Stars and Stripes: Rotation in Iraq crowds highways

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BAGHDAD — The gunner manning the .50-caliber machine gun mounted on the back of the last truck in the convoy was waving civilian vehicles through.

There was heavy traffic on the dark, four-lane freeway south of Baghdad and the Iraqi motorists were getting impatient. When the gunner waved, two vans sped through to the right of the convoy followed by a small, blue Suzuki Escudo.

But when the Suzuki pulled alongside the gunner’s truck, another soldier leaned out a side window brandishing an M-16 and screamed, “Get back or I’ll shoot you.”

For a moment the Suzuki driver hesitated before deciding to fall back, swearing angrily at the Americans for giving him contradictory signals.

Such is the lot of Iraqi motorists attempting to move about their country while sharing the roads with military units. During the transition of U.S. forces, billed as the largest movement of troops and equipment since World War II, the roads have been even more crowded.

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The coalition does not release details of how convoy operations are conducted and does not keep records of the total number and types of attacks on convoys or the number of soldiers killed and injured while riding in convoys...

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http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=21325




Soldiers keep watch over Iraqi traffic stuck behind their stalled convoy on a freeway north of Baghdad earlier this month.