Iraq women alone, distraught as US rounds up men

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

BAQUBA, Iraq, Jan 3 (Reuters) Khadija's eldest son Ahmad was killed in battle during the war that toppled Saddam Hussein. Now US troops have rounded up her husband and four other sons, leaving the impoverished Iraqi woman to fend for herself.

''What do I do now? They took my husband and my kids and it's only me now,'' said Khadija, who like all women in her small hamlet on the outskirts of the flashpoint town of Baquba wears a black veil.

''My son is a martyr. My husband was taken and they took the rest of my children,'' she said in her mud and stone-brick house, which has plastic in the windows because the glass was shattered during the US raid which captured her husband and sons.

Baquba lies in a predominantly Sunni Muslim area, where support for Saddam is relatively strong and resentment of the US-led occupation runs deep. Under constant attack from guerrillas, US troops have rounded up dozens of Iraqis they say are linked to the insurgency.


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1. "Winning Hearts And Minds" take # 42673

Did they think those 35,000 casualties had no relatives?