at least while their own Iraqi forces and government struggle to gain hold over the violence.

Two days of patrolling with different elements of the 172nd offer a variety of views and sharply different images of the Iraqi capital.

On Wednesday, Pfeiffer, a 23-year-old Maine native, and the two dozen soldiers and the four Stryker vehicles of his platoon patrolled the affluent neighborhood that the young artist calls home.

The gated homes are large and well maintained and there is little trash along the streets, portraying, on the surface, no sign of unrest. Still, the soldiers are quick on their feet when going house to house, scurrying from one street corner to the next and hugging the high walls against the homes, before quickly disappearing into the gated yards. [...]


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