Iraqis begin warming to US presence

Soldiers on the ground estimate that 80 percent of Iraqis now accept their presence, or at least don't undermine it. Officers estimate that just a few hundred die-hard militants, either virulently loyal to Saddam Hussein, or virulently opposed to US occupation, exist in a city of five million - a minuscule figure of perhaps .0001 percent.

But that figure is not insignificant to the 23 American soldiers who have died in attacks in recent weeks.

The growing phenomenon of hit-and-run attacks is partly because "a month ago, they hadn't figured it out yet, and we were still a novelty," says Haight.

The danger is not just for American soldiers, but also for Iraqis working closely with them. "Translators and Iraqi police get death threats, because there is no justice system," says Haidar, an Iraqi translator working with the airborne battalion in Doura. "They warn us: 'If you don't stop working for the Americans, we're going to kill you.' In the market, they are selling grenades for just 1,000 dinars, or 40 cents. But I need to make a living somehow."

In Fallujah the problem is even more pronounced, with a list of 33 names circulating recently, of "traitors" working with US forces and the Coalition Provisional Authority. The mayor topped the list; last month, a rocket-propelled grenade hit the back of his neighbor's house, and there was recently a gun attack that sprayed 10 bullets at his office.

A second death list is expected to circulate soon, probably including aides of the mayor like Hossein Ali, a former mayor of a southern city for eight years under Saddam Hussein, until he crossed the ruling Baath Party in 2001."There are so many threats everyday, I had to take my telephone off the hook," says Mr. Ali, a former Iraqi Air Force officer. "People were calling our family, saying: 'We are going to kill you, we're going to destroy your house.' " "The Baath Party made the gap in relations between America and the Iraqi people very wide," says mayor's aide Karim Aftan, who teaches at the Technical Institute of Fallujah.

"As people see American trucks take garbage away, supply electricity and fix hospitals, that tells people the Americans are here to improve things," Mr. Aftan says, but admits that his wife and daughter, both teachers, are asked tough questions about his ties to US forces.

One face of the anti-US sentiment in Fallujah is that of Sheikh Abdallah Jannabi.

He says heavy-handed US military behavior, poor driving of tanks - which he claims damaged local cars - and shortages of water, electricity and gas have all turned Iraqis against their occupiers.

"Should I like the Americans in these circumstances?" Sheikh Jannabi asks. "Before, we considered American society to be well-developed, scientific and advanced. But it proved to be entirely opposite.

"We all agreed [when US forces came] we should not fight the Americans, and because of this the people of the city accused us of working with them," Jannabi says. "They even started sending us letters with threats: 'You have deterred jihad [holy war] - we will blow up your houses and all who are in them.' "

Similar threats echo for those who have chosen to work directly with the US. "It is less dangerous now, because many more people understand," Aftan says.

"But it is still dangerous, because you don't know who has done this, what he is thinking, and what he can do," says Mr. Ali, of the threats. "If you know the enemy, it is easier to deal with him. They don't like Americans to be their friends, but if they build schools, nobody will say no. Whenever we see Americans doing wrong, we will leave the place," Ali adds. "But we think they are helping us."

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