Killings of Vendors in Iraqi City Drive Alcohol Sales Off Streets

[Barrett808]

Killings of Vendors in Iraqi City Drive Alcohol Sales Off Streets
By EDWARD WONG

BASRA, Iraq, Feb. 18 — In the old part of this city, on the block where people come to quench their thirst for beer and spirits, Ahmed Mahmoud pointed to the spot where blood flows more freely than alcohol.

There, masked men leaped out of two pickup trucks last Sunday evening and unloaded their Kalashnikov rifles at a group of sidewalk alcohol vendors, he and other witnesses said.

"I heard a lot of gunfire, a huge barrage of bullets," said Mr. Mahmoud, 20, a wiry man who runs a soda stand. "It sounded like a gun battle between the alcohol sellers and the attackers."

"I found the dead bodies," he added. "There were bullet holes in their bodies, about five bullets in each body."

(more)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/19/international/middleeast/19BASR.html

[saigon68]

1. Volstead Act--- IRAQI STYLE

Yikes

[arcane1]

2. Americans troops were arresting people for selling alcohol in July

maybe we've kicked it up a notch? :shrug:

from this thread back in July:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=37189

A US soldier flashes the V-sign as he escorts hooded illegal vendors to a police station after being apprehended Thursday July 10, 2003 along the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites). The vendors were allegedly caught selling alcohol, still prohibited to be sold outside in Muslim Iraq.

sadly, the picture is no longer available. It was a US soldier escorting an Iraqi alcohol vendor who had a burlap sack tied over his head

since when was Iraq "muslim" Iraq anyway?

[NYC]

4. I remember that photograph.

I don't seem to have a copy of it.

[PsychoDad]

5. since when was Iraq "muslim" Iraq anyway?

Since the Ottoman empire?

[mobuto]

6. No, since Mohammed

The Ottomans only came into Iraq in the fifteenth century. Islam had been there for nearly nine hundred years.

[justinpower]

3. But the Iraqis are free now

they are sooooo much better off than they were with that madman Saddam Hussein.