FALLUJAH, Iraq - Ahmed Manaa's face was dark with anger. He was tired of the U.S. troops rumbling up and down his city's streets in their big tanks, pointing their guns at passing cars. They are nothing but occupiers, he said, and they should go back to America, before another war begins.
He doesn't fit the profile of anti-U.S. elements whom American army commanders so often describe: He doesn't mourn the fall of Saddam Hussein and has never been an al-Qaeda sympathizer. In fact, Ahmed is 13, with a buzz cut, a frame a bit small for his age, and has views about U.S. forces that are widely shared in Fallujah, where he lives, and other towns northwest of Baghdad.
"We wish that Allah would have revenge on the Americans," he said.
In dozens of interviews during the last five days, most residents across the area said there was no Baathist or Sunni conspiracy against U.S. soldiers; there were only people ready to fight because their relatives had been hurt or killed, or they themselves had been humiliated by home searches and road stops.
The United States contends the problems are due largely to holdovers from Hussein's regime; the former dictator is a Sunni Muslim, and so are most of the people who live in the area.
Whatever the cause, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi gunmen have been killed in violent confrontations in recent weeks in Fallujah and other towns in what is known as the Triangle, a large territory from Hussein's hometown of Tikrit to the north, south to Baghdad and west almost to the Syrian border.
The problems between the Iraqis and the soldiers seem only to be getting worse. On top of their complaints of mistreatment, Iraqis say shortages of water and electricity and delays in establishing a new government have prompted many to say they have had enough of America's help.
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During the last few days, the U.S. military also has set up checkpoints on roads in and around Baghdad to check for weapons. The lines take up to an hour to get through and leave motorists sweating in the 120-degree heat.
Many Iraqis said it was beyond belief that Americans would enter houses or stop cars and take assault rifles without paying for them. The practice particularly grates in small towns, where people believe the weapons are necessary for protection.
The harder the Americans press, many Iraqis said, the more enemies they make.
Ahmed said U.S. soldiers shot his older brother Omar in the leg earlier this month and took him into custody, saying he had fired on them from the shadows. Omar Manaa was a security guard for the mayor. Shot alongside him - and killed - was Montassar Hamad, a local policeman.
Omar Manaa was released from U.S. custody during the last week. There were metal pins in his leg to keep the bone in place. He said he and Hamad were chasing looters when the American soldiers began shooting at them.
Police officer Safa Shaikon was at the mayor's office that evening, June 8, and said that in the confusion of the night, U.S. soldiers mistook Manaa and Hamad for the looters. Neither man fired a shot at the soldiers, Shaikon said. The police commander for the mayor's office backed up that version of events.
The incident, which Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, commander of the Army's Third Infantry Division, said was under investigation, has become yet another rallying cry for the people of Fallujah, where at least 15 Iraqi residents were killed and more than 50 wounded in demonstrations in late April. American soldiers said then they were fired on first; residents deny that.
Farmers, police, politicians, tribal sheikhs, businessmen, cabdrivers and religious leaders across the Triangle say there may well be more bloodshed.
"What do you expect from people defending themselves?" said Mahdi Alsumaidy, the imam, or spiritual leader, of the influential Um-Al Tubol mosque in Baghdad. If the United States doesn't get out of Iraq soon, he said, "more and more people will be killed; the Iraqi people will make a revolution against the American and coalition soldiers... . We believe that if they have many losses, they will leave."
An American military spokesman said, "We understand that nobody wants an 'occupying force.' We really don't like using that word, but it is the only word available."
Even Iraqis who say the Baath Party is to blame for the trouble concede that many people who were never part of the party are reaching the boiling point.
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Thekra Aftan said soldiers took her husband, Ahmed Jomaa, early yesterday morning from their home in Khaldiyah. Family members said Jomaa had lost his left foot in the Iran-Iraq war. The soldiers came barreling through their house at dawn, grabbed Jomaa from his bed, and searched for weapons, Aftan said.
They probably were drawn to the house because of empty military crates outside that once were used to store TNT and guns. The family bought the boxes as scrap for firewood, Aftan said.
The United States is guilty of terrorism, she said: "If I find any American soldiers, I will cut their heads off."