- A wave of brazen bank robberies has swept through the
centre of Baghdad in the past few days in full view of the occupying American
forces, and the astonishing dimensions are only now becoming clear.
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- A tour of 20 banks in the city by The Independent yesterday
found 15 wrecked, torched and looted. Even the front doors are missing
from a few. US dollars, Iraqi dinars, toilet bowls and dirt-cheap light
fittings have been stolen, leaving some Iraqis, whose average earnings
are less than £2,500 a year, facing the loss of their life savings.
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- Ala al-Nasir, professional translator aged 50, is among
those desperate to know whether they will ever see their money again. He
had the equivalent of £7,600 in a branch of the state-owned Rasheed
Bank, which was stripped bare. "It was the harvest of my life's work,"
he said. "There are plenty others in my neighbourhood like me."
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- A US Abrams tank, several armoured fighting vehicles
and a company of marines have finally been stationed at the Iraqi Central
Bank, unsubtly marking their presence by flying the US flag in front of
the towering, fortress-style building.
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- But they were deployed only on Thursday afternoon, eight
days after the US troops arrived in the city centre. For at least two days,
the bank, and two others that adjoin it ö the headquarters of the
Rasheed and Rafidian banks ö had been looted by men armed with rocket-propelled
grenades, AK-47s, knives and welding torches.
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- The attackers reduced the Central Bank, a modern, nine-storey
building rumoured to hold great wealth, to a total wreck, floors strewn
with charred Iraqi dinar bank notes, shattered glass and prised-open cupboards
and safes.
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- Within hours of the marines' deployment at the bank,
they shot dead three Iraqi men on the street with their tank's 7.62mm machine-guns.
No one knows how many civilians have been shot by American soldiers in
Baghdad in similar circumstances. The dead men were not connected with
the people raiding the bank.
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- "Unfortunately, we killed the good guys," said
Lieutenant Patrick Spencer, 35, of the US Marines 13/4 company, "We
found that out later by looking at their ID. The marines on the guns are
not at all happy about what happened."
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- He said the Iraqis arrived from out of town unaware of
a night curfew and had misunderstood instructions to leave the area. Warning
shots were fired at their tyres, he said.
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- The Americans have also been astounded by the ferocity
of the attacks on banks. They say the raiders have been shooting and killing
one another in the rush to grab the booty.
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- The failure of the Americans to do anything to stop the
robberies is fuelling the unfolding anti-American sentiment. It also means
that the business of unraveling compensation and insurance claims, and
creating a banking system in the aftermath of the war, will be an immense
undertaking.
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- Rumours abound that the bank raids were organised, a
view also widely held about the burning of buildings containing ministries
and antiquities. Many sceptical Iraqis say the Americans moved swiftly
to protect the oil and interior ministries but allowed other buildings
to go up in smoke and hospitals to be looted.
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=398514
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