U.S. targets Iraqi rebels in air strikes

TIKRIT, Iraq - Houses shook, walls cracked, chandeliers swayed and children woke up screaming for their parents as U.S. planes dropped 500-pound bombs on the outskirts of Saddam Hussein’s hometown overnight.

The show of force late Friday and early yesterday was a warning to the 120,000 people of Tikrit not to support insurgents, suspected of shooting down a Black Hawk helicopter hours earlier, killing six soldiers.

But while it succeeded in scaring residents, the barrage only confirmed for many that the United States is their enemy.

“Now that it’s over, I feel we have won a new lease on life,” said a retired Iraqi general, wearing a traditional Arab robe and looking fatigued after a sleepless night buffeted by the sounds of American fury. He and other residents across the city described a night of damage and disruption.

“The sky was red with explosions and my grandchildren were screaming,” said Khalfar Raheem, a 70-year-old Bedouin woman, her face bearing the blue tattoos common in rural Iraq.

Local people called the Americans “terrorists,” “mercenaries” or “Jews” ? a word used colloquially in Iraq and other Arab countries to refer to Israelis who, along with Iranians, were Saddam’s worst enemies.

Anti-U.S. sentiment runs deep in this city, once a dusty backwater famous as the birthplace of the medieval Muslim general Saladin and the delicious watermelons grown along the banks of the muddy Tigris River

Since the U.S. 4th Infantry Division moved in last April, it has become known for mounting some of the fiercest resistance to the American-led occupation. U.S. officials say the 4th ID has suffered more attacks than any major command within the occupation force.

In addition to bombing the area where the Black Hawk crashed, U.S. forces also destroyed three buildings in Tikrit that militants were suspected of using.

“This is to remind the town that we have teeth and claws and we will use them,” said Lt. Col. Steven Russell, who oversaw troops destroying two abandoned houses and a warehouse with machine gun and heavy weapons fire.

Yet efforts to curb the resistance breed even more hatred for coalition forces.

American soldiers raid homes in Tikrit and outlaying villages almost daily in search of insurgents and weapons. The raids stoke the increasing resentment among Tikritis, who view them as a breach of centuries-old customs about the sanctity of someone’s home.

Cultural offense and a sense of humiliation are often cited by Iraqis when asked why they despise the Americans.

Like their fellow Sunni Arab Muslims in central and western Iraq, Tikritis have lost the elevated status they had enjoyed because Saddam, himself a Sunni, was one of them. As members of a minority, they now play second fiddle to Iraq’s Shiite Muslims, the majority they had oppressed for centuries but which has now emerged as the single most dominant community.

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