Iraqi police 'were too scared' to help Americans in Fallujah

Sunday Telegraph
April 4, 2004
By Colin Freeman in Baghdad

Iraqi police in the town of Fallujah defended themselves yesterday against criticism that they failed to intervene in the grisly killing of four American bodyguards last week.

Officers in the fledgling force stayed inside their fortified police station as the bodyguards' convoy came under attack and later when their mutilated bodies were paraded through the town.

As the town braced itself yesterday for the Americans' promised retaliation, Sgt Ahmed Samir, one of several officers nervously patrolling, said the fear of being hit by "friendly fire" meant that many police were too scared to rescue Americans in trouble.

He cited the incident last year in which nine uniformed Iraqi police were killed by US troops in Fallujah when they tried to chase robbers towards an American checkpoint. "If we help the US when they are under attack we usually end up getting shot at as well - they don't trust us any more than the rest of the people here," the sergeant said.

"Also, you must remember that this is Fallujah - if Americans get attacked, people here don't come running to the police station telling us to help them."

Roadside petrol sellers now occupy the spot on the town's dual carriageway where the bodyguards' two-car convoy burnt fiercely after coming under attack from rocket-propelled grenades, the macabre wreckage having finally been cleared away.

The shops and bazaars that line Fallujah's dirt-strewn main street were noticeably quiet yesterday, and the mood was one of contrition over the defiling of the bodies.

Even so, residents vowed to meet any US show of strength with defiance. "If Americans get killed here, that's OK by me," said a restaurateur, Abdullah Ahmed, 29. "I didn't like the mutilation - I saw what happened and it hurt my eyes - but it was just youngsters trying to be like men.

"It is part of the ritual of manhood for some people now that you have to have killed an American soldier to be respected. The guys who killed the guards disappeared straight away: teenagers attacked the bodies afterwards to try and say, 'I am a man.'

"Nobody will hand them over to the Americans, though: we will just give them a talking to and tell them 'not again'."

While the Americans ponder their response to the killings, it has emerged that other US security officers in Iraq who fear they will meet the same fate are planning to strengthen their weaponry with grenades and high-powered machineguns.

Only coalition soldiers are allowed to carry explosives under existing regulations, leaving up to 20,000 private guards outgunned by insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades and belt-fed machineguns. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is horrified by the Americans' plans to flout the rules, believing that such action could lead to a serious escalation in violence.

Most private guards in Iraq have relied on Kalashnikovs or MP5 machine pistols and sidearms, believing that their superior military training made them a match for insurgents.

Last night, however, Malcolm Nance, a former adviser to the CIA and the US National Security Agency who has spent 10 months in Iraq supervising private security, said businesses would now "go heavy" to prevent a repeat of last week's horrific events.

Mr Nance said his personnel would be using "massive firepower". "People are going into battle now. In military terms, we describe a grenade as a 'break-contact' device used as a final option to stop any contact in an attack.

"Nobody I have employed out here uses them, but I would imagine that break-contact devices will get used a lot more as a result of the incident in Fallujah."

British security companies, which tend to adopt a lower-key approach, are alarmed by the prospect of US guards increasing their weaponry.

"The last thing we need is loads of Americans running round grenading people," one manager said. "But I fear that a few may end up carrying grenades, and God knows what other weapons, too."

Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited

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