Under US noses, brutal insurgents rule Sunni citadel

[ECH1969]

Guardian gains rare access to Iraqi town and finds it fully in control of 'mujahideen'

The executions are carried out at dawn on Haqlania bridge, the entrance to Haditha. A small crowd usually turns up to watch even though the killings are filmed and made available on DVD in the market the same afternoon.

One of last week's victims was a young man in a black tracksuit. Like the others he was left on his belly by the blue iron railings at the bridge's southern end. His severed head rested on his back, facing Baghdad. Children cheered when they heard that the next day's spectacle would be a double bill: two decapitations. A man named Watban and his brother had been found guilty of spying.

A three-day visit by a reporter working for the Guardian last week established what neither the Iraqi government nor the US military has admitted: Haditha, a farming town of 90,000 people by the Euphrates river, is an insurgent citadel.

Two groups share power. Ansar al-Sunna is a largely homegrown organisation, though its leader in Haditha is said to be foreign. Al-Qaida in Iraq, known locally by its old name Tawhid al-Jihad, is led by the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. There was a rumour that Zarqawi, Washington's most wanted militant after Osama bin Laden, visited early last week. True or not, residents wanted to believe they had hosted such a celebrity.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1553781,00.html

[Carolab]

1. It was reported on Schultz today by a military expert.

Essentially, that it's all over--there is a pipeline already built into Iran from Iraq. The Kurds are blowing up pipelines. Theocracy in Iraq has begun.

[Moderator]

2. Not Latest

Breaking News. This article is dated August 22. It is also a duplicate.