{"id":66,"date":"2003-04-08T00:10:01","date_gmt":"2003-04-08T00:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brucefinley.com\/iraq-during-the-us-invasion\/basra-collapses-into-death-disorder\/"},"modified":"2007-12-04T00:39:05","modified_gmt":"2007-12-04T00:39:05","slug":"basra-collapses-into-death-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/iraq-during-the-us-invasion\/basra-collapses-into-death-disorder\/","title":{"rendered":"Basra Collapses Into Death, Disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>BASRA, Iraq<\/em> – They died in the mud at the edge of a pond – a dozen<br \/>\nparamilitary fighters with rocket-propelled grenades, rifles and<br \/>\nblankets.<\/p>\n<p>Some were Iraqis. Others came from Syria and Saudi Arabia. One of<br \/>\nthem, making this last stand for Saddam Hussein, apparently had<br \/>\ntried to sleep, burrowing into a berm.<\/p>\n<p>Bullets tore into them, a head here, thigh there, chest, neck. Now<br \/>\nIraqi Red Crescent volunteers wearing plastic gloves, mouths and<br \/>\nnoses covered, waded into the mud and lifted out the bloated<br \/>\nbodies.<\/p>\n<p>These men are “martyrs,” said Enas, 24, a schoolteacher who<br \/>\nhelped lug a bloodstained stretcher. “They were resisting,” she<br \/>\nsaid. “My heart is broken for these dead soldiers.”<\/p>\n<p>Monday brought many sorry scenes like this, as coalition tanks and<br \/>\nparatroopers punched into the heart of Basra, Iraq’s second-largest<br \/>\ncity.<\/p>\n<p>While the Red Crescent workers loaded their dead onto a pickup,<br \/>\nBritish soldiers nearby lay on their bellies. “Apparently there’s<br \/>\nmortars coming in,” Rob Hammond, 26, said as he flattened himself<br \/>\nat the side of the road.<\/p>\n<p>The British targeted local militiamen, “small bands but vicious<br \/>\nwhen they catch you,” said British army Sgt. Maj. Pat Geraghty,<br \/>\n37, standing nearby after ordering a bulldozer to raze an empty<br \/>\nhome.<\/p>\n<p>The dozen fighters who died by the pond were typical of the<br \/>\ntrouble, Geraghty said. British troops captured an Algerian among<br \/>\nthem, he said, as well as an Iraqi who pretended to be dead. Red<br \/>\nCrescent workers said the dead also included Saudis and Syrians.<\/p>\n<p>Geraghty, too, was heartbroken Monday. “I lost two of me boys,”<br \/>\nhe said softly.<\/p>\n<p>Tanks roared. At noon, two Cobra helicopters clattered overhead,<br \/>\n“a fly-by to see if they can see anything we can’t,” said U.S.<br \/>\nMarine Cpl. Steve Salicos, gripping his black M-16, moving on the<br \/>\nground past a defaced portrait of Hussein. Troops advanced across<br \/>\nthe city, then focused on mop-up patrols across a landscape of<br \/>\nblack smoke plumes, rubble, and twisted Iraqi tanks and trucks.<\/p>\n<p>Basra, population 1.3 million, more or less fell by sunset. Where<br \/>\nthe city will ultimately land is the question. Residents erupted in<br \/>\na frenzy of looting – gutting their university, oil ministry and<br \/>\npremier hotel at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Law<br \/>\nand order no longer seemed to matter.<\/p>\n<p>Inside the University of Basra, men and boys scavenged through<br \/>\nshattered glass and flames. Portraits of Hussein were defaced.<br \/>\nMarauders snatched swivel chairs, shelves, appliances – almost<br \/>\nanything of value down to wood. Ali Hatu, 31, opened a white sack<br \/>\nshowing empty soft drink bottles and blue curtains.<\/p>\n<p>Some looters rode in from surrounding farm towns. One farmer<br \/>\nwhipped his white donkey, towing a refrigerator on his tiny cart.<br \/>\nAt Basra’s fanciest hotel, once a Sheraton, black smoke billowed<br \/>\nfrom the back. A smiling man strode away from the entrance carrying<br \/>\na large satellite dish on his head.<\/p>\n<p>Retired Iraqi Petroleum Co. manager Amir Humadi, 67, concentrated<br \/>\non finding a new house. After 40 years supervising shipping, he’d<br \/>\nnever been given a house or car. Hussein’s elite, “they always<br \/>\nhave a good house, a car, a comfortable life,” Humadi said.<\/p>\n<p>But two years ago, when he retired, he moved his family from Basra<br \/>\nwest to dusty Zubayr. His son-in-law had to move to Germany for<br \/>\nwork to support the family.<\/p>\n<p>Now Humadi was determined to put things right. He found and<br \/>\noccupied “a big house, a company house,” he declared proudly. “I<br \/>\nam entitled.”<\/p>\n<p>The man next door had done the same. Now this “neighbor”<br \/>\nhopefully would watch Humadi’s place while he rushed home to<br \/>\npersuade his wife and daughter to move. “I told the neighbor to<br \/>\nkeep an eye out,” Humadi said as he searched for a ride to<br \/>\nZubayr.<\/p>\n<p>Iraqis here generally welcomed the British-U.S. takeover. A few<br \/>\ncarried flowers and confetti.<\/p>\n<p>Some whispered messages to visitors: “Saddam Hussein is a son of a<br \/>\nbitch,” one said – reluctant to identify themselves fully because<br \/>\nloyalists still control pockets of the city.<\/p>\n<p>“Saddam Hussein killed my two brothers and father,” said Mohamad,<br \/>\n28. “And he cut my ears.” He slowly lowered a tightly wrapped<br \/>\nhead scarf to show the gashes – a common punishment for army<br \/>\ndeserters.<\/p>\n<p>Then Mohamad pulled from his back pocket some photos. They showed<br \/>\ndead bodies, burned, flayed. “Look!” One photo showed three<br \/>\nsmiling men at a banquet table. “Look! The militia of Saddam.”<\/p>\n<p>Troops said imposing law and order here could be hard.<\/p>\n<p>“This is wrong. It isn’t civilized, is it?” said British<br \/>\ninfantryman Bruce De’ath, 21, on patrol just west of the<br \/>\nuniversity.<\/p>\n<p>Early in the day, a boy with a burned face sought help from British<br \/>\nparatrooper Matthew Penney, 29. The memory of that boy lingered<br \/>\nwith Penney, he said, as he led Monday’s push with other<br \/>\nparatroopers, murmuring into their microphones, stopping at<br \/>\nintersections and looking into their telescopic rifle sites in<br \/>\nsearch of militiamen.<\/p>\n<p>“These things happen,” he said of the child.<\/p>\n<p>And some Iraqis acknowledged the ugliness during what could have<br \/>\nbeen a day of pure celebration.<\/p>\n<p>“Life now will be better, because we have freedom now. I feel<br \/>\nsorry for the dead, and I am against this stealing,” said Mohamad<br \/>\nal-Mayde, 31, a father of two. “But people here are very poor.<br \/>\nThey are lucky to eat one meal a day. They suffer too much for<br \/>\nSaddam. This gives people an excuse.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BASRA, Iraq – They died in the mud at the edge of a pond – a dozen paramilitary fighters with rocket-propelled grenades, rifles and blankets. Some were Iraqis. Others came from Syria and Saudi Arabia. One of them, making this last stand for Saddam Hussein, apparently had tried to sleep, burrowing into a berm. Bullets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iraq-during-the-us-invasion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}