More Iraqis tipping off security forces
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Fatma peeked out the window of her Mosul home and saw masked men lobbing mortars at a nearby Iraqi army base for the third time. She decided it would be the last.
As she telephoned to report the men, Fatma became one of an increasing number of Iraqis tipping off the authorities. Officials say it’s a sign the country’s fledgling security forces are winning the trust of citizens, turning them against the insurgency.
U.S. and Iraqi officials say they have seen an increase in calls in recent weeks, especially after Iraq’s Jan. 30 elections, although there were no overall figures available on how many people have offered information.
The willingness of Iraqis to cooperate with officials is perhaps also a testimony to the insurgency’s own mistakes, which have cost it the sympathy of some. Many say they simply are tired of violence that has overshadowed their lives or claimed people they love.
“How can an Iraqi kill another Iraqi, can a brother kill his brother? I cannot let that be,” said Fatma, a 26-year-old housewife who asked that only her first name be used for fear of attacks against informants. “At first, I used to think of them as holy fighters. But after what we’ve been seeing on television, it became clear they were terrorists.”
Like many others, Fatma said she was influenced in part by television broadcasts featuring the confessions of alleged insurgents.
Critics dismiss the shows, claiming some of the confessions are staged or coerced. But officials say the programs, which include people detailing kidnappings and even beheadings, have encouraged people to report information to authorities. Others are angered by the fact that many kidnappings are now for financial instead of political gains.
“The confessions have helped convince the people that the security forces are really working hard to rid the country of terrorism,” Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said. “Before, they just didn’t believe it.”
In the sprawling, western province of Anbar, U.S. Marines say a tip line set up nearly a year ago was now getting more than 37 calls a week, and the tips have led to the detention of suspected insurgents.
But some of those ready to turn in militants say they have no sympathy for the U.S. forces, either.
“I don’t think I would have reported them if they were targeting only Americans,” Abdullah said. “After all, this is an occupier.”
The Interior Ministry’s Kadhim said the elections further motivated people to fight the militants, with many voting in defiance of insurgent threats. Authorities are now capitalizing on that feeling of empowerment.
A billboard on a main road in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, shows an Iraqi woman flashing the victory sign, her index finger smeared in ink showing that she had voted Jan. 30.
“The Iraqis have defied terrorism. It’s time to wipe it out,” read the sign, which provided numbers for calling in information.
There have even been a few reports of Iraqis taking justice into their own hands. Last month in Baghdad, shopkeepers and residents returned fire as gunmen sprayed a street with bullets fired from a car. The clash left three insurgents dead.
But others still support the insurgency or are too afraid to come forward, and some do not fully trust Iraqi security forces once believed to be infiltrated by the insurgency.
In Mahmoudiya and some other violence-plagued areas, those who inform on the militants do so secretly. Others still reject the idea out of fear or sympathy.
In Ramadi, where the tip line is advertised on local radio stations and printed on posters and handbills, militant-produced CDs detailing the confessions and, sometimes, executions of alleged collaborators and informants are widely circulating.