Attacks turning to US allies in Iraq

General Sanchez said that the insurgents have carried out 156 attacks against the Iraqi security forces during the past month. Suicide bombings and shootings have killed more than 10 Iraqi policemen in the past week.

The show of overwhelming force in Operations Iron Hammer and Ivy Cyclone II had a psychological dimension as well, says Lt. Alexander Kasarda of the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, which controls most of the eastern half of Baghdad.

"If you can change a guy's mind by seeing an AC-130 or an Apache in action, if he says: 'You know, I think I'm in the wrong business,' then isn't that better than having to kill him?" he asks.

But Iraqis say they have seen enough wars and violence not to be intimidated by demonstrations of US firepower.

Abu Mohammed shakes with anger as he recalls the 12-hour air barrage two weeks ago against a house and riverbank near his home on the edge of Tikrit.

"The explosions cracked my house. What do they think they were doing? They punish the whole neighborhood when we have done nothing," he says. "They drive their tanks through the marketplace and point their guns at us. They are treating us like savages."

Part of the problem is that the apparatus of occupation is impossible to escape. Main roads in Baghdad are sealed off with concrete blast walls and razor wire, and checkpoints are on the increase. The city's principal buildings are in the hands of the coalition forces and resemble heavily defended military forts. Patrolling Army humvees with grim-faced soldiers manning rooftop machine guns are an intimidating presence. Helicopters clatter overhead. Lengthy military convoys cause traffic jams and frustration on the highways.

The coalition faces the classic dilemma of how to balance its own security concerns as a benign occupier with the need to offer a sense of stability for the occupied.

The coalition says it is trying to mount less threatening searches. "We knock on doors and ask to speak to the man of the house," says Lieutenant Kasarda. "We explain that we need to come inside and search. If we have sniffer dogs, we give them a chance to move holy items. We are not here to sacrifice the dignity of the Iraqis."

But Ahilla Abdel-Wahab has a different story to relate after US troops arrested her husband, Suhaib Amine, two weeks ago during a house-to-house search in the rundown Hara district of central Baghdad.

"They terrified my family. There were more than 20 soldiers in my house. They broke the television, the CD player, they pulled down bookshelves and scattered clothes everywhere. They took 50,000 dinars [$25] I kept in a box. They arrested my husband and I haven't seen him since. I don't even know where he's being kept. Nobody has come and told us anything. Look, they even broke my Koran. A soldier stood on it and tore it in two," she says, brandishing a freshly ripped copy of the Islamic holy book.

Her story was impossible to confirm, but her anger was clearly genuine. Ms. Abdel-Wahab admits that the soldiers were more polite to her neighbors. But in this impoverished neighborhood, it is what happened to her family that is remembered by local residents.

As Abdel-Wahab tells her story, two American humvees trundle down the narrow street outside her home, spurring several teenagers to swear out loud at the soldiers in Arabic. "If the local teenagers and kids are not on your side, forget it," says Goksel, the former UN peacekeeper.

Operation Iron Hammer may have succeeded in reducing the number of attacks in Baghdad, but the tough measures appear to have created many fresh enemies for the coalition. "I used to feel sympathy for the soldiers," says Mrs. Abdel-Wahab. "They looked young and were away from their families. But not anymore. If the people had some mercy for the Americans before, they don't anymore. God bless the resistance."

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