American troops used to stop and buy water and soft drinks at Mohammed Abdulabbas’ grocery store. Now, they race around Baghdad in heavily armed convoys. They rarely get out of their vehicles and sometimes point their weapons at cars to keep them away. There are good reasons for these precautions. It is the only way to guard against someone popping out of an alley with a rocket-propelled grenade or a car bomb crashing into a convoy. Both types of attacks are happening with depressing regularity. But the increased security comes at a price. Insurgent violence has succeeded in driving a wedge between Americans and ordinary Iraqis. “I do not want them or the Iraqi police to visit my store anymore. If they are attacked here, then we will pay for it and innocent people will pay for it,” says Abdulabbas, 27. “The terrorists made us lose each other.”Full Story
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