New York Times wrote:BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 23 — The American military moved today to strip Baghdad's self-appointed administrator of his authority and warned Iraqi factions not to take advantage of the confusion and the political void in the country by trying to grab power. Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of ground forces in Iraq, issued a proclamation putting Iraq's politicians on notice, saying, "The coalition alone retains absolute authority within Iraq." He warned that anyone challenging the American-led authority would be subject to arrest.
However, the American military presence is sparse in several areas of the city. With nobody to stop them, long-banned groups ranging from Shiite radicals to communists have been seizing villas in Baghdad and adorning them with their respective emblems.
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But American troops are still being killed and injuredas they try to make Iraq a safer place and as political factions and religious clerics rush to fill the void of authority.
Washington Post wrote:BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunshots heralded what the men in the New Baghdad market were selling Wednesday, among the oranges and the eggs - AK-47s, Beretta submachine guns and Browning 9mms, for as little as $10.
Massive arms caches abandoned by Iraqi forces and cleaned out by scavengers have put automatic weapons in the hands of anyone who covets one, endangering any return to peace and stability in Iraq. Even widows and other peaceful Iraqis are buying AK-47s for self-defense.
"Every Iraqi I'd estimate now has two or three guns. And we will use these guns against Britons and Americans, if they do not go out of Iraq," car mechanic Dhiab Hamad Khaleifa said Wednesday.
He spoke along a dusty roadside at a Kalashnikov market outside Baghdad - an impromptu affair of pickup trucks and men waving assault rifles. Potential customers blasted rounds into the air to test the wares.
The Iraqi military, once the Mideast's largest, simply abandoned its arsenal when officers and other soldiers slipped away ahead of U.S. forces. Looters were quick to appropriate mortars, 50-caliber machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and guns from abandoned bunkers, trenches and depots.
Up to 40 dead, many hurt in Baghdad arms dump blast (Reuters)
26 April 2003
ZAAFARANIYA, Iraq - As many as 40 Iraqi civilians were killed and many badly wounded in a series of huge blasts at an arms dump on the outskirts of Baghdad on Saturday, an Iraqi medic told Reuters near the scene. US troops blamed unidentified attackers who fired flares into the munitions store. But local people turned their anger on the Americans, shooting and forcing them back, soldiers said.
Some soldiers were wounded, an Army sergeant-major told Reuters at Zaafaraniya, a mixed residential and industrial suburb on the southern edge of the capital.
Earlier, Reuters photographer Yannis Behrakis had seen furious local people throw stones at American troops...
FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. troops opened fire on anti-American demonstrators for the second time this week as Iraqis marched Wednesday to protest the previous shooting. The local hospital said one person was killed and at least 16 other wounded. The gunfire came less than 48 hours after a shooting during a demonstration Monday night that hospital officials said killed 13 Iraqis.
There was no immediate indication of any American casualties.
The clashes in Fallujah, a conservative Sunni Muslim city and Baath Party stronghold 30 miles west of Baghdad, reflect the area's increasing tensions as American troops try to keep the peace in Iraq (news - web sites).
US artillery fired flares before dawn Tuesday over Baqubah, capital of Diyala province bordering Iran, in a failed bid to identify a group of armed men seen approching a US-held building in the town.
...
The chief suspect is a Shiite paramilitary unit known as the Badr Brigade, which is believed to be trying to extend its influence in the area following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad earlier this month.
US officials have accused Iran of sending agents into Iraq to undermine the US presence here, possibly with the Badr Brigade, a several thousand-strong militia linked to the Iran-based Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SARII), the largest Iraqi Shiite group opposing Saddam.
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - Attackers lobbed two grenades into a U.S. Army compound Thursday, wounding seven soldiers just hours after the Americans had fired on Iraqi protesters in the street outside, a U.S. intelligence officer reported.
The incident - the latest in a series of clashes and deadly shootings involving U.S. troops in Fallujah - came as President Bush prepared to address to the American public from a homeward-bound aircraft carrier, declaring that major combat in Iraq is finished.
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A group of civil engineers were shot at while working in a gas-oil separation plant in southern Iraq's Rumeila oil fields, according to the U.S. Central Command. No injuries were reported; Central Command did not give the nationality of the engineers or any details about the assailants.
Telegraph Group Limited wrote:Hatred of the Americans is boiling on the streets of Falluja, where Iraqis lobbed grenades into the US military compound yesterday, wounding seven and damaging vehicles. ---
Witnesses said that the gunner of a Humvee fired his machinegun at the crowd, while ducking down inside the vehicle.
The Americans now find themselves in a blood feud with much of the city, which under Islamic law can be ended only by the payment of compensation.
"We demand compensation from the Americans, but we also demand our town back," said Sheikh Khalaf Abed el-Shebib, leader of one of the 35 clans that make up the town.
Searching for the ugliest comparison he could find, he said: "Even in Israel they do not shoot children in such numbers when they throw stones in a demonstration." ---
Война закончится, когда об этом объявит Буш. Альтернативные точки зрения рассматриваться не будут. Мировому сообществу, ООН и т.д. будет предложено не упустить шанс и поддержать официальную позицию Вашингтона.
"In the crush of foot traffic crossing the temporary bridge into the southeastern city limits yesterday, nobody noticed the Iraqi with the plastic bag.
Nobody thought twice as he strode brazenly up to the nearest U.S. soldier, pulling a handgun from the bag.
One shot to the throat. One dead American. One more body bag weighing against the triumph of liberation."
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"Iraqis on the scene described casualties of their own. The gunman got away, they said, but not before a Humvee-mounted gunner sprayed the crowd into which he melted. It was impossible to determine an injury count in the melee.
It would be unwise to overstate the import of yesterday's killing at Diyala, and the confused aftermath that followed. The war, to which no formal end has been declared, continues to cost lives, as can be expected.
In a second attack yesterday, a U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division soldier was killed when a sniper shot him in the head in east Baghdad, said Capt. Tom Bryant, spokesman for the Army's V Corps, which is based at Baghdad's airport. He had no further details."
