Locals Rise Up Against al Qaeda -- at a Cost

[babylonsister]

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3039/Locals_Rise_Up_Against_al_Qaeda_--_at_a_Cost

Locals Rise Up Against al Qaeda -- at a Cost
Off-Duty, Armed APTN Cameraman Dies a Hero Defending his Neighborhood
By JANE ARRAF Posted 11 hr. 32 min. ago


Baghdad – They were still bringing in the wounded when we arrived at the mosque in southern Amiriya Thursday morning, racing from the armored vehicles surrounded by bursts of gunfire.

An American soldier was among the casualties – killed by small arms fire. His name is being withheld. His commanders said he was an exceptional young man who re-enlisted after surviving a mortar attack that killed his roommate.

The Iraqi wounded were taken to the mosque – laid out on the teal blue carpet stained by pools of blood and littered with shards of glass from the shattered ceiling panels which had read “There is no God but God...’

One of them was Saif Mohammad Fakhry, an Iraqi cameraman with the television news agency APTN. His brother said he had gone out in the street with a gun after suspected al-Qaeda militants attacked the neighborhood.

A doctor from the U.S. Army’s Stryker brigade, sweating with heat and exertion, worked frantically to insert a chest tube in his side to try to keep his lung from collapsing. I turned away for a moment as an American medic worked on an Iraqi man who had been shot in the face. When I turned back – he had died.

more...

[Missy M]

1. What a mess Bush has created....

will it ever end. How long will the Iraqi people have to suffer. Will it end when we pull the troops out of Iraq, is that the answer. Will the bloodshed go on even when we are gone. How long will it take to rebuild a country we have destroyed and who will rebuild it. Are there any answers to any of it.

[bigtree]

2. and still, the eight or so Sunni factions are united in their opposition to the U.S. occupiers

They're pledged to active resistance against us even as they're relying on our forces to help fight the foreign fighters who call themselves al-Qaeda.

[babylonsister]

3. I was very skeptical about this going on in Iraq when I first read about it.

Then, on the way to lunch yesterday, I heard Rush heralding this conflict as a positive for the war effort, and pooping on 'liberals' who still think the war is going the wrong way. So I was convinced this story was blown out of all proportion to feed the r/w warmongers.
Reading this in the slogger makes me less skeptical, but as he suggests, at what cost? And yes, I'm still thinking the majority want us gone and are fighting against US support.

And disclaimer, DH only gets one channel on his truck radio, and that would be r/w venom. I keep telling him he needs to fix that...:eyes:

[bigtree]

4. I think it demonstrates that al-Qaeda in Iraq is as unwelcome as we are

They're forgetting Iraqis history of uniting against ALL foreign invaders and renewing their own divisions and conflicts just as quickly when they're done.

[Bucky]

5. Actually, I find this hopeful, too. If the Sunnis are uniting against al-Qaeda...

then that means most of al Qaeda's strength is due to the US presense there. Which is really just another argument for us getting out.