Battle-scarred Baghdad quarter wants US troops out

Battle-scarred Baghdad quarter wants US troops out

By Joseph Logan


BAGHDAD, Aug. 8 — If Iraq's occupiers truly want to restore order, say residents of a Baghdad neighbourhood caught up in a deadly confrontation between gunmen and U.S. troops, their first step is simple -- leave.

In Karada, where U.S. forces killed an Iraqi bystander on Thursday during a firefight after a bomb rocked their vehicle, many Iraqis have had enough of soldiers they say are too quick to fire on people they are supposed to be protecting.

''They disgust me. They are ignorant and terrified, so they shoot at random, at anything, at a house with 14 people in it,'' said 43-year-old Sadeq, pointing to the bullet-riddled house where he and his family huddled during the two-hour gun battle.

''Let them get out. Nothing is safe here now, and they are part of it,'' said Mazen Hamza, an employee of an appliance shop in a charred building next door.

Witnesses said U.S. soldiers had come under attack from the burned building, then raked it with machinegun fire. (snip/...)

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