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Iraq-Jordan
Iraqis Off 7 of Zark's Boys in Revenge Killing near Ramadi
2005-03-19
EFL

When more than 80 bodies, many of them slain Iraqi police officers and soldiers, were found last week at four sites in Iraq, a fifth gruesome discovery attracted little notice.

In the violent city of Ramadi, a center of insurgent activity 60 miles west of Baghdad, the bodies of seven men were found neatly lined up in an unfinished house on the western outskirts of town, according to witnesses. Each had been shot in the head or torso. Some witnesses said the bodies were then secretly buried in a local cemetery.

Witnesses said they never went to the local police or foreign military forces to report finding the bodies, fearing that they would be accused of complicity in the slayings or that the killers would return to punish them for talking.

"I feared telling the Iraqi army because they would detain me and accuse me of being involved in the killings," said Ali Omar, 32, a motorcycle mechanic who found the bodies on the morning of March 12. Instead, he went to Ramadi Hospital and told an emergency room doctor about his discovery, but the doctor refused to get involved. "He told me, 'Why bring problems on yourself? Leave them until they find them,' " Omar said.

Witnesses also said the event went unreported because the dead men were foreigners, all Sunni Muslims and members of al Qaeda in Iraq, the radical group headed by Abu Musab Zarqawi that is at the forefront of the insurgency. Now that details of the slayings have surfaced, Zarqawi is vowing revenge.

"My cousins are the ones who killed them," said Jabbar Khalaf Marawi, 42, a former army officer and Communist Party member in Ramadi. Marawi said the slayings were carried out by members of his Dulaimi clan in retaliation for the killing of a clan leader -- Lt. Col. Sulaiman Ahmed Dulaimi, the Iraqi National Guard commander for Ramadi and Fallujah -- by Zarqawi's group last Oct. 2.

These guys take their time - we should keep that in mind.

Dulaimi and three bodyguards were traveling through Khaldiyah, a small town east of Ramadi. When their vehicle slowed to navigate a series of concrete blocks placed in the road by U.S. forces, it was suddenly surrounded by a large group of armed men, according to witnesses interviewed at the time. The bodyguards were shot and killed on the spot, and Dulaimi was abducted, they said.

His body was found two days later in a youth center on the shores of Tharthar Lake, 20 miles north of Khaldiyah. Both his legs were broken in multiple places, his fingernails were removed, razor slashes were etched across his back and he had two bullet wounds in his chest, according to his autopsy report.

A statement by Zarqawi's group asserted responsibility for the killing, accusing Dulaimi of being an "agent . . . who works for the Americans." The statement said he had "confessed" to giving U.S. forces information about weak spots in the guerrillas' defenses in southern Fallujah.

..... Omar Karim, 32, said he was with a group of about 10 men at the Right Mosque when the imam, whom he identified as Yassim Abdul Latif, came in "and told us there are some dead bodies belonging to mujaheddin brothers who were killed by agents of the occupiers, and we have to put them in coffins and bury them." They collected the bodies and returned with them to the mosque, Karim said. Diehard imams in the Sunni triangle

Abdul Latif refused to be interviewed for this article.

Ahmed Mushrif, 29, a fruit juice and ice cream vendor, said the imam was late for noon prayers. He entered as an overpowering stench suddenly filled the mosque, and he "asked all those praying to take the bodies to the cemetery."

During a simple ceremony, "the preacher gave a speech, asking us to be united, because the seven who were killed weren't hurting the people as much as they were hurting the Americans," Mushrif said.

A notice from Zarqawi's group was posted on the mosque's gate this week announcing the deaths of the men and calling their killers "blasphemers, far from the religion of God, who betrayed the mujaheddin after they trusted them." I mean, come on, what's the murder of a few relatives between friends? We're from Saudi and we're Here to Help You. It vowed to find and behead the killers, described as "followers of the occupiers."

At the Dulaimi family compound this week in the Abu Marie area of Ramadi, the slain colonel's father, Hamad Dulaimi, 73, sat on a bench as a group of children played in the yard. The surrounding streets and rooftops were crowded with armed men.

"These are the children of Sulaiman, who was killed by those bastards," he said. The colonel's wife joined him: "Now we can talk, because we got revenge."

"If I didn't know that my son was innocent, I wouldn't have sent his cousins for revenge," the father said. "But for we Arabs, the matter of revenge is like honor. Both are the same for us."

As for Zarqawi's promise to retaliate, he said: "We got our revenge, and we have our precautions. Let them do as they like." "Bring it on, Jordanian furrner! The Boyz in the Hood know how to deal with punks like you."

Posted by:too true

#3  Yeah, but Zark is a Jordanian acting at the direction of a Saudi, killing Iraqis. Who would take revenge for Zark's wacking? But I *do* like to think about how he would be tried when captured. Sent back to Jordan? Nah! Gitmo? Not unless we were gonna fly the judges there, too. Tried by the Iraqi's as a mass murderer? Youbetchya.
Posted by: Bobby   2005-03-19 10:48:38 AM  

#2  Now capping the zman might be a rush, worth a good celebration and a short turn run as an Iraqi national hero, but would you trade that for greater revenge? and what would that revenge be? Turn him over to the Iraq authorities for playtime, over to the Americans for a reward and a promise of a long stay for zman in Gitmo? Enquiring minds would like to know.
Posted by: Spaimble Hupaiper3886   2005-03-19 8:53:24 AM  

#1  These guys take their time - we should keep that in mind.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Posted by: el_bud   2005-03-19 8:53:17 AM  

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