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U.S. Finds Ammo Cache in Saddam Hometown
2 hours, 4 minutes ago
Saddam still casts long shadow despite sons' deaths
By D'ARCY DORAN
Associated Press Writer
SAMARRA, Iraq (AP) -- Police in this town refuse to hunt down those responsible for a mortar attack that killed a civilian and wounded 24 others for a simple reason: They fear holdouts from Saddam Hussein's regime will brand them as traitors and exact vengeance.
That fear persists despite the assurances of a U.S. brigade commander.
"Tell him our message is simple: Stop waiting. The past regime will not return,'' Col. Frederick Rudesheim, commander of the 4th Infantry's 3rd Brigade, told Samarra's mayor through an interpreter late last week.
The Army hopes graphic photos showing the dead bodies of Saddam's sons, Odai and Qusai -- killed on July 22 in a firefight with U.S. troops -- will help drive that message home.
The fear felt by police, once one of the main organs of repression in Iraq, underscores the fact that fear of Saddam's regime lives on.
Even grisly attacks against civilians like the one in Samarra, about 40 miles north of Baghdad, are not persuading local authorities to help U.S. soldiers. The town is inside the area to the west and north of Baghdad known as "the Sunni Triangle'' where Saddam's support runs strongest.
Insurgents fired four mortar rounds into a residential area just before 11 p.m. on July 19. Women and children suffered the worst injuries and a child was crushed to death when one blast caused a house to collapse, residents told soldiers. The army said it was unable to confirm the casualties' identities.
The army suspects the intended target was a nearby army civil affairs office.
"These bastards are killing Iraqis. The Iraqi police should go in and grab them,'' Rudesheim told the mayor. "A traitor is someone who betrays his country.''
The Americans believe those behind the mortar assault, and similar guerrilla attacks, have sought shelter in the homes of local residents who refuse to turn them in because of the Arab and Muslim tradition of protecting guests.
Help is hard to find even in Samarra where residents quickly painted over portraits of Saddam -- in contrast to some parts of the Sunni Triangle -- demonstrating the long-standing grudge residents hold against the former leader. Once the capital of the Abyssinian empire, the dictator revoked the town's provincial capital status to bestow the title and accompanying privileges to his hometown of Tikrit.
The coalition aims to make Samarra a model for Iraq's postwar potential and has worked hard to restore the town's electricity and water. A telephone exchange is the last piece needed to bring the town's infrastructure back to prewar levels, Rudesheim said.
Yet soldiers patrolling the dusty town are attacked with rocket propelled grenades and homemade explosives about four times a week.
"Our biggest struggle is not in the streets of Samarra, it's in the minds of Samarrans,'' he told the mayor.
Mayor Shakr Mahmoud nodded in agreement. His brother was assassinated on July 18 and Mahmoud was granted a permit from the U.S. Army to carry a pistol for protection after receiving repeated threats on his life after his appointment by local tribal leaders on April 20.
"I have been called a traitor for working with Americans,'' he told the colonel.
The Army has appealed to the townspeople for help in rooting the shadowy middlemen who deliver orders and paychecks from Saddam's Baath party officials and Islamic extremists to the local people who execute the attacks on soldiers and civilians.
"They're crafty. They never introduce themselves by name. They always have intermediaries. They pay and they leave,'' said Lt. Col. Ryan Gonsalves of the 66th Armored Regiment, which patrols Samarra.
The brigade has begun offering rewards of up to $250 for information leading to the seizure of the type of weapons used in the attacks, Rudesheim said.
AP-ES-07-28-03 0253EDT

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