Police flee as Saddam loyalists fuel city revolt [View All]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=450367

06 October 2003

Iraqis shouting pro-Saddam Hussein slogans have staged an uprising in the important oil refining city of Baiji, burning down the mayor's office, fighting with American troops and forcing local police to flee.

About a thousand people, some holding pictures of Saddam Hussein, were in a stand-off with American troops last night, with tanks surrounding the police station in the city, 160 miles north of Baghdad.

<snip>

The crowds were particularly enraged, according to one report, by a rumour that the oil being taken by the Turkish truck drivers was to be sold in Israel. But there is no doubt that people in Baiji are more willing to express their support for Saddam Hussein than demonstrators in Ramadi and Fallujah, the Euphrates river towns where there have been repeated attacks on American troops.

The atmosphere in Baiji yesterday evening was still very tense. Iraqi truck drivers said they were frightened of driving through in case they were mistakenly identified as Turkish. "No one is in control. It is anarchy there,'' said one man on the outskirts of the city.



(I bet Bremmer still thinks things are going great in Iraq.)