Home » Archives » "In Iraq fear still grips Diyala's people"

In Iraq fear still grips Diyala's people

Jan-29-2008 » Filed Under: 2nd SCR

By RICHARD TOMKINS, Middle East Times

Fear of al-Qaida is a constant in the newly liberated areas of Iraq's Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad. The number of terrorists is down and life for villagers is becoming more secure. Yet terror's reach is long and deep.

"Al-Qaida made us like chickens, afraid of everything," the mukhtar (headman) of al-Hib village told a U.S. soldier.

"They would kill anyone, even a sheik, and no one could ask why," a man who identified himself as Raad, said in the town of Hisbum. "Everyone was afraid. People stayed at home because they could just stop you on the street and make you do things, take your money, beat you, or kidnap you.

"Four men were kidnapped a week before you [U.S. and Iraqi forces] came. No one has seen them since."

The mukhtar made the unusually frank admission in his home, away from prying eyes and eavesdropping, when a patrol from Iron Company, 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment paid a courtesy call. Raad's was made on a public street, but two of his friends kept curious passers-by from crowding around within hearing distance.

The caution was not misplaced.

Hisbum and al-Hib are located in what's called Diyala's breadbasket, a region rich in dates, pomegranates and oranges. Until Jan. 8, the kickoff of the U.S.-Iraqi operation known as Operation Raider Harvest, no central government official had visited the area of some 10,000 residents for two years. Hisbum was, after all, an al-Qaida in Iraq sanctuary, an important one along a main infiltration route between Baghdad and the northern provinces.

They had safe-houses and headquarters buildings -- basically homes confiscated from their owners at gunpoint -- training camps, arms, and munitions caches.

Smoking was forbidden. Women were required to wear full hijab, and music of any kind was banned. Beards could no longer be kept short and trimmed neatly, as Iraqi men favor. No one was allowed out of doors between 5 p.m. and dawn.

Those restrictions are gone, but a fear of those who enforced it remains and is affecting U.S. and Iraqi security efforts.

[...]


Advertisements