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Iraq-Jordan
Civilians return to Tal Afar
2004-09-15
The extended Shaykh-Lar family were among the hundreds of people who returned to their homes on Tuesday as soon as word spread that the US Army had lifted a two-week siege of this northern town. Residents return after days of fighting between US forces and insurgents. Officials have said 58 people were killed during the 12-day assault on the city of Tal Afar. 'Honest to God, we are still afraid,' said Mr Hussein Shaykh-Lar, 74, an ethnic Turk, as he and his four sons and their families unloaded their belongings from a truck outside their homes in the Qadissiyah neighbourhood. 'Will they bomb us again?' he asked.
Depends -- you going to shoot at us again?
American troops and Iraqi forces overran Tal Afar on Sunday - one of several Iraqi cities they said had fallen into the hands of insurgents - after a nearly two-week siege that forced tens of thousands of residents to flee and left several buildings in ruins. Although no US troops were visible in Tal Afar on Tuesday, their green armoured cars stood atop the low hills that surrounded the city of 250,000 predominantly ethnic Turks known as Turkman. Police vans patrolled the empty streets as people cautiously moved back into the town dotted by ravines and dense and dusty orchards of pomegranates, figs and berries. US commanders said they moved into Tal Afar at the behest of regional officials who lost control of the city. American intelligence believed it had become a haven for militants smuggling men and arms from across the Syrian border. Police commander Major General Mohammed al-Barhawy said all the 'resistance' had either been killed or had fled town, and that police had not apprehended any militants.
Posted by:Steve White

#13  few people who stayed behind were 'very stressed and needed to smoke'. He sold 10 cartons a day, he said. Before the siege, he only managed to sell two cartons a day.

hmmmm I see no confirmation tobacco was the active ingredient in those smokes
Posted by: Frank G   2004-09-15 6:25:01 PM  

#12  Good heavens! I wonder what you could get with a carton of Marblerows.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-09-15 6:20:26 PM  

#11  I knew a Swedish business man who told me that as recently as the 1960's, you could buy a prostitute in Greece for a carton of Kent cigarettes.
Posted by: JDB   2004-09-15 3:31:51 PM  

#10  Hey, Murat. How much damage do you think gramps could've done if the Turks had something like F-16's back in ,say, 1910?
Posted by: tu3031   2004-09-15 10:32:00 AM  

#9  Green armoured car? Where does DOD expect to fight? Fulda Gap? Can't DOD afford Earl Scheib? After 15 years you'd think everything would be tan.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2004-09-15 9:16:50 AM  

#8  Like Murat, they are girlie-men.
Posted by: Fatwula   2004-09-15 7:44:51 AM  

#7  Like brave Muslim Jihadis, murat, they ran away. What's so mysterious about THAT?
Posted by: Ptah   2004-09-15 7:40:14 AM  

#6  Murat: Is that so strange when you bomb only civilian women and children?


Sorry Murat, once again you mistake Jihadi militants wearing burqas and militant midgets for women and children.
Posted by: Ittihad ve Terakki Jemiyeti   2004-09-15 5:52:52 AM  

#5  No as everyone knows only Muslims bomb only women and children. They usually bomb the women and children first in fact. When real fighting men show up they hide like little girls in holy places and with people who have no part of the conflict. Change Muslim for Turkman and it's pretty much the same thing I understand.

Allen be praised!
Posted by: Trolling for Allan   2004-09-15 5:03:52 AM  

#4  Police commander Major General Mohammed al-Barhawy said all the 'resistance' had either been killed or had fled town, and that police had not apprehended any militants.

Is that so strange when you bomb only civilian women and children?
Posted by: Murat   2004-09-15 4:36:00 AM  

#3  Ã¢Â€Â¦they cost the equivalent of what in the US would be $25 a pack.

Damm. Just like California.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2004-09-15 2:24:15 AM  

#2  Extending and revising remark:

The smokes __could__ cost . . .

In Indonesia, as I remember, smokes were pretty cheap. But, in Iraq (at least if this story is accurate) it would look like they cost the equivalent of what in the US would be $25 a pack.
Posted by: cingold   2004-09-15 2:01:11 AM  

#1  Explain to me how a man feeds his family selling two cartons of smokes a day. Different economy. I saw stuff like this in Indonesia. The smokes cost a huge percent of annual earning, while (say) housing and food could be dirt cheap.
Posted by: cingold   2004-09-15 1:56:59 AM  

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