Civilian deaths stoke Iraqis' resentment Bitterness may widen resistance

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/08/04/MN304485.DTL

It was 10:30 p.m. on a sweltering night in late June when 12-year-old Mohammed Al-Kubaisa climbed the concrete steps leading to the roof of his family's house.

The boy held two blankets, so he and his identical twin brother, Moustafa, could curl up together for the night, one of their favorite summer habits. Mohammed had just reached the top, when he turned to watch the military maneuvers on the street below: American soldiers patrolling with rifles. One soldier looked up in the darkness and saw a figure on the roof, watching him.

A single shot exploded into the air, slamming into Mohammed's chest.

In the chaos that followed, Mohammed's mother, Wafa Abdul Latif, recalls dragging her son inside and holding the screaming boy as his blood poured onto the floor. She says Mohammed was struggling to breathe when a group of American soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division slammed through the front door and pushed her aside to search the house for hostile gunmen.

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In numerous interviews, they warn that more than other factors -- like widespread unemployment, fuel shortages and electricity blackouts -- civilian casualties have hardened bitterness against U.S. soldiers, and could prolong or widen the armed resistance against them.

of no return on this.