'Bring them on,' Bush says; Iraqis do Grenades fired at convoy of Humvees in broad daylight
Tom Philip National Post, with files from The New York Times and news services
The most daring of yesterday's attacks took place just before 10 a.m. in Baghdad when a man on foot fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a three-vehicle military convoy moving down Haifa Street, a busy thoroughfare in the centre of the city. One Humvee was struck, wounding three soldiers, witnesses and a military spokesman said.
Witnesses said soldiers in one of the other vehicles opened fire indiscriminately, seriously wounding, and possibly killing, at least one Iraqi driver nearby. Blood pooled next to the slain driver's blue Volkswagen Passat soon after the attack.
A crowd of people gathered around the destroyed Humvee and looted it, taking whatever they could remove. Children and adults climbed on top, stomping on it and chanting, "God bless Mohammad!"
Then someone set the vehicle on fire and the crowd backed away, watching it slowly burn. Children hurled rocks at the blaze and, in a particularly Arab insult, threw shoes at it.
U.S. officers blame isolated, diehard supporters of Saddam for the violence against their troops. But some Iraqis say it reflects more widespread discontent with the occupiers and their failure to provide more services and security.
"Damn Saddam and damn Bush! What have I got from either of them?" yelled a man on Haifa Street whose son was wounded.
"Get out from our country," someone had scrawled on a wall nearby.
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