Terrorist target choices turning Iraqis toward the U.S.

BAGHDAD — Two car bombs and a series of attacks on the infrastructure this month have undercut popular support for those attacking coalition forces in Iraq, with many residents saying for the first time the resistance may be more than a homegrown nationalist movement.

“We have been reluctant to believe much of what the Americans say, but the more we look around, the more we can say, ‘Maybe there is some truth into what they say’” said Shermine Abul Hassan, a Baghdad resident who described herself as “strongly anti-American.”

U.S. authorities have warned for weeks that foreign terrorists are seeking to exploit postwar instability to gain a foothold in Iraq. “We are now seeing a large number of international terrorists coming into Iraq,” chief administrator L. Paul Bremer said on ABC television yesterday.

The growing popular acceptance of that fact is serving to undermine the sense among many Iraqis that the resistance to the U.S.-led occupation is a legitimate nationalist struggle against foreign invaders.

“Iraq has had a long history of fighting foreigners and fighting for its own rights. Two things matter most in this country — God and country,” said one elderly man in Baghdad. “We don’t need anyone’s help.”

Miss Abul Hassan said she has been forced to reconsider her views because of the nature of the attacks and targets she has witnessed in the past few weeks.

“In Iraq when the government did not like something you did, they would just arrest you, torture you and kill you,” she said. “Maybe they cannot arrest you and torture you anymore, but the first instinct of people here would be to shoot you.”

She said she found it unlikely those same people would be behind this month’s car bomb attacks in front of the Jordanian Embassy and the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, where more than 1,000 pounds of explosives killed 23 persons, including chief U.N. official Sergio Vieira de Mello. Car bombs were unheard of in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

The attack on the United Nations was a turning point for many Iraqis, despite mixed feelings over the close relationship Mr. Vieira de Mello had maintained with U.S. authorities and the U.S.-picked Governing Council.

Because of international sanctions, the world body had for years been the main source of food and other supplies for a majority of Iraqis, and it is widely perceived to have played a positive role.

“I don’t like my country being occupied, by the Americans, the British or anyone else. But we benefited a lot in the past few years from the United Nations and do not see a reason why they should be attacked,” said Samir Shehada, a Shi’ite Muslim from the southern city of Najaf who has been living in Baghdad for 20 years.

“Yes, the U.N. probably made a mistake in so openly siding with the Americans, but we don’t support attacking the U.N. and looking at it like it is an extension of the coalition forces,” he said.

Another agency that has been helping the Iraqi people — the International Committee of the Red Cross — announced yesterday it was cutting back on staff in the country because of warnings it has been targeted for attack.

“It seems some groups are not willing to let us work normally,” said spokeswoman Nada Doumani, who told the Associated Press the threat was not specific. “We are very upset because our services are badly needed,” she said.

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