Distrust Breaks the Bonds Of a Baghdad Neighborhood

[ECH1969]

It began with a dispute over the price of ice and erupted into full-scale violence over the sighting of two strange cars cruising the neighborhood. A week later, the scars of sectarian strife were visible everywhere in Tobji.

"He was selling a block of ice for 20,000 dinars. Its actual price is 5,000 dinars," said Abu Mohammed. "When we told him he should lower the price, he slapped one of our guys. We didn't like that. So we beat him up as punishment." Shortly afterward, unfamiliar cars started to drive toward the Egheidat section of Tobji, Abu Mohammed said. Then came the rumors: The cars were to be used for drive-by attacks or suicide bombings.

A group of Mahdi Army militiamen, including Abu Mohammed, headed toward the mosque. Outside, clutching their weapons, they called out to the mosque guards. Abu Mohammed recalled that he and his men ran straight to the Egheidat area. "We opened fire on them," he said matter-of-factly. A gun battle followed. "They were shooting at us from the mosque. This is God's home. They defiled the house of God. So we shot at it with an RPG, and the minaret was hit."

The fighting raged until U.S. and Iraqi soldiers entered the fray and sealed off the neighborhood. "The militiamen, when they saw the American army, they fled at extraordinary speed," said Abdul Sattar, who was too afraid to leave his house to go to work this day. "They jumped into houses. One woman saw one of them in her house and fainted."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092601635.html

[Erika]

1. and we're there why? n/t

[ECH1969]

2. good question