03-23-2005, 12:12
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#16
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,952
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Quote:
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Also in the capital, witnesses said shopkeepers fought a gun battle with insurgents on Tuesday, killing three of them. Correspondents say the incident is the first time private citizens are known to have retaliated successfully against insurgents.
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More on this story:
Quote:
Iraqi civilians stand up, kill 3 attacking gunmen
By Robert F. Worth
The New York Times
March 23, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Ordinary Iraqis rarely strike back at the insurgents who terrorize their country. But just before noon Tuesday, a carpenter named Dhia saw a group of masked gunmen with grenades coming toward his shop and decided he had had enough.
As the gunmen emerged from their cars, Dhia, 35, and his young relatives shouldered their own AK-47s and opened fire, the police and witnesses said. In the fierce gunbattle that followed, three of the insurgents were killed and the rest fled just after the police arrived. Two of Dhia's nephews and a bystander were injured, the police said.
"We attacked them before they attacked us," Dhia said in a brief exchange at his shop a few hours after the battle, his face still contorted with rage and excitement. He did not give his last name. "We killed three of those who call themselves the mujahedeen. I am waiting for the rest of them to come, and we will show them."
It was the first time private citizens are known to have retaliated successfully against insurgents. There have been anecdotal reports of residents shooting at attackers after a bombing or assassination, but Tuesday's gunbattle erupted in full view of half a dozen witnesses, including a Justice Ministry official who lives nearby.
The battle was the latest sign that Iraqis may be willing to start standing up against the attacks that leave dozens of people dead here nearly every week. After a suicide bombing in Hillah last month that killed at least 125 people, including a number of women and children, hundreds of residents demonstrated in front of the city hall every day for almost a week, chanting slogans against terrorism. Last week, a smaller but similar rally took place in Baghdad. Another demonstration is scheduled for today in the capital.
Like many of the attacks here, Tuesday's gunbattle had sectarian overtones. Dhia and his family are Shiites and they cook for religious festivals at the Shiite Husseiniya mosque, across from his shop. The insurgents are largely Sunnis, and they have aimed dozens of attacks at Shiite figures, celebrations, even funerals.
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http://www.indystar.com/articles/7/231303-7767-P.html
I think I am far less surprised that these "ordinary Iraqis [struck] back" than I am at the fact that New York Times editors allowed the phrase "the insurgents who terrorize their country" to slip through their filters.
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Airbornelawyer is offline
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