US destroys Iraqi homes as punishment for pro-Saddam yard signs [View All]

(Balad, Iraq) Mohammed Al-Awasari's shack was no match for the American M-113 armored personal carrier. In a matter of minutes, the APC's powerful tracks reduced his small shop in the village of Albu Hishma to a pile of rubble. The U.S. soldiers on this "PSYOPS" (psychological operations) mission deep inside Iraq's Sunni Triangle, were laughing, some were taking pictures to show back home, while the gathered villagers stood around and looked on helplessly.

Shopkeeper Mohammed was out of luck. The U.S. troops had decided to give him a break after he told them he wasn't responsible for the spray-painted pro-Saddam slogan on his shop's facade. But the Kurdish translator working with the Americans entered his shop and found a notebook in which Mohammed had apparently been practicing writing the very slogan on the wall outside: "Saddam is the heroic leader of a cowardly people. Saddam is the heroic leader of a cowardly people. Saddam..." Mohammed was given five minutes to clear out his produce before the APC went in.

Mohammed's shop was one of five houses in Albu Hishma that were partially destroyed on this day by the soldiers of the 1st Battalion 8th Infantry, stationed near the town of Balad. Several other villagers escaped the same fate by hurriedly covering up the anti-American graffiti with mud. Today's mission was part of a new, two-tiered approach to winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis in this area, notorious for its stiff resistance against the U.S.-led

"I feel bad that the children have to see this," said Specialist Bryan Bledsoe, "But we have tried to help these people and they have thanked us by shooting at us. Now we're trying it this way. We want to make them understand that there is a price to pay if they support the terrorists."

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