- BAGHDAD -- Eighteen Iraqi
civilians were injured, many seriously, in the mostly Shiite district of
Al-Haâab in the northwest of Baghdad yesterday morning when one of
them stepped on an unexploded grenade or shell. Arab News discovered that
the area had either been used as a storage facility by the Iraqi military,
or was occupied by an active unit which abandoned it as US troops closed
in on the city. There were 12 large trucks, each carrying Iraqi-made Thunder
missiles similar to the Russian-made Volga. Each truck contained four of
the large missiles ÷ meaning that 36 of them had been hastily abandoned
four days earlier.
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- Curious civilians, including children, strolled around
the mobile missile launchers to look at the bombs and hundreds of other
shells. A number of them blocked the road after the explosion, directing
traffic amid the ensuing chaos. They rushed to the Arab News car and pleaded
with us to tell the world what had happened here.
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- "People are dying here," one middle-aged man
said. "Look at all these missiles! We are not safe. Where are the
Americans? Why are they not helping us? We need blood. Let everybody know
our plight," he added.
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- Within half an hour, a large convoy of US troops did
indeed reach the area. They quickly started to co-operate in a scene that
was replayed across the capital as US troops and local police started jointly
patrolling the streets yesterday to quell the lawlessness that has engulfed
the capital since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. Most stores
and government offices remained closed. Residents were seen collecting
and burning garbage, and the buses were running.
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- US troops searched a palace left behind by Saddam's eldest
son Uday and found Cuban cigars, liquor, watches and pictures of cars and
women - including those of US President George W. Bush's twin daughters,
21-year-old Jenna and Barbara - in one of the gymnasiums.
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- Several hundred Iraqi police officers in plainclothes
and uniform reported to the Iraqi police academy yesterday morning in response
to calls for joint patrols.
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- Iraqi Police Lt. Col. Haitham Al-Ani told Arab News the
US troops and the Iraqis would patrol in separate cars and that the Iraqi
police would not be allowed to carry guns. US military patrols were seen
in many neighborhoods as the Marines spread out initially concentrating
at key spots.
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- Local men, desperate to see calm return, helped the Marines
translate and point out those who were guilty of crimes.
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- Looting appeared to be easing, whether because the best
plunder was already gone, or because of more Marine patrols, along with
checkpoints and vigilante groups thrown together by Iraqi residents. Looters
have ransacked and burned parts of Baghdad, stealing even priceless archaeological
treasures from Iraqâs national museum. Even the Islamic Library was
on fire.
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- Elsewhere in the city, a number of looters were caught
by American troops at the Republic Palace in the center of Baghdad, close
to the downtown area of Sanak. The looters were not hurt and were escorted
politely by the US military.
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- Ahmed Al-Hassan, one of the looters, told Arab News that
the bathroom sinks were made of gold and the looters had also found a golden
handgun. Asked how he knew that this was gold, he said in better days he
had been a gold merchant.
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- Arab News asked if he was afraid of being arrested. "We
were never scared of Saddam," he answered. "So why should we
be scared of the Americans?"
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